More than 100 leaked cables showed that the US had helped draft new Spanish copyright legislation and had heavily influenced the decisions of both the government and opposition.

Now, another diplomatic leak has revealed how the US voiced its anger towards outgoing President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero last month upon realizing that his government was unlikely to pass the US-drafted Sinde (site blocking) Law before leaving office.

In a letter dated December 12th and sent by US Ambassador Alan D. Solomont to the Spanish Prime Minister’s office, the US expressed “deep concern” over the failure to implement the SOPA-style censorship law.

“The government has unfortunately failed to finish the job for political reasons, to the detriment of the reputation and economy of Spain,” read the letter obtained by El Pais.

Racing against the clock in the final days of the government, Solomont had one last push.

“I encourage the Government of Spain to implement the Sinde Law immediately to safeguard the reputation of Spain as an innovative country that does what it says it will, and as a country that breeds confidence,” he wrote.

But along with the pleas came the stick.

In the letter, which was also sent to Minister of Culture Ángeles González-Sinde after whom the law is named, Solomont noted that Spain is already on the Special 301, the annual report prepared by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) detailing ‘trade barriers’ based on intellectual property issues.

Solomont’s threat was that should Spain not pass the Sinde Law (described by some as the Spanish SOPA) then the country would be degraded further and placed on the Priority Watch List. This serious step would mean that Spain was in breach of trade agreements and could be subjected to a range of “retaliatory actions”.

In the event Zapatero’s government left office without passing the law, but the incoming Partido Popular (People’s Party) were quickly pressured by the US to take the necessary action.

In another media leak it’s now been revealed that American Chamber of Commerce in Spain chief Jaime Malet wrote a cautionary letter to incoming Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy. He warned of the potential flight of foreign investment from Spain and urged him to take action on the protection of intellectual property once in office.

“[The law's] lack of approval before the elections has been a blow to the country’s seriousness in this matter of such importance,” said Malet, while urging Rajoy to “to retrieve the consensus reached.”

Rajoy’s government quickly responded and fully implemented the legislation within 10 days of taking office.

Source: US Threatened To Blacklist Spain For Not Implementing Site Blocking Law

This state of affairs led to huge pressure on Spain from the United States, and behind closed doors the two countries drafted new laws in preparation for a time when Spain was ready to clamp down on file-sharing. That time has come.

After taking power in mid-December, Spain’s incoming Partido Popular (People’s Party) government has now fully approved their pending Sustainable Economy Law (LES), legislation designed to stop Spanish Internet users from accessing file-sharing sites.

Deputy Prime Minister Maria Soraya Saenz de Santamaria announced at a press conference that the so-called Sinde Law, named after outgoing Minister of Culture Ángeles González-Sinde, will now be fully implemented.

The legislation, which will give the authorities the power to swiftly close file-sharing sites or have them blocked at the ISP level, was actually passed by the Spanish Parliament in February 2011, but the former government failed to enact a supporting regulatory framework and it has laid dormant since.

In her speech, Santamaria said that the new law’s objective was “to protect against the plundering of intellectual property rights” and to ensure that Spain “joined the international standard in the fight against online piracy.”

The decision on whether to shutter or block file-sharing sites will sit with the Intellectual Property Committee. This panel will have the power to take action against those providing illegal content and entities providing infrastructure, all within 10 days of a complaint by rightsholders.

Source: Website Blocking Law Implemented By New Spanish Government

In the United States, where diplomats helped to draft the Spanish legislation, several copyright holders have responded with delight at the passing of the law. However, according to the RIAA and the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), this is just the first step.

In their advice to the US Trade Representative the groups have included Spain in the Priority Watch List, the highest category for countries that are considered to be ‘piracy havens’. Spain is joined by other defiant states such as Canada, Russia and China, all countries that are labeled as a major threat to the US entertainment industries.

The recommendations of the RIAA will be considered by the US Trade Representative when it prepares its annual Special 301 Report. This report is meant to identify countries that obstruct or deny proper copyright enforcement, thereby hurting the profits of US industries. Last year Canada was also included (pdf) on the priority watch list, while Spain was placed a category lower on the regular watch list.

Despite the passing of the ‘Sinde law’ the RIAA and IIPA say that Spain should be listed on the priority watch list this year. The fact that file-sharing sites have been ruled as operating within the boundaries of the law is something that needs to be addressed in particular, the pair insist.

“The sky-high Internet piracy levels in Spain can be attributed to government policies that have created an Internet-wide safe harbor for infringing activities. Spanish enforcement authorities have established the de facto decriminalization of illegal downloading of content distributed via P2P file-sharing,” they argue.

Another issue that should be resolved is the lack of ability to identify and report copyright infringers. “Spain’s laws fail to meet the minimum requirements of the EU E-Commerce Directive regarding liability for ISPs, or to establish the necessary tools to obtain the identity of the direct infringer,” the groups add.

Aside from Spain, Canada is another candidate for the 2011 priority watch list. In a statement RIAA’s Neil Turkewitz specifically mentioned Canada’s slow progress on revising their copyright law..

“The Canadian Government has inexplicably consumed yet another year without modernizing its copyright regime, leaving a legal structure in place that is not adequate to respond to present challenges,” Turkewitz said.

The claimed result is that Canada is now one of the world’s true pirate havens. In their advice to the US Trade Representative RIAA and IIPA write the following.

“Canada is home to some of the world’s most popular illegitimate Internet sites, including illegitimate P2P download and streaming sites.”

