Copyright Group: No Need to Hear P2P Site’s Defense
Written by enigmax on May 13, 2009Spanish copyright group SGAE has taken legal action in order to close down a site which offers links to copyrighted music hosted elsewhere. In seeking an injunction to close the site, SGAE said it was not necessary for the court to hear the site’s defense. The court disagreed.
Yet again, Spain’s answer to the RIAA has been flexing its muscles in trying to close down another site that offers links to copyright works. Time and time again the Spanish courts have kicked out claims against similar sites, declaring them to be entirely legal, but SGAE has its hands firmly pressed to its ears.
This time SGAE targeted Agujero.com, a site which amongst other things offers links to files found on various P2P networks. Defended by lawyers David Bravo and Javier de la Cueva, Agujero.com is protesting its innocence using the same successful defense employed earlier by P2P site Sharemula. However, the increasingly deaf SGAE believes otherwise, claiming that the site operates illegally.
“The entertainment industry has tried to criminalize websites linking to P2P,” Javier de la Cueva told TorrentFreak. “After four years, it seems they have given up with criminal proceedings as it is clear it is not a crime because a link is not a copy nor is it public communication. It is just metadata, data about data. Now they [SGAE] have begun civil claims.”
SGAE told the court that Augujero’s continued operation was so serious that it required an immediate injunction to close it down. In fact, it further insisted that the urgency of the case meant that it was not even necessary for the court to hear the defendant’s side of the story. SGAE insisted that they “had long remained passive” in taking action against Agujero, having been aware of the site’s operations since 2007. Now, in 2009, suddenly everything has become so urgent that they don’t want the site to have a defense in the face of an application for an injunction.
Thankfully the court disagreed with this reasoning and allowed an interim hearing on May 5th 2009, to be attended by both sides.
During the hearing, lawyers for SGAE claimed that Agujero.com infringed the copyright of its members. For the defense, lawyer Javier de la Cueva argued that the site did not, since it only carries links to material hosted elsewhere, a position already declared legal under Spanish law in previous cases. An expert presented by the defense confirmed that the site carried only links and that the only material actually hosted by Agujero is ‘copyleft’ material.
The judge noted that closing the site in advance of a full hearing “might cause irreparable prejudice to the defendant,” and therefore denied SGAE’s application to have the site closed at this stage.
“In the end it could be considered a legal activity,” Javier told TorrentFreak.
To be continued….
Previously: The War on Sharing: Why the FSF Cares About RIAA Lawsuits
Next: Vulnerability Renders MPAA/RIAA Copyright Warnings Useless
56 Responses
uh yeah you do have to hear it
bunch of jackasses…..
*shakes head*
So now we filesharers are so incredibly dangerous that our sites shouldn’t even get a trial?
Rawr.
well well, tomorrow they drag me into court for this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis , yeah the Wikipedia article can help you identify it, so its illegal
“SGAE said it was not necessary for the court to hear the site’s defense.”
Really.. what kind of a godlike thing gave lobby groups power to judge someone without a trial ?
Copyright Group is just upset because no one listens to them. Its really the copyright jackasses are the ones who progress in everything in your life but oh wait not copyright, cause that will affect me directly.
LOL..can we close them down without any legal process?…..It would be so convenient as the evidence is slim at best and we spent all our money buying TPB judge.
thx
SGAE
I start to like spanish courts … could be they are setting standards for the rule of law that quite some politicians in europe seem to forget as soon as they are facing claims of big name companies or big financial players ….
In other big european countries (UK, Fance, Germany) there is a very unholy tendency to forget about proper juridical procedures and the most basic legal principles!
(and instead pushing for some “I said so” principles where prosecution, judge and jury should collapse into some undefined lump of distastefull partisan authority.)
To all you unix/linux-heads. I hope you realize that sometime soon the RIAA/MPAA is going to go after all writers of the Linux/Unix operating systems. They’ll go under the guise of “Linux/Unix operating system users are intentionally getting around our DRM and encryption technology, and the makers/writers of these operating systems are enabling people to do so and to freely access and use copyrighted material.”
The RIAA/MPAA right now is attempting to pass laws that will outlaw encryption, VPN and proxies. Those laws can no doubt be very easily passed on to open source “free” operating systems.
They’ve already pressured Microsoft (and Apple) in to installing DRM and honouring Broadcast flag restrictions in to their operating systems. They’ve already gotten to hardware manufacturers to honour all restrictions that they request.
