18
Sep
Written by: Elliott
For all you anglophiles, RojaDirecta is the king of the Spanish-speaking pro soccer viewing online world. The website serves to organize links to various soccer related events. Often, the links merely point to justin.tv or a similar site. Still, major television networks have targeted the Spain-based website with legal threats. And they have lost.
Audiovisual Sport had the gumption to file a lawsuit against RojaDirecta in 2007. In July of this year, A Madrid court ruled in favor of Roja Directa. The Court noted that the tv programs and channels were in large part international, the website was free and open to any user, and that Roja did not obtain any direct benefit or financial remuneration.
Despite winning the battle, the war wages on. Other TV companies have harassed Roja.
Canal 13, based in Argentina, has sent a threatening email. I know, your knees are trembling. The group threatened civil and criminal suits against Roja if they did not take down images of the Argentine championship within 24 hours. Roja did no such thing. Instead, they sent a tongue & cheek response.
Roja first gave Canal 13 a brief lesson in the happenings of the world wide web, known to some as “the internet.” On the internet, there exists an entity called a “link.” Roja provides links to broadcasts, but does not actually broadcast anything. Thus, if they do not broadcast anything, how can they cease to broadcast?
Technically, they complied with the Canal 13 request – they did not broadcast any Argentine games after 24 hours. But they preferred to let the 24 hour timeframe lapse. And suggested to Canal 13 that they start their own blog to complain to the world.
Televisa, based in Mexico, also sent a threatening email. However, they sent the email in English? ¡Que raro! (How odd). Maybe, just maybe, they subcontracted a legal services agency that send form emails to all the same websites. Perhaps. They also sent a certified letter.
Roja was unimpressed by Televiza´s willingness to pay postage.
From the start, the letter defeats itself. Televisa admits it was a usuario of Roja, not Roja itself, that was broadcasting games. Televisa also came off as pushy, demanding that the relevant user accounts be eliminated and that Roja block the capacity to emit such broadcasts. Still, they were willing to consider documents showing the user did in fact have authorization. How nice.
Roja´s response tickles the tummy. They began with pedantics, noting that Televisa demanded they eliminate & incapacitate the users. However, after eliminating the user account, how can you incapacitate it? By definition, it ceases to exist. Roja then pointed out that Televisa failed to cite any specific law, instead rambling generally about intellectual property.
Finally, Roja received the certified letter after the deadline to respond. Whoops. And Roja correctly pointed out that, as a modest website, they did not have the resources to purchase a flux capacitor. Sadly, Televisa has not responded.
Thus far, Roja is 3/3 in regards to its legal battles. But how many websites cower before a professional-sounding email? The moral of the story is that, just because you receive a letter from a lawyer, that does not mean the law is on his or her side.
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