“Canada is viewed as a country in which laws to address digital piracy are weak, ineffective or non-existent, and as a result many sites dedicated to piracy or information sources about them claim that locating or operating in Canada is to their advantage because their services are legal in Canada.”

“Canada has been home to the operators or hosts of five of the world’s top ten pirate BitTorrent sites, and it continues to be a major source of online theft in Canada and around the world.”

Although the latter statistic is open to interpretation, the RIAA and IIPA urge the US Government to include Canada, Spain and 11 other countries on the priority watch list of the 2011 Special 301 Report. In a few weeks we will learn to what extent the advice of the US copyright industry has been heeded.

Source: RIAA Labels Spain and Canada As Piracy Havens

As a result the Spanish Government proposed new legislation last year under which sites offering links to copyright works could be taken offline without a judicial order. This could potentially shut down all the major file-sharing sites, and is generally seen by the public as a plain act of Internet censorship.

This legislation, an amendment which is part of the Sustainable Economy Law (LES), was drafted by Minister of Culture Ángeles González-Sinde with help the United States Government. The proposed legislation, also known as ‘The Sinde Act’, has been widely protested by the public and last month these protests resulted in a major victory for those who are against the legislation.

After a lengthy debate the House of Representatives decided to adopt the Sustainable Economy Law, but reject the controversial amendment. This meant the law would go to the Senate without the amendment, but yesterday this turned out to be idle hope.

Just hours before the deadline to submit new amendments passed, a coalition of The Socialist Party (PSOE), the People’s Party (PP) and Convergence and Union (CiU) reintroduced ‘The Sinde Act’ with some minor changes. This decision comes after several weeks of meetings behind closed doors between the involved parties.

The new and revised version of the legislation has been changed on a few points, but the main goal still stands. It will make it easier for the authorities to shutdown P2P sites and others that facilitate copyright infringement. The proposal will be voted on by the Senate in the coming weeks.

The major change compared to the previous version is that the new Sinde Act will allow for more “judicial control”, which in reality means that a judge has to sign off on a request to hand over the details of a website owner. However, there is no judge required to determine whether a site is “infringing copyrights” or not.

Today the Spanish news is dominated with hundreds of reports on the new legislation and the reactions from the public are not mild. The majority of Internet users and many artists disapprove of the new legislation, and even the President of the Academy of Cinema, Álex de la Iglesia, criticized it as “a law that does not suit anybody.”

“It would have been better to start from scratch. It is a law that from the beginning has been very unpopular,” De la Iglesia added. Minister of Culture Ángeles González-Sinde did not want to respond to this critique and said the law promotes “innovation” and poses no threat to the Internet at all.

The law will now be sent to the Senate in a few weeks where it’s expected to be passed through easily by the three parties who approved it yesterday. However, the public is not yet giving up yet, and major off- and online protests are currently being planned. No doubt that we will hear more about this in the near future.

Source: Law to Shutdown P2P Sites Resurrected By Spanish Coalition

The legislation, an amendment which is part of the Sustainable Economy Law (LES), was drafted by Minister of Culture Ángeles González-Sinde and assisted by the United States Government. However, in recent months the proposed legislation, also known as ‘The Sinde Act’, has been widely protested by the public.

In a final attempt to get the amendment rejected, the country’s leading file-sharing sites went down voluntarily this week. Just hours later it became apparent that the public protests had not been in vain.

After a lengthy debate the House of Representatives decided to adopt the Sustainable Economy Law, but reject the controversial amendment. The law will now go to the Senate without the amendment that would allow for the shutdown of P2P sites.

This decision of the House of Representatives was celebrated as a clear victory for the public.

“The will of the people has put an end to the pressure imposed by lobbyists, embassies and foreign governments on our representatives.” the association of Internet users wrote in a response to the good news.

“And this victory has shown something else: that democracy and the rule of law are not guaranteed. They must be earned every day and minute by minute, because if people are not concerned to defend these things, nobody will do it for them,” the association added.

Representatives of the entertainment industries have voiced their disappointment in the press. The president of anti-piracy organization Promusicae regretted the decision of the Government and said that the creative industry has been left for dead, while file-sharing ‘thieves’ get protection.

For the Minister of Culture, the failure to get the amendment approved may have some serious consequences. Both the entertainment industries and people on the pro-filesharing side have already called for the resignation of Ángeles González-Sinde.

Source: Spain Rejects Proposed Legislation to Shutdown P2P Sites

In an attempt to change this situation, the Spanish Government has been working on new legislation under which sites offering links to copyright works could be taken offline within days of a complaint.

The change in law has been pushed for by the entertainment industries that claim to be hit hard by rampant piracy in Spain. The piracy rate has reached a level where movie companies are even considering putting a halt to selling DVDs in Spain, claiming that it’s just not worth the effort because piracy is baked into Spain’s culture.

Indeed, many Spaniards consider casual downloading of copyrighted music and movies as an acquired right and thus far they have had the law on their side. Even if the newly proposed anti-piracy legislation passes, it is highly doubtful that downloading habits will change. At the Ministry of Culture, where the new legislation is being prepared, employees are still downloading as if nothing is about to change.

Data gathered by the Spanish TV-channel VEO 7 revealed that at the Ministry of Culture, several employees have been downloading music and TV-series without consent from the copyright holders.

According to the report, the Ministries of Defense and Education are the most active file-sharers, with employees using file-sharing applications to download erotic calendars, music, movies and lots of other goods.

In other Government bodies staff members have also been caught red-handed while sharing copyrighted files, including the Presidency where a brain training game was downloaded without authorization.

