‘Spanish Napster’ Sued For Unfair Competition
Written by enigmax on May 21, 2009EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner have many years experience of trying to sue people away from P2P networks. In Spain they have turned their attentions to Pablo Soto, the 30 year old creator of the Blubster, Piolet and Manolito file-sharing applications. They say his software is “unfair competition” for them, and are in court this week, suing him for $17.8m.
Born in Spain in 1979, Pablo Soto has been in the computer business since he was 16 years old and has a string of successful projects under his belt. These include the Manolito/MP2P protocol and client, and the Blubster and Piolet file-sharing applications. It’s estimated that combined, these three pieces of software have been downloaded more than 20 million times.
Just under a year ago in June 2008, Warner Music, Universal Music, EMI and Sony under the umbrella of PROMUSICAE (Productores de Música de España) – Spain’s answer to the RIAA – filed a lawsuit against Pablo’s company, MP2P Technologies.
The group didn’t care how they got their ‘evidence’ against Pablo either. The record companies even hired a private detective who turned up at Pablo’s offices pretending to be a customer. Using a hidden camera, the detective took photographs, which can be seen in various pages in the complaint against Pablo’s company.
Demanding a massive 13 million euros ($17.8m) from the Spaniard, they claim that his software – which allows people to share files over the Internet – has caused them to lose a substantial amount of earnings. Pablo has never denied that he created the applications for commercial purposes and that he made some money from them. However, Pablo denies any destructive intentions against the music industry.
For their part, the record companies claim that Pablo designed the software with the express intent of providing a platform for Internet users to download and share music for free, a situation they describe as “unfair competition.” Pablo is also accused of creating these applications to profit from work to which the plaintiffs own the copyright.
But of course, since the case is taking place in Spain, there are some other interesting issues being thrown into the mix. Spanish courts have ruled again and again that no crime is committed if people download music for personal use and no profit is directly generated from any infringement. Additionally, Spaniards already pay special taxes on things like CDs, DVDs, memory cards and mobile phones to compensate the music industry for supposed losses.
But the almost undoubted legality of sharing files in Spain goes even further. In all cases presented so far, the courts have ruled that even BitTorrent and eDonkey-type sites are legal, if operated within the aforementioned parameters.
Furthermore, as pointed out by his legal team consisting of P2P and copyright experts Javier de la Cueva and David Bravo, Pablo merely created software and at no time has he ever had control over what users choose to do with it.
“This claim is illogical and goes against every principle of law. If every time someone builds something he has to ensure that any illegal use of it is impossible, we would all still be living in caves,” said Pablo. “You can not block a tool because of the use that someone might make of it. We designed a ‘tool’ for transferring files as efficiently as possible, full stop,” he added.
The case began in Madrid’s Superior Court on Tuesday and will continue today. So far Pablo says that although he is no lawyer, “Things are looking good,” despite a courtroom mishap. Unfortunately for Pablo, his iPhone received an unexpected incoming call. “My geek ultra edition R2D2 tone began to sound at full volume, and due to my nerves I dropped the mobile on the floor. This left the room clear that (a) I’m freaky and (b) I am clumsy,” he said.
Pablo also notes that he was touched when Marti Lafferty, chairman of the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA) flew all the way from Washington to testify in the case. He told the judge that “Spain should be proud of Pablo.”
A decision is expected within a month, but it is entirely possible that the case will end up in Spain’s Supreme Court and could take many years to reach a final conclusion.
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53 Responses
Good luck to him, i hope he get an early ruling in his favour.
Hope the music industry suffer another loss of a huge case in front of the general public… then has to pay poor Pablos legal bills + hopefully something on top.
Ryan
eZee.se
You can follow the trial on twitter under #sotop2p
roflcopter r2d2.. must of been hilarious..
Are the Music people MAD
If you make something but then others use it illegality that does not mean you have done anything wrong.
What’s next, some one is stopped for DUI and they lock up 12 Ford workers for building the car, or do they arrest 12 people at Jack Daniels for making the whiskey.
How about Pablo counter sues’ them for unfair competition as music is pushing out the legal files that he built the software for and it is the Music business that is invading his work.
“”For their part, the record companies claim that Pablo designed the software with the express intent of providing a platform for Internet users to download and share music for FREE, a situation they describe as “unfair competition.” Pablo is also accused of creating these applications to PROFIT from work to which the plaintiffs own the copyright.”"
They talk in riddles one minute the accuse him creating a free application then the next they accuse him of trying to profit ………. hmmmmmm
Please go sue TV and radio stations everywhere too, they too don’t make people pay for music LoL
Buena Suerte Pablo y espero puedas continuar haciendo lo que te gusta.
(Good look Pablo andI hope you can continue doing what you love)
this is repeating itself over and over. I’m quite sick of more lawsuits with the same claim. Its a dead horse! Sue the manufacturers of knives please! Geez… more legal bullying, everywhere. If that money was used to betterserve customers and stop treating them for horrible propaganda and creating scandals all over the place the industry would have had a chance . But they yet lost control again. Idiots.
