Judge’s piracy ruling raises questions for Sogecable

In a case brought by Spanish pay-TV operator Sogecable against one of its own subscribers, a judge in Galicia has ruled that it is not necessarily illegal to share a subscription with a neighbour, provided that it is not motivated by financial gain, according to local reports.

The ruling, which concerned the Digital Plus pay-TV service delivered by satellite and redistributed to other households in the same building in the town of Ponteareas, could have implications for other cases involving card-sharing. The judge ruled that the sharing arrangement was legal because the service was not made available to the general public. However, the issue of whether there was a breach of contract by the subscriber involving a commitment to use the service strictly for personal and non-commercial purposes remains to be resolved.