The embarrassing revelations come from Angel Badia, a Houston based ‘hacker’ who decided to prove what many people suspected all along. Badia identified the ministries by the IP-addresses that are publicly displayed in most file-sharing applications.

Badia’s data shows that it will be hard to deter Spaniards from sharing files through new legislation. If even the people who are trying to get the new law implemented can’t break with their habit, how can they expect that the public will?

Source: Piracy Rampant Among Spanish Government Officials

It comes as no surprise that the new legislation has been met with firm opposition from the public. They are now joined by Professor Pablo Fernández and Professor Michele Boldrin, who have published a report arguing that the new law might do more harm than good.

The report, published by the economy research center FEDEA, harshly criticizes the Government’s plans to clamp down on the file-sharing public. They say that the current proposals are a “useless and an ineffective way to defend the artists because it is already an ancient form of fighting piracy.”

According to professors Fernandez and Boldrin, the proposed legislation only benefits the major labels and artists “at the expense of users and lesser-known artists.” They further say that it would be more effective for the entertainment industry to explore new business models instead of clinging to an old model that has proven to be ineffective.

“The Internet has changed the playing field and there are new rules that would allow a substantial reduction in property rights,” Professor Pablo Vazquez said commenting on the report. The researchers therefore advise the Government to stop its war on piracy and come up with legislation that would allow for reduced copyright terms .

In their report the professors rightfully argue that the Internet has drastically changed the way users interact with media. If tougher anti-piracy legislation is implemented, digital innovation may be hampered due to unnecessary restrictions on Internet use.

Under the current laws Spanish citizens are allowed to share copyrighted files for non-commercial use. Websites that offer links to copyrighted files are also acting within the boundaries of the law as long as they do not profit directly from infringements.

Source: Economists Urge Government to Stop War on Piracy

Under the new law, a newly formed Intellectual Property Commission will file complaints with a judge, who will then have to decide within four days whether or not a site should be pulled offline. The law is the result of an extensive lobby from the entertainment industries who have criticized Spain’s lenient stance towards file-sharing sites.

The Government’s plans have been met with firm opposition from the public. Critics of the new legislation are outraged and argue that it represents a violation of individual Internet users’ rights.

“Copyright should not be placed above citizens’ fundamental rights to privacy, security, presumption of innocence, effective judicial protection and freedom of expression,” wrote a group of activists recently in a response manifesto on the rights of Internet users.

Initially, the proposed legislation would allow for the closure of file-sharing sites without a warrant or judicial oversight. In the latest plans a judge does have to review the takedown request to guarantee that no fundamental rights are violated.

Although the new text has improved, there are still many critics who claim that no websites should be taken offline without going through all the judicial steps to actually confirm that they operate illegally.

Tomorrow, a group of bloggers, experts, and activists will meet in Madrid to coordinate actions to defend civil rights on the Internet. Many feel that the new legislation has been fast-tracked after pressure from the US and local entertainment industry lobbyists, without carefully reviewing the implications it has for the public.

Source: Spain Fast Tracks P2P Site Shutdowns

It comes as no surprise that the announcement has been met with firm opposition from activists and hacktivists, who quickly organized several protests. Two weeks ago someone defaced the site of a local anti-piracy outfit, replacing it with a manifesto on the rights of Internet users.

Today, the group ‘Hacktivistas’ launches yet another campaign protesting against Spanish Government plans. The campaign is titled La Lista de Sinde, which is a reference to the Spanish title of the movie Schindler’s List and a direct response to the ‘list’ of 200 file-sharing sites that the major royalties collection societies presented to the Ministry of Industry recently.

The campaign website allows the public to embed a search box on their own website, turning it into a ‘file-sharing’ search engine. Users can choose a box that searches the BitTorrent site isoHunt, or one that uses a customized Google search engine that indexes many file-sharing sites.

For their part, Hacktivistas will then make a list of all the ‘sinning’ sites who use the embed code that they offer. Once this list is long enough it will also be sent to the Ministry of Industry with a clear message, along the lines of: ‘You’ll have to go after all of us.’

“The goal of this action is to tell the Government: ‘if you are going to close 200 sites, here are another 200,000 – you will have to shut the whole Internet down!’ It is a strategy of massive social disobedience,” a member of Hacktivistas told TorrentFreak.

“We hope that this action raises even more awareness and the Government steps back. If they don’t and the law is finally approved, we will ask them to prosecute us. We’re confident that a situation were the Government has to close thousands of websites won’t be sustainable for them,” the Hacktivist added.

Those who want to participate in the campaign can grab the code on La Lista de Sinde.

Source: Hacktivists Protest Proposed Shutdown of P2P Sites

The new Sustainable Economy Law, sponsored by President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, includes draft amendments to legislation “to protect intellectual property against piracy on the Internet”.

The proposals will add to the country’s current ‘information society services’ legislation. Article 8.1 already allows for restricting access to the Internet on several grounds – protecting public order, a criminal investigation, national security, protection of public health, protecting personal dignity, anti-discrimination and the protection of children.

It is proposed that new grounds for disconnection will be added to “safeguard intellectual property rights”. This will hand “competent bodies” the authority to require Internet service providers to supply information on customers who are deemed to be breaching copyright.

El Pais reports that there will not be an emphasis on disconnecting individual Internet users, but instead the focus will be on sites providing links to copyright works, of which there are several hundred in Spain.

In a statement, Spain’s Minister for Culture, Ángeles González-Sinde, said that sites offering links to copyright works could be taken offline without a judicial order, an announcement which has met with firm opposition from activists.