“it is entirely possible that the case will end up in Spain’s Supreme Court and could take many years to reach a final conclusion.”
Spanish justice is corrupt, too, but also very slow.
they pay extra taxes in spain for a companies theoretical losses? Seriously?….
at #11 yes, seriously, sounds like a joke right?
And soon we’ll have ISP’s scanning packets looking for P2P protocols in all europe…
I don’t know what, but we will have to do something, at least start encrypting P2P traffic.
I also want to wish Pablo with luck with the case!
The precedents in history are:
- TV
- Radio
- Magnetic cassette tapes
- Magnetic video tapes
- Tivo
P2P software is kind of a Tivo isn’t?
A better translation for “freaky”, as used in Spanish, is “geeky”.
According to Wired an study by the software and electronic industries found out that 1/3 of the domestic gross U.S. domestic product derives from fair use.
“fair use economy” in 2006 accounted for $4.5 trillion in revenues and $2.2 trillion in associated value, “roughly one-sixth of total U.S. GDP.”
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2007/09/study-this-copy/#previouspost
Apparently “fair use” brings more revenues then the MAFIAA can LoL
i think they should sue judges, lawyers, police etc too, they paid taxs and motor registration costs which helped pay for roads that helped tractor/heavy machinery companys use to transport machinery to local contractors that are used to dig up and install phone/internet cables for people to download stuff…..i think im onto a conspiracy here thats happening against the record and movie industry :-S
They would go on to sue IBM and Intel for helping expand technology which eventually is being used to curtail RIAA’s profit. If they really get a free hand, they would also sue the souls of Alan Turing and Charles Babbage for contribution to computing world.
Well, at least his chances are looking good…
Why don’t we all do something special in honoe of Pablo Soto and everyone else who’ve ever had problems with RIAA and MPAA at the spanish Nerd Pride Day? (May 25)
if i use a sony created cd to murder someone, can i sue them?
A growing number of studies that say that the impact of filesharing is null continue to appear.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/05/business/a-heretical-view-of-file-sharing.html?sec=technology
Pure stupidity
How can they claim unfair competition when Pablo doesnt create distribute or even have a hand in producing anything that is even remotely similar to the complainants
He doesnt create or distribute music or films….its the public who do that, all he’s done is create a program that can be used to share anything. As this is so the music and films industry should be filing a complaint against the true people that perpetrate the said “unfair competition” being the consumers all over the world (good luck)
At the risk of beating a pile of giblets that used to be a dead horse:
This is once again stupid. Alienating more people. There are points to be made that this is how capitalism works. You keep up with the Joneses or you don’t make money. The music industry hasn’t made any sincere attempt to keep up.
The study from the Canadian government
http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/study-p2p-music-downloads-increase-music-cd-sales-2287/
the Boingo Boingo article meantioning a fresh study done it in 2009
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/20/norwegian-p2p-downlo.html
If you use “p2p impact on sales 2009″ there is a scary volume of documents about the theme LoL
How those fools say it hurts sales?
I guess Pablo could better make the Manolito / MP2P network and software open source, just like LimeWire did.
It’s the only option to don’t let the networking technology been killed by the MAFIAA. And sueing him has is that situation no effect, because like other open source p2p networks could mp2p be further developed by other developers.
I wonder how this story ends, I wish good luck to Pablo!
so another words if i make a car then it gets used to run people over then i apparently broke the law. who comes up with this stuff anyways. MAFFIA must go.
@23 we covered both studies before…
also related, and even more important.. http://torrentfreak.com/why-pirates-buy-more-music-and-music-labels-fail-090428/
Well if they are suing him for creating an application used for the dissemination of information, perhaps they should also sue themselves for creating said material.
This would follow their logic in suing Pablo for creating a program that has legitimate and illegitimate uses.
He has no control over how his application will be used by others. Nor should he have said control or have to dictate what is allowed usage of the software.
Score one for idiocy.
Pfff… Suing someone for technology he invented… Lets sue scientists who invented nuclear reactions and as a result nuclear bomb and ban nuclear electro stations then…
Now I want to sue them for forcefully slowing down progress of technology on a basis that they can’t keep up…
Here is article on that http://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2008/12/file-sharing-and-the-pony-express.html that provides example of how pony express was driven out of business by telegraph network because their way of doing things was not effective at all anymore. And now media content distribution firms will go out of business eventually like that pony express as you cant compete with digital self sustaining and organizing distribution models using those old factory->shops->customer models… They are just too slow, expansive and restrictive on consumers.
this trial, TPB trial and all others like this are all being brought by the music/movie/copy-right industries for the same reasons and same motives. the reasons are that someone else thought of the ways to distribute files for free and developed the software required. the above industries do not like it because they do not own this software and have no say in how it is used. the motives are out and out greed and fear of being made redundant, as they should be, because they refuse to move with technology. if they controlled the software, they would control the downloads and be able to charge what they liked. they cant, so that is the whole matter, plain and simple!!
