The complaints about the massive fall of web pages caused by LaLiga's fight against piracy reached Congress months ago. And the Chamber is now preparing to take measures.
The Commission on Economy, Trade and Digital Transformation approved this Wednesday a non-legislative initiative to adopt measures, including promoting a legal change that prevents the indiscriminate blocking of IPs by judicial rulings.
The proposal, brought to the Commission by ERC, was finally agreed upon with the PSOE, and later backed by Sumar, Bildu, PNV, and Compromís. The PP and Vox voted against it. Junts abstained from the session.
The vote does not imply any legal change but it is not trivial. The Chamber rejected a proposal last year to act against these web page blockages. Now, it has agreed to take measures and the proposal itself sets the framework in which the reform will be undertaken.
Reform of Digital Services Act via amendment
The initiative agreed upon by PSOE and ERC, which Demócrata had access to, anticipates a reform in the Digital Services Act, a regulatory package for the application of this European regulation that is currently being processed in Congress.
Specifically, the agreement provides for incorporating the principle of technological proportionality, the gradation of measures to be adopted, and an “adequate consideration of third parties” in the execution of anti-piracy actions, in order to avoid “undue impact on legitimate services”.
It is also planned to strengthen the right to information, freedom of expression, and digital social innovation, to consider them protected rights against technological measures that may produce effects on third parties, especially when they affect free, non-profit, or public service applications.
The approved initiative consists of more points, among them the evaluation of the impact of these blocking orders, or improving coordination to prevent the execution of judgments from affecting digital platforms or services unrelated to the illicit content.
ERC asks for “clear rules” and guarantees
The proposal was defended in the Commission by the economic spokesperson for ERC, Inés Granollers, who criticized how the execution of court rulings following complaints from LaLiga have led to the blocking of legitimate digital platforms or public services such as the Transporta’m platform, which provides a citizen service on the state of transport infrastructure.
“Every time there is a football match, thousands of citizens are left without this service,” lamented the deputy, who supports the fight against piracy “but not at any price.” “Private interests are conditioning the functioning of the Internet with direct consequences on citizens,” Granollers continued, asking for “clear rules” so that third parties are not subjected to these judicial resolutions.
Public complaints against this type of blocking are continuous. Weeks ago, a citizen criticized that the geolocation application he uses to assist his father, who suffers from dementia, became overloaded when sharing a server with infrastructure flagged by LaLiga.
The PP also advances amendments
PSOE and ERC are not the only ones advancing amendments in the Digital Services Act. Despite rejecting the initiative, the Popular Group shared the starting point of ERC's proposal and defended a more proportionate execution of judgments to avoid less legislative measures.
Her deputy Laura Lima highlighted the importance of the role of intermediary platforms operating on shared infrastructures for these blocks to be selective and requested improvements for more precise execution of the blocks.
Finally, advanced amendments to impose specific obligations on platforms and providers operating in shared infrastructures and thus prevent executions from affecting third parties.