While González-Sinde denied yesterday that individual Internet users could have their connections disconnected, there are conflicting reports that the government could add a further amendment to the Sustainable Economy Law to allow for such disconnections under the supervision of a court.

Source: Spain Mulls Legislation To Shutdown File-Sharing Sites

With no legal basis, ISPs were extremely reluctant to comply, so government-mandated talks on the issue came to an end. On this particular battle, at least for the time being, the Coalition had to concede defeat, but they weren’t about to give up on the war.

Since it could not force sanctions on the end users, the Coalition – which includes the likes of Promusicae and SGAE – began to focus on Spain’s BitTorrent sites. In his first public appearance as Coalition president, Aldo Olcese noted there were 200 of them, up from 70 in just a few months.

However, as we mentioned in our earlier report, the Coalition’s ability to deal with these sites in the current climate is limited. Spanish courts have ruled time and again that if profits aren’t made directly from copyright infringements, BitTorrent sites are perfectly legal. Add this to the Chief Prosecutor’s May 2006 official instruction that effectively decriminalized non-commercial file-sharing, and the Coalition have an even steeper mountain to climb.

According to a new report, yesterday the names of the 200 sites were handed to the Spanish industry minister following the presentation of a report called Parasites’ Business (video below in Spanish), which was made jointly by the Coalition and CoPeerRight, who claim to be the world’s ‘premier’ anti-piracy company.

Coalition president Olcese pointed out the difficulties his group faces, describing Spain as a “piracy paradise” with “no legal, civil or administrative measures in place to combat this problem.”

CoPeerRight then gave a presentation based on its own research which it says shows that the average Spanish pirate web site can earn an absolutely astonishing €1.5 million ($2.2 million) a year in revenue, this based on an average of 150,000 users each, with some of them drawing 4 million unique visitors in a single month.

However, as we highlighted earlier, pure BitTorrent and other similar ‘linking’ sites do not profit directly from infringements, which means they are entirely legal. The Coalition hopes to be instrumental in changing this position.

Last week the Spanish government announced the creation of a commission to consider legislation to deal with the issue of copyright infringement. Coalition president Olcese told Billboard that he believes “there is a correlation between the setting up of this commission, with the fact the Spain’s assumes the six-month presidency of the European Union next January 1, and with the improved relationship between the leaders of the Spanish and U.S. governments”.

Indeed, earlier this year a very impatient US government growing tired with what it sees as a total lack of inaction on the issue, said that part of Spain’s “priority action” to decrease online piracy should include an agreement between ISPs and copyright holders to prevent infringing content being available on the Internet – code for “3 strikes”, a measure that not even the US has implemented.

While that option has disappeared, last week saw Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero make his first visit to the White House in his six years in office – the first by a Spanish leader since the country’s 2004 Iraq pullout, an event which didn’t go down well with the US. Zapatero is now offering to assist with the closure of Guantanamo Bay, a sign that relations are beginning to warm.

It seems now that the only savior of the Coalition and its partners will be a change in the law, but Coalition president Olcese couldn’t resist mixing up terms in order to create the impression that the 200 BitTorrent sites are currently illegal.

“We gave the government last April our proposals to establish an official register of legal Web sites and act against illegal sites. When we meet the commission, we shall reiterate our position,” he said.

Illegal is not the same as unauthorized or unofficial, as much as the Coalition would like it to be so.

Source: Anti-Piracy Group Aims For Huge BitTorrent Site Purge

Making their usual demands, the Spanish entertainment industry under the umbrella group ‘Coalition of Creators and Content Industries’ had said that they would only settle for a “3 strikes and you’re out” regime to deal with piracy. The ISPs understandably didn’t like the idea much, and despite government mandated talks they couldn’t come to an agreement and the negotiations ended.

Now, according to a report, the Coalition of Creators and Content Industries has accepted that they will not get a “3 strikes” scheme passed in Spain, particularly since the proposals do not have the support of the government.

Instead of disconnections, the Coalition, which includes the likes of Promusicae and SGAE is now aiming to slow down the Internet connection for alleged infringers, but it seems very unlikely that this proposal will be accepted either.

So, having failed to close down file-sharing sites, given up and gone after users instead – failed and gone after the ISPs to go after the users for them and failed again, it’s back to the old school for the Spanish anti-pirates.

In his first public appearance as Coalition president, Aldo Olcese said his group would now concentrate on taking down the country’s BitTorrent trackers instead. Olcese claims there are now 200 torrent sites in Spain, up from 70 just a few months ago.

Adding that the Coalition was still gathering information on the sites, Olcese said he would reveal their names shortly. However, it’s far from clear what his outfit can do.

The reason there has been such a growth in torrent sites in Spain is because the local courts have ruled time and again that if profits aren’t made directly from copyright infringements, BitTorrent sites are perfectly legal.

So, until Spain rescinds the Chief Prosecutor’s May 2006 official instruction that effectively decriminalized file-sharing, that will remain the case.

The news will not be well received in the United States government, which recently said that part of Spain’s “priority action” to decrease piracy should include an agreement between ISPs and copyright holders to prevent infringing content being available on the Internet.

According to the US such agreements should include “the immediate and effective implementation of graduated response [3 strikes] procedures.” An interesting demand from a foreign government, especially since the United States itself doesn’t have any 3-strikes legislation for illicit file-sharers.

Source: No “3 Strikes” in Spain, Watch Out Torrent Sites

The coalition, headed by SGAE and Promusicae, took the now-common stance of demanding that ISPs implement a “3 strikes” strategy for alleged online pirates, but this was rightly dismissed by the ISPs. The rights holders then came back with a new demand to throttle alleged file-sharers instead. The ISPs refused this request too.

