this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2026
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In a first-of-its-kind ruling, a Spanish court has labeled VPN services as "technological intermediaries," ordering them to actively block IP addresses that host illegal LaLiga matches. The "dynamic" injunction compels NordVPN and ProtonVPN to intervene, similar to local ISPs. But with both companies operating outside EU jurisdiction with privacy-centric business models, it remains unclear if and how the order will actually be enforced.

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[–] FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io 42 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Watching other people play sports is usually boring as hell to me, but I still hope the VPNs tell Spain to fuck off.

Also, it's pretty telling how they get right on top of this super fast, but the literal Nazi propaganda and AI CSAM generation site X was met with, well let's call it a lackadaisical response.

[–] baahb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I mean... Are they right on top of this? The internet has only been around for... 40 years now?

Piracy has been a significant part of it for at least the last 30.

I dont want to sound like I'm justifying the lack of responses, but govt moves at the speed of govt, and it really doesn't feel like anyone is really on piracy.

[–] FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io 3 points 21 hours ago

Yeah, they're trying to force VPNs to block shit: What are they doing about X? Fuck all.

Doesn't mean they're good at what they're trying to do, but you can see where their priorities are based on their efforts.

[–] vrek@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago

"don't copy that floppy"

[–] DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think the point is: They seem to be taking one seriously and the other not.

[–] FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io 2 points 21 hours ago

Pretty much!

[–] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Privacy will always be around, the tech and medium always changes but piracy will always remain no matter the product.

[–] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.social 62 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Interesting... when grok was undressing children publicly, nobody started an emergency procedure to immediately blocb the bot without notifying Felon. 

Now, tho, when there's a fucking soccer game involved? Let's block internet access, we wouldn't want someone to watch a game for free!

Fuck them, fuck them badly. Hope a deadly cancer reaches them all.

Kids don't have lobbying firms with million dollar budgets.

[–] SomeDudeFromSpace@lemmy.ml 61 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I wish it was only football streams. They are blocking a ton of unrelated sites as a colateral damage. Most webs behind Cloudflare are blocked and stop working most weekends. This is a horrible violation to the network neutrality, and we should do something about it. If you think you are safe because this is still not happening in your country, think again. There’s a lot of people interested in this kind of censorship, and what’s happening in Spain sets a precedent and opens the floodgates for the rest of the countries (or, in this case, megacorps) to do the same.

Between chat control and this, things are getting out of hand FAST. We have to do something.

[–] RiQuY@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day ago

Lemmy.zip is down every fucking weekend because of these dumbasses. What Tebas is doing should be illegal, I'm so tired.

[–] Visstix@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What is this pirate football they speak of?

[–] davad@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Maradona with an eye patch and peg leg.

[–] Gonzako@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

como odio estos hijo de putas que me bloquean la mitad del Internet en el único rato que tengo libre para mí. Los únicos aparentemente afectados son empresas y no puedo poner una queja como particular.

[–] Foni@piefed.zip 4 points 1 day ago

No te preocupes, dentro de 5-6 años la justicia europea anulará esto y tendremos que pagar indemnizaciones con el dinero de todos con 0 consecuencias para estos impresentables. Luego cuando se critica a los jueces se indignan que se ataca su independencia, unos inútiles funcionales es lo que son los jueces de este país.

[–] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 day ago

Spain has been banning a ton of unrelated sites that are just using cloudflare a lot since last year or so. I had to pop on ProtonVPN to access them usually.

Now I have to search an alternative. Stupid Tebas, blocking sites because of nothing.

[–] Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Well, if this isn't a sign to get off those VPNs in favour of Mullvad, I don't know what is. They're clearly big enough corporations to be targeted - time will tell if they're gonna fold like one

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I wouldn't use Mullvad when it's openly hostile to peer-to-peer torrenting. Even outside of the obvious – piracy is one of the best and most unique use cases for a VPN – I use torrents wherever the option is available for legal downloads because that's normally faster, spares a load on the server, and strengthens the download's resiliency. That Mullvad wants to restrict that is their (reasonable) call, but it's not one that's going to get my money.

[–] Toes@ani.social 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've been using Mullvad for awhile now and torrenting works fine.

I did notice a behaviour that LibTorrent 1.2.x works better than 2.x and some endpoints don't play nice.

If you're willing to give it another spin try Netherlands.

[–] BrikoX@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

They don't explicitly ban torrenting, but they banned port forwarding in 2023 which heavily limits who you can connect to.

[–] Beep@lemmus.org 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

There is Tor, IVPN and NymVPN too.

[–] LordDaveTheKind@piefed.social 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Does Mullvad allow sports streaming? When I used it to watch the Olympics on the Italian broadcaster (RAI), the stream was blocked.

[–] FreshLight@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

From United Kingdom to Italy

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

Provider privilege worth nothing anymore?