Roja Directa, the historic illegal sports content website, must pay 31.6 million euros to Mediapro for damages caused by the piracy of football content owned by said group. The Commercial Court number 2 of A Coruña has established the compensation that the company Puerto 80 Projects, its administrator, Igor Seoane, must compensate Mediapro for the damages caused, specifically, by the broadcast of LaLiga matches whose intellectual property rights They belonged to the audiovisual group during the 2014/2015 season.
Previously, in 2022, the Supreme Court declared Puerto 80 Projects and its administrator responsible for the illicit activities carried out by the Roja Directa website, illegally distributing LaLiga matches, obtaining great economic benefits for doing so. Now, the Court of A Coruña has established a total compensation of almost 32 million, of which Igor Seoane is jointly responsible for 15.8 million as administrator. The calculation of the compensation has been made based on the economic consideration that the company should have paid to Mediapro to have access to the signal. Almost 10 years after the start of the judicial proceedings, the production company run by Tatxo Benet has thus managed to close the website in Spain and establish compensation for the infringement of related Intellectual Property rights.
The Roja Directa website gave access in Spain to illegal content that violated intellectual property rights through links that allowed people to watch live Spanish league matches and other sports content that was broadcast on pay television. Although access was free for the user, Puerto 80 Projects obtained million-dollar income through advertising and charging commissions for diverting traffic to sports betting house websites. Judicial expert reports from 2022 showed income of more than 11 million euros in just one of the company’s accounts.
At the same time, the person responsible and sole administrator of the firm is facing criminal proceedings, promoted by Mediapro and LaLiga, for a continued crime against intellectual property through Roja Directa and for the benefits obtained from this illegal activity. The prosecutor of the process, which is in the oral trial phase, requests 4 years in prison for Soane, while Mediapro and LaLiga demand 6 years in prison. Puerto 80 Projects and its administrator should have deposited a bond of 4 million euros to face future responsibilities given the “special economic significance” of the profits obtained and the damages caused, according to the prosecutor’s conclusions. That is something, however, that they have not yet done and, in fact, Puerto 80 Projects continues with its illegal activities outside of Spain.
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