According to Canalejo, the other major reason why negotiations broke down was the failure of the content providers to provide an attractive legal alternative to illicit file-sharing. “Piracy is not a phenomenon that must be pursued and demonized,” he said, while branding the currently provided legal alternatives as “derisory”.

To reduce piracy, the ISPs made the suggestion to the Ministry of Industry that it should create a portal to offer music, movies and games.

“Content providers should have a more entrepreneurial approach. They are defending a traditional distribution model and we’re creating a new business,” said Canalejo.

Noting that any changes should come through awareness and education, Canalejo said that negotiations with rights holder could only resume when the government becomes open about its plans for measures against file-sharing, adding that any measures must “protect Internet users and give legal certainty to ISPs.”

Source: ISPs End Anti-Piracy Talks With Entertainment Industry

Now, the leader of Spain’s Popular Party (Partido Popular), Mariano Rajoy, is warning Spaniards that Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) may try to implement a French-style “3 strikes” regime for alleged file-sharers.

At a rally held in the Prince Felipe Auditorium in Oviedo to promote the European Parliament elections, Rajoy raised questions over the tax currently paid by everyone on devices such as computers, hard drives, blank media, CDs and DVDs etc, which should be divided between all artists but is actually going mainly to the big ones.

On the ’3 strikes’ issue, Rajoy asked the gathered crowds if it would be acceptable to stop people from using the Internet because a government agency (at the behest of the entertainment industries) says so – is this what the young people want?

Rajoy is clearly against such punitive measures and announced that if Zapatero or anyone else tries to bring in something akin to Sarkozy’s ’3 Strikes’ HADOPI law, he will be strongly against it.

“If someone takes this decision,” he said, “we’ll oppose it and go to the courts.”

In response PSOE candidate for the European Parliament, Iratxe García, said that PSOE is an overwhelming supporter of Internet user’s rights.

“PSOE doesn’t support or accept measures or laws like the ones in France,” she said adding, “We are voting in favor of keeping telecommunication interventions in the hands of judges and not by any other administrative authority.”

Source: Political Leader Threatens Court Action Over P2P “3 Strikes”

The judge acknowledged that the man indeed downloaded the files “without consent of the copyright holders” in 2003 and 2004, but ruled that he only did so for for “private use or sharing with other Internet users.” There was no financial gain, so no crime has been committed and the defendant walked free.

This is not the first time a Spanish court has ruled in favor of a file-sharer. In 2006, a man was similarly acquitted, and more recently it was ruled that websites linking to p2p downloads (torrents for example) operate within the law. Spanish law dictates that there has to be “an intent to profit” for someone to be held liable for copyright infringement.

Not everyone agrees with Spain’s liberal view on copyright infringement. According to the US, the Spanish government has done little “to change the widespread misperception in Spain that peer-to-peer file-sharing is legal.” However, as the courts show time and time again, this is no misperception – it is how the law spells it out.

Since sharing files on BitTorrent and other file-sharing networks is legal, it is no surprise that Spain tops the list of countries with the most recorded copyright infringements. Close to 25 million were counted by the piracy tracking company BayTSP in 2008, mostly on BitTorrent.

Source: Downloading 3322 Copyrighted Movies is Okay in Spain

Yesterday things took a turn for the sinister. At around 12:00 noon and after a sleepless night, Juan heard a knock at his door and upon answering it he saw five people standing there who gave no other explanation who they were, other than they were from the court. They gave Juan documentation that he didn’t fully comprehend and gave him the impression that they had a warrant to enter his home and make an inspection of his computers and hard drives.

It appears they came looking for the stats from Elitemula and Etmusica which reflect the downloads of music made via links on those sites between September and December 2007.

Juan explains, “They entered my house and I called them to show them where the computers were in the house. I showed them my personal laptop, but they insisted on seeing them all, including my brother’s.”

This wasn’t enough for the unexpected visitors who proceeded to enter every room in the house and even opened up some cardboard boxes in Juan’s bedroom which merely contained personal family belongings.

“A man who identified himself as a ‘computer expert’ reviewed the contents of my personal computers and then tried to access my brother’s computer,” Juan explained. However, since the laptop was password protected the ‘expert’ prompted Juan to provide the password, which he couldn’t since he didn’t know it. After a telephone call to Juan’s brother which understandably worried him, he handed over the password which allowed the ‘expert’ to make a detailed investigation of the laptop. They went on to examine several other hard drives.

After the five individuals had been inside for two hours, Juan finally managed to get lawyer David Bravo on the telephone who, along with Javier de la Cueva, recently defended P2P developer Pablo Soto. David asked Juan to read out the order which supposedly allowed these individuals to enter his home and search it.

Over the telephone, David Bravo confirmed that the text of the order did not authorize entry to Juan’s house or examination of hardware held there. Understandably concerned, Juan asked David to demand that the five people in his home identify themselves.

The first man was a lawyer for Spanish music rights/anti-piracy group SGAE, the second a SGAE computer expert, another a clerk and others unidentified.

At this point David Bravo told Juan to order the individuals out of his home and demanded that they leave all of his property intact. After a long conversation where the SGAE lawyer tried to convince that seizure of hard drives was allowed, David Bravo urged him to leave Juan’s home immediately.

David Bravo gave Juan instructions on how to proceed and offered to appear before the courts as a witness to what had happened. Javier de la Cueva, David’s partner, told TorrentFreak that he will be representing Juan.

