Cuevana: the history of the website that you will no longer be able to see from Peru

Cuevana is an Argentine website dedicated to distributing movies and television series. Since its launch in 2009, this portal has become one of the favorites of users, as it allows you to enjoy international productions without charging a single penny.

After knowing the resolution issued by Indecopi, where it orders internet service providers to block different pages that violate copyright in the country, we review part of the history of Cuevanawebsite that is included in the list of the public entity.

Created by Tomás Escobar, then an engineering student, Cuevana became one of the greatest Latin American exponents of the streaming service, long before this notion began to be discussed. Furthermore, unlike the current it has not required, nor does it require a payment to use it.

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“It started as a hobby to facilitate something that people needed, because to watch a series or a movie on the Internet, you had to download them from Torrent and then get the subtitles; it was very complicated, so this was born as a necessity”, Escobar told the newspaper La Nación in 2011.

Escobar, however, was not the only one involved in the project. Mario Cardosio and David Fernández, university classmates of the creator, were also part of this website, which for that year was already a “boom” in various countries such as Chile, Mexico, and even Peru.

“Most of the TV channels have rubbish programming and people usually can’t meet or adapt to the schedules they impose, so Cuevana allows you to manage your own times to see what you want”, Escobar told the Argentine media.

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Cuevana’s legal problems

Since 2011, Cuevana began to face litigation for various reasons, but mainly for the reproduction of programs or movies without authorization from the studios or television houses.. This meant that many times they had to remove the content they were promoting, and even close the website.

In November of that year, HBO sued Cuevana, and its founders, for violating the intellectual law that is established in Argentine territory, according to Clarín. However, the Buenos Aires Crime Chamber denied the firm’s petition ordering the restriction of access to the web in Argentina.

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This changed when Ricardo Sáenz, attorney general of the Buenos Aires Crime Chamber, opened a criminal case against those responsible for the website. The authority had verified that there were online payments that are made through donations. That is to say, they verified that the creators were profiting in some way, because according to reports from the Technological Crimes Division of the Federal Police, these arrived at an account in the name of Escobar.

These types of demands were repeated over the years. Even Telecentro had completely blocked user access to Cuevanawhich lasted only 24 hours, according to La Nación, at the end of 2011. After being made public, the company removed the blockade.

However, it is known that by placing entertainment services without the permission of the authors or distributors, Cuevana is violating intellectual property rights, in theory. But what happens in practice?

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Why has Cuevana survived for so long?

The reason why Cuevana is still standing and has not ended up disappearing is very simple: there is a legal vacuum in the law of the right to information in Argentina. “Copyright law makes it a crime to store or display illegal copies of copyrighted material. But the rule does not apply to a virtual medium such as Cuevana, which is a search engine for protected material, but does not store or display it”, Computer law expert Nicolás Tato told the BBC.

This law dates back to the 1930s and, like much of the world, is out of date with advances in technology and the emergence of new sites, such as social networks. By not storing the content and only offering links, Cuevana, therefore, does not violate any law in Argentina..

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The thousands of versions of Cuevana

Being so popular and user demand was so great, andhe website was expanding but with different names or with local pages. That’s where they started dating variants such as Cuevana2, Cuevana3, Cuevana Storm (Germany), among others; as well as the use of different internet domains to avoid legal proceedings. Many even used the name just to attract people, but they didn’t necessarily provide the same service, nor were they secure websites.

For this reason, despite the fact that they close some, more and more will come out, because being a free service, the demand will remain. Not only because it allows you to watch practically premiere series and movies, but because they try to maintain HD image quality.

Source: Elcomercio

James

I have worked as a journalist for over 10 years and have written for various news outlets. I currently work as an author at 24 News Recorder, mostly covering entertainment news. I have a keen interest in the industry and enjoy writing about the latest news and gossip. I am also a member of the National Association of Journalists.