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Spain blocks Archive.today and all its mirrors without a court order

Spain blocks Archive.today and all its mirrors without a court order

Rule Changes

The Ministry of Culture's copyright commission targets a general-purpose web archive used by researchers and journalists

September 20th, 2026: Block covers 98% of Spanish broadband

Overview

Updated Sep 20

Spain has blocked Archive.today, the free web-archiving service that captures paywalled and deleted pages, across 98% of the country's broadband lines. The order came from an administrative copyright commission, not a court, and it covers all seven of the service's domains: archive.today, archive.is, archive.ph, archive.li, archive.md, archive.fo, and archive.vn.

The same mechanism that blocked football streams and pirate movie portals has reached a general-purpose research tool used by journalists and academics. It is the first web archiver blocked on copyright grounds anywhere. Earlier in 2026, Wikipedia's editors had already blacklisted the service over alleged attacks on a blogger's site and evidence that archived pages had been altered.

Why it matters

If a general-purpose web archive counts as piracy, every tool that captures paywalled news is now exposed to the same administrative order.

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Key Indicators

7
Archive.today domains blocked
archive.today, archive.is, archive.ph, archive.li, archive.md, archive.fo, and archive.vn all under resolution
98%
Of Spanish broadband lines covered by signatory ISPs
Operators that signed the 2021 anti-piracy protocol apply the block
536
Sites blocked by Spain's copyright commission in 2026
The administrative mechanism has expanded sharply this year, past streaming pirates to archives

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Organizations Involved

Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission
Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission
Administrative body within Spain's Ministry of Culture
Ordered the block after a complaint from an unnamed rights holder

Spain's administrative body that can order ISPs to block websites it deems to facilitate piracy.
Archive.today
Archive.today
Web archiving service
Blocked across Spanish broadband; still accessible via VPNs and alternate DNS

A free service that stores snapshots of web pages, including content deleted from the live web or behind paywalls.
Bandaancha
Bandaancha
Spanish technology news outlet
First reported the block, in mid-September 2026

Specialist Spanish site that covers ISPs, broadband, and telecom policy.

Timeline

2011 September 2026

6 events Latest: September 20th, 2026 · 2 months ago
Tap a bar to jump to that date

  1. Block covers 98% of Spanish broadband

    Latest Enforcement

    The block is now applied by operators covering nearly all Spanish lines; O2 shows the official warning page, Vodafone a blank message, Digi still passes traffic.

  2. Ministry adds domains to blocklist

    Enforcement

    The commission's public blocklist, updated September 18, lists all seven archive.* domains under definitive resolution.

  3. Archive.today blocks begin

    Enforcement

    Some Spanish operators begin redirecting Archive.today traffic; the block spreads across the following weeks.

  4. Anna's Archive blocked

    Enforcement

    Same commission blocks the open scholarly bibliographic database, the first sign the mechanism is moving past streaming piracy.

  5. Anti-piracy protocol signed

    Agreement

    Ministry of Culture, rights-holder groups, and major ISPs agree to block mirror domains within 24 hours of notification.

  6. Spain passes Ley Sinde

    Legislation

    The Sustainable Economy Act creates an administrative copyright commission able to order site blocks without a court ruling.

Scenarios

1

Spanish court rules the Archive.today block unlawful

Uncertain Resolves by Q2 2027

Discussed by: Legal observers, noting the same administrative circuit LaLiga uses; resolutions can be appealed to Spain's National Court (Audiencia Nacional)

An interested party — a rights group, an ISP, or Archive.today's operators — challenges the resolution as disproportionate, arguing a general-purpose archiving tool is not a pirate service. The commission's earlier rulings have survived challenges, but none targeted a neutral web archive.

2

Block persists; Archive.today stays off Spanish broadband

Likely Resolves by Jan 15, 2027

Discussed by: Bandaancha and vpnlab, noting the Ministry has not announced the decision and users are already routing around it via VPNs, alternate DNS, and Encrypted Client Hello

No legal challenge materializes or succeeds. The block stays on the Ministry's list, Spanish users shift to VPNs and non-ISP DNS resolvers, and the service remains a standard tool for those willing to route around it.

3

The block spreads to other archiving services

Possible Resolves by Q2 2027

Discussed by: diariosocialista and reclaimthenet, pointing to the April 2026 block of Anna's Archive as evidence the protocol now targets knowledge infrastructure

Rights holders file complaints against other general-purpose archives — the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, a scholarly repository, or a paywall workaround tool. The 2021 protocol's 24-hour mirror-blocking clause makes expansion fast and cheap.

Historical Context

3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

March 2011

Spain's Ley Sinde (2011)

Spain's parliament passed the Sustainable Economy Act, whose provisions let a new Intellectual Property Commission block pirate sites by administrative resolution, with no judge in the loop. That same year, the United States' equivalent bills, SOPA and PIPA, died under public opposition.

Then

The commission began ordering domain blocks in 2012, and has since silenced more than 400 sites.

Now

Spain became one of the few European states where an administrative body can shut off websites without a court ruling.

Why this matters now

Archive.today was blocked by this exact mechanism. No court has reviewed whether an archiving tool violates copyright.

April 2026

Spain blocks Anna's Archive (2026)

The same commission ordered ISPs to block Anna's Archive, an open bibliographic database of scholarly papers, during the 'procedure of safeguard' used against pirate streaming. The move angered academic users who rely on the service for research access.

Then

Anna's Archive became inaccessible on Spanish networks under the administrative order.

Now

It established that the blocking protocol would reach beyond entertainment piracy to knowledge infrastructure.

Why this matters now

Four months before Archive.today, the funnel from streaming pirates to archives was already open.

2009-2015

The Pirate Bay across Europe (2009-2015)

After the Pirate Bay's founders were convicted in Sweden in 2009, European states blocked the site via court orders and administrative rulings. Each new block pushed traffic to a mirror or a VPN, and the site never fully disappeared.

Then

The site survived on a constellation of mirrors and proxy domains.

Now

A permanent cat-and-mouse pattern emerged: block a domain, users route around it.

Why this matters now

Spain's 2021 protocol was built explicitly to block mirrors within 24 hours — the lessons of the Pirate Bay wars, now applied to a web archive.

Sources

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+1
reclaimthenet.org donporque.com calibrandolaactualidad.net blog.elhacker.net vpnlab.io diariosocialista.net TechCrunch