Denmark’s RettighedsAlliancen, an organisation dedicated to protecting creative content, has partnered with LaLiga, the governing body of the top two divisions of Spanish club football, to secure the first blocking injunction case concerning illegal streaming of live sports in the country.
From February 2018 to February 2019, RettighedsAlliancen registered 18 million visits to the most popular illegal live sports services in Denmark.
RettighedsAlliancen and LaLiga have persuaded the courts to order Danish internet service providers to block the nine most popular illegal live sport streaming services.
RettighedsAlliancen chief executive Maria Fredenslund, who litigated the case before the court, said: “We see heavy traffic to websites that offer illegal live streaming of sports events. Especially football matches attract the attention of Danish users and with an average of 1.4 million monthly visits by Danes there is talk of a widespread and very serious problem.”
LaLiga’s audiovisual director, Melcior Soler, added: “We know that Denmark is at the forefront of the development of digital tools to fight online piracy, and this is a big issue for us.
“We are now looking forward to seeing the effects of the blockings and hope that they can serve as an example for other countries, so that we can stand together in the fight against online piracy.”