Hollywood majors score first anti-piracy win in Spain
Details
Juan Fernandez Gonzalez
| 15 February 2018

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been ordered to block access to two pirate websites following demands from major US films studios.

The Barcelona number 6 market court has told Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange, among other ISPs, to block the websites HDFull and Repelis for breaking the copyright laws, according to the federation of film distributors, Fedicine.

At the time this article was written, it was still possible to access both websites.

The decision follows complaints from Columbia (Sony Pictures), Disney, 20 Century Fox, Universal and Warner against both websites for distributing pirate content.

The sentence is the first of its kind in Spain, forcing ISPs to block access to specific websites, though similar decision had been made in Europe with other popular pirate platforms such as The Pirate Bay.

“It’s an important step forward, which is essential to address the piracy issue in Spain. Such actions are necessary to keep the sustainability of the creative community in Spain and Europe,” said Stan McCoy, president of Motion Picture Association, which represents all the majors in Europe.

“Thanks to the latest law reform, we have gained a new legal instrument to defend the film catalogue which we’re distributing,” added Estela Artacho, president, Fedicine.