It is unpublished that justice allows something like that

This weekend we have lived a unique First Division League day. No longer for the celebration of Barça-Madrid on Sunday, but because once LaLiga returned to order indiscriminate blockages of IPS that affected a large number of domains. In this case there were even institutional websites such as the Madrid City Council that They were inaccessibleand this opens a new chapter in this absolute disaster that remains without predictable solution.

What happened. Last weekend the blockades affected X, Redsys and cited institutional websites Like the Madrid City Council. It is another drop more than one glass that does not seem to stop: we carry Almost three months in which IPS blockages are uninterruptedly causing thousands of websites that are inaccessible. And we are talking about particular websites or fully legitimate companies.

Cloudflare against LaLiga. The only crime of these websites is to use the services (free or payment) of Cloudflare. This CDN, DNS and Proxies service provider helps these websites improve their global availability and also Protects from cyber attacks. As we have explained above, Cloudflare makes use of shared IPS that brings together hundreds or thousands of domains, and when LaLiga orders to block one of those IPS, that affects all the domains that use that shared IP. Result: They pay fair for sinners.

There should be no damage to third parties. He Article 21 of the Civil Procedure Law (LEC) indicates that these types of actions should be rejected when they suppose a damage to third -party not demanded in the procedure. Thus, there should be no damage to third parties, but there is and justice is not apparently doing anything to prevent it.

But they keep paying fair for sinners. We know that these blockages are not only preventing users’ access to certain domains, but there are also companies that are suffering economic and reputational damage. This last weekend the thing was even more striking, because among those affected were institutional websites such as the Madrid City Council. Before others were like those of the Royal Academy of Languagebut still there have been no changes from the judicial environment, LaLiga or the operators.

Denied nullity. Rootedcon and Cloudflare fought against that sentence in which LaLiga relies. The nullity of said judgment was requested, but the court that managed the petition rejected this request. He also dismissed Cloudflare requests when stopping these blockages, and for now these hard judicial setbacks have allowed LaLiga to continue ordering those blockages and affecting thousands of legitimate domains.

Something unusual. There are no documented precedents in Spain of such massive and indiscriminate blockages that they have left institutional websites or public bodies out of service. In previous interventions for distribution of contents with copyright – as those that achieved close websites like Lectulandia or those that They shared music illegally – the measures were aimed at concrete domains and not to shared infrastructure.

What do experts say. We have spoken with Ofelia Tejerina (@Fetg), lawyer and president of the Association of Internet users. She reminds us that the Article 264 of the Criminal Codewhich speaks of sanctions for computer crimes, indicates the following:

“The one that by any means, without authorization and seriously deleted, damage, deteriorate, alter, suppress or make inaccessible computer data, computer programs or electronic documents outside, when the result produced was serious, will be punished with the prison penalty of six months to three years.”

Both this article and the previous one seem to be clear with what should be done before these blockages, which are causing damage to third parties and that are also making inaccessible computer data during blockages. And yet, everything remains the same.

The silence surprises. Tejerina remembers how with the SGAE IPS were traced and the persecution was to end users, but European justice made it clear that those They were private communications Although years later his speech I changed completely. For her “this systematic, arbitrary and irrational blockade is unusual.” But it also shows the same surprise as many of a situation that does not seem to have made the alarms of official institutions or justice jump:

“We are attending an execution of a completely unlimited court order that affects fundamental rights, public services and freedom of business. We have for example a defender of the People or a Secretariat of State for Communications. Everyone knows what is happening, they must protect neutrality in the network and have the ability to operate ex officio, but do not do so. Speech.”

Images | Peter Glaser

In Xataka | LaLiga has found the best way to beat Cloudflare: ally with its competition