Mark my words, they already control too much already and they are going to go after the free/open alternatives in the world. They are going way too far and are eventually going to affect every computer user in the world.
People need to wake up. We can not afford to be passive. People were passive in what Hitler was doing and the consequence was the death of millions of people. This is similar to what’s happening right now; an attempt by powerful corporations to enslave and control all forms of technology strictly for their own selfish financial needs. They also work in the shadows and darkness in closed rooms meeting with and paying off politicians and executives from other corporations largely leaving out you and me. By the time we realize what’s going on, the laws have passed restricting our rights and freedoms.
The Beast (RIAA/MPAA) must be stopped.
REVOLUTION NOW!!!!!!
yet again, the rights of sites and individuals are being ignored. it took hundreds of years to get a legal system that assumed innocence unless proven guilty and did not automatically favour the rich. if we are not extremely careful, these laws are going to be flushed straight down the pan in return for even more bribes to judges and politicians than were paid in TPB case. a totally corrupt society and world, ruled by the biggest corporations, is just over the horizon!! we are heading right towards the 1984 syndrome!!
I least the courts going to hear their defense. what a bunch of aholes at sgae.
@1
Was that your Barry White voice..
Aaaaahhhh yyaaaaa, you gonna hear this good.
Copyright groups every where are trying to ride a wave of quasi success from the Pirate Bay verdict. The Pirate Bays next court case need to come quickly.
Viva La Mexico
dohoho, copyright groups failing to see that it’s not the site uploading the copyrighted torrents, but regular people themselves? SHOCKER. it would be so nice if those groups could just leave the sites alone and stop attempting pointless requests like not even having the defense in court. that’s just idiotic that they believed the court would accept that.
I knew that the president of the SGAE grew up under a fascist regime, but JEEZ!
@riaatard
Where’s your sources? I haven’t heard anything about these laws to ban encryption, vpn, etc. and would like to see where you got the info.
I agree with you that “The Beast”, as you called those craphole of organizations needs to be stopped, but I haven’t heard of any of the info you mentioned, and want to catch up on it.
“Rest of the world: No Need to Pay Money to Copyright Groups”
Amirite?
Everday I read those kind of news, I want to shout louder and fucking DO SOMETHING about that! I think I’ll move to sweden and join the Pirate Party…. :)
@Riaatard, links please…
No trial? Jesus christ, these men have gone mad! Now imagine if the court had agreed to no trial, a very dangerous precedent. Our very freedoms are at stake. I long for a case brought against google to finally put this to a rest. If linking is a crime, Google is the ultimate offender. And no court could possibly find Google guilty.
@nate
http://torrentfreak.com/riaas-hostile-takeover-of-the-internet-090429/
Check out the outlawing of encryption and anonymization. You can also scour other tech web sites regarding this information.
This is a game of Chess to the RIAA/MPAA. They are slowly maneuvering their pieces all over the board. They pretty much already own the board with only one or two opposing pieces left that are backed into a corner.
They are ruling the board with King and Queen peices, that is; the politicians, judges and police.
Any person with common sense who has been watching this chess game play out knows that there aren’t many moves left by us. It’s just a matter of time before they own the entire board.
Their next steps are obvious. They are maneuvering their laws to slowly shut out everything that is free, and they can easily go after open source software to say that they are all violating the DMCA or whatever piece of crap law that they’ve helped pass. Politicians and judges don’t know about open source or torrent technology. They’ll be more than happy to pass the laws against them and then go out to dinner with the RIAA and MPAA to celebrate.
They won’t stop until every computer user in the world is considered a criminal according to their laws. No one is safe from them.
The only way to fight back is to either hit them where it hurts; all out civil disobedience . But guess what, they’re even trying to outlaw that.
We may have one or two pieces left, I might even say there is only one left. I predict this will be over very soon.
@riaatard
backwards encryption.
ekactiurf siht waltuo
I’m not religious in the slightest, but I can very easily equate the following link to the RIAA/MPAA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_(Bible)
It’s a very interesting similarity.
The article said 5th May…. that was eight days ago… 15th May maybe?
Has the world gone mad?
Someone needs to remind those dumb asses from “SGAE” and the rest of RIAA/MPAA that we live in a civil society where there are rules of laws that we must obey. Just because they have bribed few politicians and judges doesn’t mean they can dictate the rest of us. How low and stupid can these idiots get? What the hell have they been smoking or drinking? Where the hell did they get their education for their law degrees? This is the most stupid and the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
Viva la Revolution!!!
Did Obama have something to do with this as well? Put his name in the title and see how it flies.