In the end the five left Juan’s house and left the hard drives behind, although Juan voluntarily allowed them to take a laptop.

As soon as we have more on this story we will publish an update.

Source: Anti-Piracy Group Raids P2P Admin’s House Without Warrant

Of course, as far as the United States and its piracy watch-lists go, this is an unacceptable situation and one which needs to be changed as quickly as possible.

According to the United States, Spain has one of the worst file-sharing “problems” in the world. The US claims it is consistently among the top five worst countries in terms of overall downloads and that it regularly takes the top position for movie downloads per capita. The MPA(A), who can hardly be trusted to report unbiased stats, says movie downloads by Spanish citizens reached 350 million in 2008.

While video game publishers claim that 50 million games were downloaded illegally last year, it is the music industry that says it suffers most from file-sharing in Spain, claiming that users downloaded around 2 billion tracks in 2008, up 80% compared to 2007. This is blamed mainly on BitTorrent and eDonkey sharing, but there was also a reported increase in sharing via Rapidshare-like file-hosting sites. According to figures cited by the report, 67% of all Spanish Internet users download unauthorized content, raising to 81% in the under 24 years old group.

Of course, the Spanish authorities have taken action against various torrent and sharing sites in the past, but because of Spain’s laws, the prosecution has failed to gain any significant convictions – the admins, as in the case of Sharemula, simply walk. Under Spanish law there is no infringement and this situation, says the US, means that rights holders don’t have the weaponry to go after ‘infringers’. Obama wants to change all that.

The US charges that the Spanish government has done little “to change the widespread misperception in Spain that peer-to-peer file sharing is legal,” referring to the 2006 “decriminalization” notification from the Office of the Prosecutor-General as “problematic”.

Of course, no article on bringing in tougher restrictions on file-sharing would be complete without the obligatory calls for pirates to be disconnected, and the Special 301 Report doesn’t disappoint. The United States says that part of Spain’s “priority action” should include an agreement between ISPs and copyright holders to prevent infringing content being available on the Internet and should include “the immediate and effective implementation of graduated response [3 strikes] procedures.”

If the law doesn’t currently allow such action, the US advises Spain it should takes steps to change it, including rescinding the Chief Prosecutor’s May 2006 official instruction that effectively decriminalized file-sharing.

Source: Obama Wants Spain to Ban BitTorrent Sites

The copyright holders, the Coalition of Creators represented by the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE), wanted the ISPs to charge their customers extra to cover alleged losses from their activities on P2P networks. Eduardo Bautista, SGAE’s president, recently said that it is the ISPs “civic duty” to cooperate. Unsurprisingly, he also wants repeat infringers to be disconnected from the web.

The mobile operators on the receiving end of these demands – Ono, Orange, Telefónica, Vodafone – can’t reach an agreement with the copyright holders on how to move forward, which is hardly a surprise considering what is being asked of them.

Bautista said he wants to find a solution to the online piracy problem so it remains profitable for authors and publishers to carry on their work. He called on the government to respond “smarter” to the problem. “You can not create a business leaving out the first link,” he said.

The two groups will now present separate proposals to the government. Internet users or consumer groups were not represented in these discussions.

Source: ISPs and Copyright Holders Fail to Reach Piracy Agreement

InfoPSP didn’t host any illicit content itself but instead offered links to video games, movies and music hosted on 3rd party sites. In Spain, merely linking to copyright works is not illegal. InfoPSP carried advertising and it was widely reported in the Spanish media that this was the reason the admin, Adrián Gómez Llorente, aka Kuve, was found guilty and sentenced to fines and 6 months in jail. However, in the murky world of copyright infringement, it’s no surprise to discover that all is not as it seems.

In September 2008 we reported on the case of Sharemula, a site which offered eDonkey links to movies, music, software and games. Just like InfoPSP, Sharemula found itself the subject of legal action but eventually the admins were found not guilty, since they had not carried out copyright infringement for profit. Here’s the strange part though – Sharemula DID carry advertising, just like InfoPSP.

Seeking clarification, TorrentFreak contacted the offices of David Bravo, a Spanish lawyer who specializes in intellectual property rights. According to Spanish law, the reason why the Sharemula admins were acquitted was because in order to have committed a crime, direct profit must’ve been made from the actual dissemination of the copyright works. Since the site carried only links, any dissemination was carried out by the site’s users and not the site itself. In short, no crime was committed on Sharemula and bizarrely, no crime was committed on InfoPSP either.

So it begs the question; how on earth did the admin of InfoPSP get found guilty of criminal copyright infringement and sentenced to 6 months jail and fines of 4,900 euros?

The answer lies, unsurprisingly, with the complainants in the case – the Spanish Association of Publishers and Distributors Entertainment Software (ADESE) and the Spanish Videographic Union (UVE). Of course, file-sharing site admins being protected under Spanish law is the last thing these groups need. What they actually need is someone’s severed head displayed prominently on a pike in order to deter others, and a widely-reported 6 month jail sentence is ideal for reaching this aim.

To get the truth, lawyer David Bravo conducted an interview with KUVE, the convicted InfoPSP admin, which shines an awful lot of light on this issue – and pretty shocking it is too. First off David asked Kuve if he’d ever carried any copyright material on the InfoPSP server;

“Absolutely not. The web server contained only the files needed for the operation of the forum,” explained Kuve. “Under no circumstances did we ever host any copyrighted works.”

David then asked Kuve if it was true that InfoPSP simply displayed links which were supplied by users of the site. “Indeed, the website was a forum where users could share a link to a file,” Kuve replied. “These links were torrents, hosting servers or file upload sites like Megaupload, Gigasize, Rapidshare etc.”

