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File Sharing Ruled Legal In Spain
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Nov 03, 2006 10:59 AM
from the for-about-five-minutes dept.
from the for-about-five-minutes dept.
stupid_is writes "As a follow-up to a previous discussion a judge in Spain has ruled that under Spanish law a person who downloads music for personal use can not be punished or branded a criminal. This seems to be a teeny bit clearer than the first article, which points out that downloading is a civil, and not criminal, offense for individuals. The Spanish recording industry federation Promusicae is predictably a bit peeved, and says it will appeal against the decision." From the article: "The state prosecutor's office and two music distribution associations had sought a two year sentence against the man, who downloaded songs and then allegedly offered them on a CD through email and chat rooms. However, there was no direct proof he made money from selling the CDs. Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopéz Aguilar says Spain is drafting a new law to abolish the existing right to private copies of material. Due to different regulatory regimes in Europe, the proceedings against file sharers differ greatly in each country. However, most European judges tend to take a harder stance on file sharing. Twenty two people in Finland were fined €427,000 last week for illegally sharing movies, music, games and software, while courts in Sweden also fined two men who had downloaded movies and music for personal use."
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Technology: Spain Outlaws P2P File-Sharing 432 comments
Section_Ei8ht writes "Spanish Congress has made it a civil offense to download anything via p2p networks, and a criminal offense for ISP's to allow users to file-share, even if the use is fair. There is also to be a tax on all forms of blank media, including flash memory drives. I guess the move towards distributing films legally via BitTorrent is a no go in Spain." Here is our coverage of the tax portion of this law.
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Downloading != Sharing (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The sad thing is...they wanted two years in prison (Score:2)
Still, they're working hard to change the laws. What they want now is for downloading to be illegal, AND for a tax to be placed on all recordable media. If they manage to pass it then I'll be paying the RIAA for all the CDs I use for data backups, all the CDs which end up as coasters because I dared to touch the mouse while it was recording, etc.
Re:The sad thing is...they wanted two years in pri (Score:2)
how old is that burner that you don't have buffer-underrun protection? i haven't had a coater in 5 years due to a buffer underrun (liteon 482448s burner), though i have had a couple due to other factors such as the power browning/blacking out at bad times (i need to get a UPS) or the burning software crashing or whatever.
This is where I get my troll mod (Score:2)
Oh well.
And before you reply, "but BitTorrent...," two points: 1) are there any torrent clients that do not allow the user to control uploading? And 2) if there are, so?
In the words of the parent poster, "Downloading != Sharing"
also not criminal!=legal (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Kyle: What's the matter with him?
Detective: This month he was hoping to have a gold-plated shark tank bar installed right next to the pool, but thanks to people downloading his music for free, he must now wait a few months before he can afford it. Come. There's more. Here's Britney Spears' private jet. Notice anything? Britney used to have a Gulfstream IV. Now she's had to sell it and get a Gul
Olé (Score:2)
Comparison invalid (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
"contribution to copyright infringement" -- well, I guess the Youtube guys are lucky not to live in Finland.
Ummm... (Score:2)
I am completely confused:
1) The first article doesn't say that.
2) The second article sort of *does* say that.
3) Assuming that file sharing really has been ruled a civil but not criminal offense, the "Ruled Legal" headline via the dimwitted Register, plagiarizing submitter and sleepy editor is completely false.
Were they expecting an inquisition? (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know what they expect by filing an appeal.
I mean, nobody expects a Spanish inquisition.
Someone fetch the Promusicae the comfy chair or some soft cushions.
Moving to Spain now. (Score:2)
What you don't know... (Score:5, Informative)
Just so you can understand better... last year they got 300 million euros just in that concept. And believe me, you can bribe a lot of people with that.
Oh, I almost forgot, that money is shared unequally among the capos of the SGAE, leaving all the other 80.000 members with nothing.
"Not Illegal" does not mean "Legal" (Score:3, Informative)
In fact, the U.S. Congress took Judge Stearns up on his suggestion, adding the concept of commercial value and intent to profit to the criminal portion of the U.S. Copyright Law in the No Electronic Theft Act [usdoj.gov].
I would not be surprised to see the Spanish law changed to close this loophole as well. {Prof. Jonathan Ezor, Touro Law Center Institute for Business, Law and Technology [tourolaw.edu]}
For all those who want to leave the US... (Score:2)
Run with the bulls and download music and movies!
Not quite true (Score:4, Informative)
In Common Law, this ruling would have made a precedent which other judges in further cases should follow. In the Spanish system, judges are only required to follow what is stated in written law; rulings for previous similar cases are used only as a guide, but are not mandatory.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
One in three discs is pirated. So, are you referring here to counterfeit discs produced on the black market and sold for 3 bucks in the subway? Bec
Re: (Score:2)
Now I feel bad, wearing out my keyboard like that...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe, but there are other forces at work here....
You may be loosing business to the likes of Amazon.com, Ebay, and other non-brick and mortar
retail outlets that are undercutting your price. Also there are LEGAL download sites
(such as itunes) that offer customers the choice to buy just the cuts they want, not the entire
CD. Face it, your method of business is going the way of the dinosaur. File sharing may be
part of the problem, but by many accou
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
They have fought the War on Drugs with skill, so why not the War on Piracy?
And I have to ask... how well has that War on Drugs turned out?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
See - http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=160324& c id=13420069 [slashdot.org] and http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=187189&cid =15444081 [slashdot.org] here and http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=171333&cid=142 69664 [slashdot.org]
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
And the persons who were sentenced were administrators of the torrent-sharing site, not some guys who just downloaded some songs.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Do you really need to ask? Widespread copying was a harder task in the 80s. You had to find someone who owned a copy of said music, which meant a local friend.