LaLiga Will “File Criminal Complaints Against Google” Over Pirate IPTV

After celebrating a court order that reportedly requires Google to remotely uninstall pirate IPTV app Magis TV from Android devices, LaLiga is far from done. President Javier Tebas has just informed the Europa Forum that LaLiga will file criminal complaints against Google in Spain, France, Brazil, and Ecuador. Tebas accused Google of collaborating with pirates when it could immediately "reduce piracy by 80%" instead. So what does LaLiga actually want?

google-ball An unprecedented order handed down by a judge in Argentina mid-September was music to the ears of LaLiga President Javier Tebas.

Alongside orders for local ISPs to block 69 domains linked to pirate IPTV service Magis TV, Judge Esteban Rossignoli at Court 4 of San Isidro reportedly instructed Google to “adopt the necessary technical means” to immediately uninstall the MagisTV app from all Android devices operating with an Argentinian IP address.

From a purely technical perspective, removing a sideloaded, non-Google Play piracy app doesn’t sound impossible. The precedent it would set has the potential to undermine Google, Android, and the majority of its users.

LaLiga President Blames Google For Piracy Woes

Google hasn’t issued a statement concerning the order but, given the gravity of the situation, that may be a good sign. The same can’t be said about Javir Tebas; he’s been celebrating this landmark moment in anticipation of its replication in other countries around the world, even before its debut in Argentina.

Fresh comments this week suggest that LaLiga doesn’t just view Google as an irritant in its battle against live sports piracy. The league believes that Google has the power to reduce piracy of LaLiga content by around 80% so, in the absence of positive action, the company should be held responsible.

At the Europa Forum on Monday, Tebas spoke of potential catastrophe for televised sports of all kinds, and the entire sports industry beyond that, if piracy isn’t brought urgently under control.

“We have to be aware that [piracy] is the main challenge facing professional football and the sports industry in general,” Tebas said.

“If this dynamic of piracy does not change,” he continued, there will be “a very significant decrease in audiovisual income that will affect football and non-professional sport [in Spain]”.

Tebas claims that this could be Spain’s reality in as little as two or three years. So, to mitigate the threat, LaLiga will call on the authorities to intervene.

Criminal Complaints Against Google

There are a number of valid reasons to file criminal complaints against pirate IPTV services. Indeed, targeting the source of pirated content has always made sense for obvious reasons, not least since it actually takes content down.

It also delivers an added bonus. With the content removed at source, looking around for third parties to hold liable becomes unnecessary. LaLiga sees things a little differently, however.

“The big technology companies have to intervene. They have to stop collaborating with piracy because they make money. Google makes money, Amazon makes money, Apple makes money – and they make a lot of money,” Tebas said, before revealing what comes next.

Tebas says that LaLiga will file “criminal complaints against Google” in countries such as Spain, France, Brazil, and Ecuador. LaLiga’s president is a lawyer so, presumably, he already knows the charges LaLiga has in mind and is satisfied that the evidence meets the higher standard required for a criminal prosecution.

Reports Suggest That Google Actually Cooperates Quite a Lot

Stating this week that “enough is enough”, Tebas says that 40% of the Spanish population are pirates. How many pirate LaLiga content is unclear but, however many there are, showing that Google is criminally liable for their conduct could prove challenging.

Take for instance an announcement by LaLiga, revealing its anti-piracy successes at both Google and YouTube when tackling piracy in the season spanning 2020/2021. The league reported that it successfully disabled in excess of 1,065,000 videos on YouTube and removed more than 75,800 websites from Google’s search results.

While the numbers demonstrate the scale of the problem, they don’t lead to the impression that Google is uncooperative. In fact, marketing material for LaLiga Tech, the anti-piracy unit founded by LaLiga in 2021, boasts of its abilities to swiftly take pirated content down, including from platforms owned by Google.

Today, LaLiga Tech is known as Sportian, a joint venture formed with Globant in 2022. Customer testimonials relating to successes before and after the rebranding are hosted on the company’s website. One cites the benefits of having access to Google’s Trusted Copyright Removal Programme and YouTube’s Content ID, and how the whole package led to customer Dorna Sports seeing 98 out of every 100 illicit videos being taken down “within minutes.” (pdf)

The image on the right (above) is an extract from a presentation which tells the story of how LaLiga itself turned piracy around. It’s brimming with positivity and sits in stark contrast to the apocalyptic vision portrayed elsewhere, including the threats directed at Google this week.

Good Cop, Bad Cop?

Exactly what’s playing out here may be revealed in due course but if nothing else, there appears to be a hat for every occasion. The report mentioned earlier stating that 1,065,000 videos were removed from YouTube and 75,800 websites were disappeared from Google’s search results, had another interesting figure attached.

According to LaLiga, “820 mobile applications that were used to view pirated content” were also taken down, so why Google is currently public enemy #1 is up for debate. If the criminal complaints concern apps that appear on Google Play and are subsequently installed on users’ devices, LaLiga would certainly like to see those apps rendered inoperable. Not complying with that request doesn’t seem like a crime, however.

A less invasive approach may lie in LaLiga’s own anti-piracy toolkit which appears capable of identifying and then taking apps down quickly, before they even get a chance to gain traction among users.

Whatever grievances LaLiga has with Google, its Sportian division seems very happy to utilize its takedown tools and use their effectiveness as a selling point.

But for Google, not even generously granting access to its exclusive adserver and elite digital marketing tools can make things right.