Kuve then went on to explain that he and his lawyer understood that all ongoing trials against similar sites (such as Sharemula) were resolved in the favor of the sites in the criminal courts. However, the threat of being chased by the complainants for damages through the civil courts was very real and the costs associated with this would have been too much for Kuve to cope with.

So a deal was done. Kuve would admit to being a criminal and accept the court’s decision with the assurance that he wouldn’t be chased through the civil courts by the plaintiffs. Kuve and his lawyer decided that it would make sense, financially at least.

“I am a student and therefore do not have the financial resources needed to hire a defense expert that could ensure results in the trial. Besides, continuing with the trial meant that the civil courts could convict me and I would be forced to pay financial compensation which I couldn’t cope with,” said Kuve.

“I would have loved to defend my interests to the end and it is for this that I wish all the people in my situation who can afford to stay and fight for something that affects us all, the best of luck.”

“The real news here is that a person has been found guilty of something that was not an offense under 100% of the judges who had resolved earlier identical cases,” says a concerned David Bravo.

Javier de la Cueva, a lawyer working with David, told TorrentFreak something that will be of interest to lawyers representing admins like Kuve in the future. Javier and David maintain a repository relating to Spanish court decisions on hyperlinking and release these documents under a CC-By License.

Thanks to this repository, any lawyer in Spain can use the documents to defend similar cases. The documents have already enabled lawyer Franciso José Andújar to successfully defend TVMix.

Source: File-Sharing Admin Convicted For Crime He Didn’t Commit

Yesterday, Spanish Criminal Court No.1 made its decision in the case of file-sharing site infopsp.com. According to the complainants – Spanish Association of Publishers and Distributors Entertainment Software (ADESE) and the Spanish Videographic Union (UVE) – the site, which had around 17,300 members, operated illegally.

The site didn’t host any illicit content itself but instead offered links to video games, movies and music hosted on 3rd party sites. Under Spanish law, so far so good. However, in order to stay legal in Spain, the site needed to demonstrate it was not profiting from copyright infringement – this is where it all fell apart.

The court heard that the site carried advertising from Impresiones Web, Google Adsense, Canalmail and Correodirect and also gained revenue via premium SMS. According to the court, this turned the site from a legal entity into one profiting from copyright infringement – a criminal offense.

The judge handed 22 year-old site administrator Adrián Gómez Llorente a total fine of 4,900 euros ($6,500) which includes compensation for the complainants. Llorente was also sentenced to 6 months jail but it’s unlikely he will serve this since he doesn’t have an existing criminal record. It is believed that this is the first conviction of its type in Spain. Neither party intend to appeal.

ADESE President Alberto Gonzalez Lorca said of the decision, “This ruling is a very important precedent for the videogame industry which is at the forefront of creating jobs and wealth even in a financial crisis, but is helpless against a problem as serious as piracy.”

The big question now is how a court would view donations given to torrent sites. We’ve already seen the police in the UK call voluntary donations “subscriptions” in the OiNK case. Time will tell how a Spanish court will view them.

Source: File-Sharing Site Admin Sentenced to 6 Months Jail

The SGAE is the main collecting agency for performance royalties, which it then distributes to artists and copyright holders. Sometimes it goes that ‘extra mile’ to enforce these royalties, as it did in 2005.

The SGAE hired a private investigator to gatecrash a wedding reception in Seville and video it. The video was to be used as evidence that the venue was playing music without paying the fees SGAE felt it should. However, when the case came to trial, the judge threw out the video evidence as it was collected illegally, in violation of the privacy rights of the people at the event. Despite the loss of the taped evidence, the venue was fined €43,179 ($59,200 US) for using the music without paying royalties.

However, that story had a happy ending of sorts. The SGAE was later fined €60,101 ($82,400 US) for the violation of privacy. Excluding court costs, that’s a €16,992 loss for the SGAE, as well as the bad publicity it generated. Yet, in the world of copyright enforcement, if there is weight to be thrown around and fees to collect, it will be done. The head of the SGAE, Pedro Farre, is reported in The Times as saying “Using private detectives to investigate fraud is common. We will carry on doing it.”

The agency was also critical over the ruling that his agency violated the wedding’s intimacy, saying in 2006 that any questions over the legality of the video were “demagogic arguments”, and that the issue should be that the venue was using music illegally, not the legality of the evidence.

Now, in 2008 another similar case is reaching the courts. This time, instead of having a private detective recording the wedding, a tape the SGAE says they obtained from a legitimate attendee will be presented as evidence. Again, at issue is the privacy of the wedding – there is a constitutional right in Spain to one’s own image – which might still invalidate the video. Those at the wedding, after all, have no impact over the venue’s decision regarding licensing, and it’s their right to privacy that the venue’s lawyer, JoaquÍn Moeckel, says is being violated in the case against the Salón de Bodas.

Source: ‘Wedding Crashing’ Royalty Collector Continues to Break the Law

In an attempt to prove the opposite, however, a group of Spanish free-culture supporters organized a demonstration on the doorstep of one of the leading political parties in Spain. The two groups, Compartir es Bueno (Sharing is good) and Hacktivistas (Hacktivists) gathered in front of the headquarters of the socialist party yesterday, where they fired up their P2P clients and started sharing copyrighted material. The police were notified beforehand about the demonstration, and were present. No arrests have been made though, as expected.