It is not necessary to hear the site’s defense… *waves hand*
People need to take back their nations from corporate greed machines… Remember when society was supposed to benefit from public domain instead of adding an extra 25 years to copyrights every 15 years…
Funny how there now seems to be 2 Reasoned Mind’s?! One good and one evil…or perhaps he finally wen’t skizo?
LOL!
ITS TIME TO FIGHT BACK!
GIVE THEM WHAT THEY DESERVE
DIE MOFO!
To bad for them the Spanish courts aren’t that corrupt (yet?).
Reminds me of when the MAFIAA decided they didn’t need to present evidence in court. Maybe they should try combining these tactics and make really really huge fools out of themselves.
@riaatard, a company called SCO (backed by some big players like m$) tried something pretty similar to that, guess how they are doing now, here’s a hint:
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/05/sco-to-fight-us-bankruptcy-trustees-motion-to-liquidate-it.ars
like gravity to mass, democracy bends for MONEY!
Wonder how long it is til they start goin after people cause they got songs memorized sayings an illegal copy of the song.
$modeprobe -r MAFIAA module
I knew that the president of the SGAE grew up under a fascist regime, but JEEZ!
http://www.certinside.com
Hey SGAE try this trick in the UK. You wont have any problems here. While you’re here you can claim for mortgages you don’t have, a coupe of porno’s and some butt plugs for after dinner entertainment!
Looking forward to your arrival!
no encryption eh?
Wonder how hackers will think about it LOL
and would that make whom ever made such laws liable because it is intentionally making you more vulnerable…..
would be akin to say leaving jail doors unlocked in your home town cause they think it costs to much money for them. WOULD THERE BE A LAWSUIT WHEN SOMEONE GOT HURT?
How about your damaged computer or stuff?
Since the scum have stepped up their game by going after our tubes…
Time we stepped up ours. I would say no more Itunes.. don’t go see terminator or star trek etc, and cancel your ISP cable and phone service as they own that as well…
boycotting may be what has to be done to get the point across. nothing hurts a large corporation more than lost profits. ah well, let’s hope that day doesn’t come. has anyone thought to write up an online boycott signup site? where if you signup to this boycott you’re stating that you will not buy nor download any products from certain corporations? if a list with several million names showed up, could that possibly make a difference? i know it’s a pipe dream but ah well, i’ll leave the good ideas up to smarter minds then myself.
SGAE mi cago en tus putas madres, chupar mi polla
@RIAAtard:
Don’t mistake the beast for the the devil
(meaning; keep on screaming at the beast to keep it’s master laughing, gotta find the ‘masters’ and agenda)
;)
What is SO dangerous on that site, that it needs to be shut down IMMEDIATELY.
ARE THEY SELLING BOMBS TO AL-QAEDA?
Seriously? Am I the only one who thought of this?
SAGE SGAE!
SAGE THAT SHIT.
The MPAA and IRAA seem to have sooooo much money to waste on legal fees and attempts to sue people for doing legal things. You know, they probably would have half a billion more per year to enjoy if they just gave up suing people for whatever reason(s) they can invent.
Maybe I should have become a lawyer, cause the only people in these law suits that win are the lawyers LMAO…. Wow have the lawyers (snakes) ever bamboozled the MPAA and RIAA into thinking they have cases against people.
The entertainment companies are an epitome of the bad side of capitalism. The Dark Knight was one of the most downloaded movies, but the movie also witnessed record sales of its DVD. They aren’t running at a loss, they are racking in millions and millions of dollars of profits. It’s just that they want the whole pie! How sicker can that get????
Money rules anti-piracy organizations.
Il Duce lives!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini
“Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes it’s laws”
-Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild
http://www.prensfilm.com
http://www.prensfilm.com
http://www.prensoyun.net/barbie/trt-cocuk.html
Are they coming in at this angle so that the act of prosecution seems less heavy?
A hard one to word, I hope you know what I mean.
…Like it’s along the lines of reducing a steak from £500 to £100. It’s still a rip off but people might buy it because of the large reduction in price.
They are actually trying to go against that all democracy “we must listen to every side in the story in order to make an informed decision” thing. Wow, there must be some really powerful people pulling the strings behind these spanish puppets…
/conspiracytheoristmode [on]
maybe it’s time the courts told SGAE to stop wasting the courts time or face charges/fines for doing so.
Basically they would like to skip over hearings and a trial and go straight to a guilty verdict with all the financial compensation trimmings. Fuck them in the earhole the pricks
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