Dutch Premier League clubs take streaming site offline

On the eve of the decisive championship duel, the Premier League football clubs in the Netherlands have jointly asked court to temporarily pull the plug of illegal streaming site Vrijblijvend.com. This site allows people to stream football matches without obtaining rightsholders’ (the clubs) permission. In an ex parte procedure case, the judge ordered that Vrijblijvend.com and alternative domains Vrijblijvend.asia and Vrijblijvend.co.uk be taken offline, on pains of being fined 10.000 euro a day.

“These websites publish illegal streams containing TV registrations of Premier League matches in the sense of art. 1 jo. 12 lid 1 sub a of the Copyright Act without permission of the rights holders (at least, they threaten to do so),” state the plaintiffs.

Ex parte measures are meant to be able to respond very quickly when infringement on intellectual property happens or is about to happen and legal alternatives, like interim injunction proceedings would cost too much time. They differ from “normal” court cases in that, as a rule, not all parties to a conflict need to be heard. The defendants can, however, fight the verdict later, if they feel the plaintiffs were wrong to start a case. If the judge then rules in favour of the defendants, the plaintiffs are liable for the damages that the defendants incurred.

It is not the first time that Vrijblijvend.com is taken offline. About a month ago, a similar case took place. Then, Vrijblijvend continued on the domains .asia and .co.uk. Later, Vrijblijvend.com emerged online again, too.

Source: Webwereld (in Dutch)