Let’s hope he wins this lawsuit and resumes his work on Omemo which looked pretty fine.
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Why do they never charge Colt or Heckler and Koch for producing guns? They are used to murder people!
^^
Just using music industry logic here ;).
@7 actually, back in the day radio stations and tv stations did get sued for playing music. That is until the music industry realized that they are powerful promotional tools.
This is just history repeating itself, just with a different medium. The recording industry has a long history of opposing new technologies, the problem is they never learn from their mistakes
unfair competition !?!? bit rich coming from them!
I just hope they didn’t buy that judge too.
It’s like suing the car industry because people are driving faster than allowed.
F!#¤%&/ morons!
Or sue gunmaking industry because people are robbing banks
I find it amusing and slightly ironic that the “creative” industry is showing NO creativity or imagination in trying to sort out the mess they are in!
What Im wondering is what does the EULA’s of his programs say. Easily something he could use in his defense if it says not to upload/download copyright content :). What a ridiculous accusation though…
Lol I used to love Blubster.
If these similar cases have already been thrown out by Spanish courts, surely there should be something to stop these labels wasting the courts time and taxpayers money.
Trials like this cost millions.
Good luck Pablo. I hope they don’t sue you for making your R2D2 tone publicly available in court without the author’s consent ;P
So if someone smashes a RIAA CD and uses the (sharp) broken plastic to mug some little old lady, that must be the RIAA’s fault, right?
THE FACT THAT THEY SUE THIS GUY FOR UNFAIR COMPETITION PROVES THAT THEY KNOW P2P IS A VIABLE BUSINESS MODEL.
Stupid shit heads just refuse to get over their cash-cow copyrights.
41 is bang on the money.
What a mess.
Going against p2p software developers, just like they did in Japan with the winny guy. Except, in Spain, the law is (was?) in favor of non profit copying, and they are already paying unfair “canon” on all blank media to help poor media industry…
Still, you can’t prosecute toolmakers because someone abuses a tool; but i guess money and corruption follows anywhere these parasitic American corporations go.
They hold an effective monopoly on the legal distribution of most music tracks and they sue other people for ‘unfair competition’? This is like Microsoft suing the company that makes the boxes Apple computers are delivered in…
I think all these “lost profits” the music industry is talking about is really just all the millions of dollars they spend on court costs to sue the people that listen to their music.
Well this just shows it’s not about the rule of law but how to maintain a monopoly at any cost :)
Those who doubt it just got slapped in the face with reality.
The way to help Mr. Soto is:
- Finding arguments that he could use in court to counterclaim those accusations although this will be a walk in the park if it’s just about the law but I fear it’s not about the law.
- Making very public the whole process and counting scores.
- Shrinking the appeal of the RIAA for the future generations going else where, where you can find what you want in the format you want this means using others services like Jamendo and Magnatune or using goole for “free music”, “open source music”, “independent music” and so on.
- Those who can should take a very close look at the RIAA and MPAA practices there is certainly irregularities and in the same way no citizen is capable of being complete inside the law companies too have a very hard time doing just that people can sue all over the world if they can find the weak spots.
- Boycott is another tool, don’t pay for it. I will suggest going to alternatives but if your heart desires grab what you like just don’t cry after, remember you have a choice here and until the laws change those choices can land you in trouble.
- I cant stress how much important is to organize people can do it in different forms donating time or money to local institutions or they can make their own small group and coordinate with other and with the internet coordination is a breeze we just don’t have the groups formed yet like local communities that have local forums. The key word here is “local”.
- Write your representatives in this case Spaniards should write their representatives and demand asnwers be educated and write until you get some concrete changes don’t write once and think you did your part it’s a process your letter it’s like water one drop will do nothing keep writing until something changes.
- If you think politics it’s the way and you think you have a chance be a candidate or vote for one I personally don’t think changes come from the political esphere the people compel governments to change they don’t do it on their own when they perceive no immediate threat.
- Campaign if you can, make public protests.
Not any of these things works alone, their are layers that together will active something.
Not music to my ears…Trying to download Bubster, i inherited instead of an ad site i could not get rid of for many hours and only after obtaining valuable informations on the net.
Spybot could not do nothing about it.
If you really want trouble, download Blubster.!
Man, I say LOL oops i suppose someone will sue me for using that acronym. Its all retarded. Oh i just offended mentally handicapped people, i suppose they will be suing me now. Like he said, its a TOOL, u cant blame him for what people do with it. I suppose u could speculate what ppl will do with it, but u ant control it.
in my 8 years working in favour of open knowledge, culture sharing and copyleft licenses (specially in music), declaring in favour of Pablo at trial is one of the things I feel more proud of.
We are going to f.u.c.k. these cabrones!!!
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