The demonstration, which was covered by several of the leading news outlets in Spain, was organized in response to the growing propaganda and power of entertainment industry lobbyists. Like many other countries, Spain is mulling a three-strikes proposal that would give the entertainment industry the right to disconnect alleged sharers of copyrighted material. This, despite the fact that sharing copyrighted material for non-commercial use is not against the law in Spain.

Previous court cases have confirmed that this is the case. In 2006, a judge ruled that a man who downloaded and shared copyrighted music was not breaking any laws since the man’s intent wasn’t to make money. More recently, a court ruled that a site providing links to P2P downloads is operating within the law.

The protesters proved this once again by sharing copyrighted material on the doorstep of the socialist party, in front of the police. The demonstration was successful, as Hacktivistas report on their website “We have shown it once more: downloading copyrighted files from a p2p network is legal in Spain, as long as it isn’t done for profit.”

Source: Spanish ‘Pirates’ Share Files on Government Doorstep

According to Spanish police, the site caused the entertainment industries 535,000 euros in losses and made 30,000 euros in profits. Unfortunately the authorities didn’t have the benefit of foresight, which would’ve given them an understanding of how Spanish law would deal with a site that links to copyright infringing material.

In September 2008, a Spanish court ruled that providing links to copyrighted material is not a crime. The Provincial Court of Madrid ruled that Sharemula.com, a site offering eDonkey links to movies, music, software and games, did not break the law. Furthermore, the court’s decision was final and could not be appealed.

If the ruling in the Sharemula case holds up, this means that TodoTorrente was not breaking the law either. Lawyer David Bravo who was involved in the TodoTorrente case, has contacted TorrentFreak with an update on the TodoTorrente situation. David notes that the coverage of the TodoTorrente raids and arrests had a great impact in the Spanish media, and further afield.

Of particular interest was a gloating editorial which published in Portal Latino, which claimed that TodoTorrente wasn’t “kids playing on a network” but an “illegal business”, and celebrated the closure. David explains that the media uproar this caused left little room for the arrested admins to be considered innocent until proven guilty.

However, after an application was made to Magistrate’s Court No.3 in Orihuela, it has now issued an interim order of dismissal of the case against TodoTorrente. The court decided that the site or admins didn’t commit any crime “since the investigation showed that the website was limited to providing links to downloads and didn’t offer downloads directly.”

Essentially, the court has decided that TodoTorrente operated in a similar manner to Sharemula. The decision is open to appeal, but there is no doubt that BitTorrent sites are getting closer to legality in Spain.

Source: BitTorrent Sites Step Closer to Legality in Spain

“CLOSED BY JUDICIAL ORDER”

According to the Police, todotorrente.com was responsible for more than 500,000 € in losses to copyright holders, while the site itself made more than 30,000 € in profits. Numbers that can’t be backed up by any evidence of course, but we’re used to that.

Todotorrente.com was not the only site affected by the raids. In addition, the police took down trackertdt.com, a sister site of todotorrente.com. Gamesfive.net, another sister site, now redirects to blackdivx.org.

This is not the first time that Spanish authorities take action against BitTorrent sites. Last year, 15 administrators of BitTorrent and eDonkey sites were arrested, in the largest P2P raid in Spanish history. Most of the sites that were shut down last year (17 in total) remain unavailable up until today, however, pctorrent.com now redirects to newpct.com, one of the largest BitTorrent sites in Spain.

A bittersweet week for Spanish pirates.

Source: BitTorrent Sites Shut Down, Admins Arrested

Kokott, top legal adviser to the European Union’s highest Court said that while it is a requirement for ISP’s to divulge personal details in criminal cases, the law does not have the power to force them to disclose the same in a civil case. In Europe, the personal, non-commerical sharing of copyright works is a civil issue.

The statement was issued to help judges come to a decision in the case involving Promusicae – a Spanish music industry organisation – and Telefonica, Spain’s biggest ISP. Promusicae sued Telefonica after they refused to reveal the identities of some of its customers who were accused of swapping copyright music using the file-sharing software, KaZaA. If it had been successful, Promusicae would have used the information to take legal action against those it accuses of sharing music to which it holds the rights.

Telefonica appears to have successfully argued that the law only required it to reveal the identities of those accused of a criminal offense and that sharing of music was a civil issue.

Juliane Kokott’s advice will be reviewed by the judges and a ruling will be issued later on in the year. According to a report, the judges ‘follow their advisers opinions about 80% of the time.’

Earlier this year, UK law firm Davenport Lyons successfully obtained the identities of hundreds of people it claimed had infringed its client’s copyrights by sharing the game Dream Pinball. It remains to be seen if today’s legal advice will affect those who have already had their details handed over.

Source: Major Victory Within Reach For European File-Sharers

The national news agency is reporting that this is the first such ruling in Spain. The law in Spain dictates that there needs to be “an intent to profit”, for someone to be held liable for copyright violation. A few years ago, the recording industry tried to sue 4,000 filesharers in Spain on the grounds that “intent to save money” is the same as “intent to profit.”

It seems like Spain is one country that’s really standing up and saying ‘no’ to what they think isn’t right. A Spanish Senator is suggesting that the law firm broke the law by “intercepting private communications” without a court order. The firm replied by saying that by using “older P2P software” the names of the files traded and IP addresses were publicly available to them.

The Spanish law firm that was filing the lawsuits on behalf of the recording industry said that they would demand maximum jail sentences for each convicted individual plus compensation equivalent to the market value of each file illegally distributed. It claimed that the P2P piracy in Spain had cost them more than $96 million.

Source: Spanish judge: Non-commercial filesharing is legal