Spanish File Sharing Admin Sent To Jail... Despite Not Breaking The Law

from the not-so-good dept

I missed this story last week, but it's an important one to cover. The entertainment industry has been bragging about its various "wins," but when you look closely at them, many of them are questionable. For example, there were some news stories recently about how the operator of a file sharing site called InfoPSP in Spain was sentenced to 6 months in jail. However, TorrentFreak looked more closely at the case, and realized that the guy in question didn't actually commit a crime at all and was simply pressured into a plea bargain. That's because Spanish courts have made clear that it's not illegal to just link to infringing content. However, after recognizing the costs to fight this in court, he simply agreed to the plea bargain deal:

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."

It's quite troubling that the entertainment industry was able to send someone to jail, despite him not committing a crime, and can then use that "example" to try to show people how they, too, can go to jail. For an industry that keeps trying to take the moral high ground, you have to wonder how it can claim it's moral to send someone to jail despite not having broken the law?

Filed Under: file sharing, plea bargain, spain
Companies: infopsp