Spain Orders Blocks On Archive.today And Its Mirrors

No court ruling was required; only a complaint, a commission, and a censorship protocol built for speed.

Spain’s Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission, a part of the country’s Ministry of Culture, has ordered the blocking of several domains of the Archive.today service, a web archiving service.

It means that most Spanish internet users who try to access the site are redirected to a government page telling them that they are trying to access an “illegal” website.

The page, with the heading “ESTÁ USTED INTENTANDO ACCEDER A UN SITIO WEB ILEGAL” (“YOU ARE TRYING TO ACCESS AN ILLEGAL WEBSITE”), goes on to accuse the user of “facilitating illegal access to content protected by intellectual property rights” by visiting the site.

The full text of the accusation against the user is: “El acceso a esta página ha sido bloqueado mediante Resolución de la Sección Segunda de la Comisión de Propiedad Intelectual” (“Access to this page has been blocked by a resolution of the Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission”) because of “facilitar ilegalmente el acceso a contenidos protegidos por derechos de propiedad intelectual” (“illegally facilitating access to content protected by intellectual property rights”).

The page then warns that by trying to access the content, the user “está contribuyendo a una actividad ilegal y delictiva, y poniendo en riesgo su seguridad, la de sus datos y dispositivos” (“is contributing to an illegal and criminal activity, and putting at risk your own security, that of your data and devices”).