Spain Finally Defeats Piracy
from the problem-solved dept
The legality of sharing copyrighted files over P2P networks notiwithstanding, there are clearly beneficial and legal uses to said networks. But Spain has apparently decided to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater, as they've introduced draconian legislation to crack down on all filesharing (via Slashdot). But it gets worse; instead of going after those breaking the law, they're placing criminal liability on the ISPs, if they're seen as facilitating file trading (which probably means not automatically blocking any network that could be used as such). Of course, this won't work because it places the burden on a party that's unable to stop the activity. And if all this isn't enough of a subsidy to the entertainment companies, they're also adding a tax on blank CDs, the revenue from which will go to media coffers. If there's a silver lining to this, Spain should be a nice case study on the effects of such regulation. If it utterly fails there, as it probably will, it may be hard to get similar legislation passed elsewhere -- either that or the entertainment industry will just call for even stiffer penalties.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Hmmmm, sounds fishy
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Maybe I'm missing something here, but the owner of which copyright? Is the Spanish government going to hold the money in trust until someone is busted and then seek out all the labels, artists, other involved parties and pay them out of this pot. It'll be interesting to see how easily money flows out of a governments coffers if it's keeping the interest on it.
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Re:
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define "file sharing program"
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Re: define "file sharing program"
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For chronno
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Also see here for comparison
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Also see here for comparison
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LOL
That's my two cents.
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Digg has this flagged as "inaccurate"
That of course leads to a million other questions.
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The thieving Spanish
legalizing downloads because you paid at the store,
I'm talking about millions in collected taxes with no clear recipient. In America it is illegal for a government
to levy a tax without stating what the procedes will be used for. That's why a similar law was not tried here. Who decides which copyright holders are to be reimbursed? I have a feeling that somehow this will all end up being a 50/50 spliit between lawyers and politicians with artists and entertainers getting what the government thinks they deserve, A tax on all the supposed royalties they are given in the law but not in reality.
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Now there's even a tax on hard disks and flash-based devices (making the iPods outrageously expensive there). All this goes to the Sacem, the french RIAA, which has all the stupidity and greed of its american counterpart.
But to try to criminalize P2P is a world first, and definitely really, really stoopid.
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Re:
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next week...
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you know what i think?
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About taxes
The states are not saving the money.
You knew that US is still getting money from your phone calls via taxes because the "Spanish war" in Philipines and Cuba? As far as I know you were still paying for that in each phone bill. That's to be smart :P
You can not control the sharing, but you can tax the media where to save it. Which is ilegal. That is the real problem with this tax. Even if you burn your girls friend photos you pay the tax to this society of "authors".
It is incredible what a group of monkeys can write.
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what if
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BAN VPN's!!!!
End it all with this. VPN ok so I VPN to my friend Tom and use 256bit encryption. I share a file with him and then disconnect. While the VPN is in effect the "smart governemental people" have to crack my VPN tunnel and see that I am doing something ileagal or not.
IF they could i would increase the strength of the encryption so they cant anymore I can always win this game. Now how do they know what I am doing in the tunnel? BAN VPN!!! thats next!
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Re: BAN VPN's!!!!
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Re: Re: BAN VPN's!!!!
So VPN's are still key to privacy. Screw any one gvernment trying to crack down it has to be a world wide thing and that will never happen EVER.
VPN's win again.
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Re: Re: Re: BAN VPN's!!!!
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Suggestion to help Spain.
:)
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