Spanish Sports Streaming Site Declared Legal

from the expect-more-anti-Spanish-sentiment dept

We've already covered how Spain has extremely reasonable copyright laws -- which recognize that you should not blame someone just for pointing to copyrighted material, and which allows for non-commercial copying. Of course, this has greatly upset the entertainment industry, with both the recording industry and the movie industry making random threats against Spain, leading to efforts to change copyright laws in Spain to make those industries happy -- even as an economic analysis of the changes suggest they would be a mistake.

Giving more ammunition to the industry folks, though, Chris alerts us to the news that an appeals court in Spain has upheld a lower court decision protecting a website that indexes downloads and streams of sporting events. Once again, the court points out that the site itself doesn't host any of the material itself, and thus is not infringing on copyrights. I'm not familiar with how the Spanish judicial system works, but apparently this ruling cannot be appealed.

But, of course, with the efforts to change copyright law well under way, I imagine this ruling will just be used as another reason to change the law, rather than another example of a reasonable ruling that focuses on not blaming those who just point elsewhere. Still, this ruling reminds me of the Israeli court ruling from last year that found that watching sports streams online was fair use and not copyright infringement. But, of course, if ACTA gets approved, thanks to US lobbyists, such interpretations of copyright law will quickly get stamped out...

Filed Under: copyright, spain, streaming

Spanish Gov't Officials Active Uploaders And Downloaders Of Unauthorized Content

from the and-yet... dept

The entertainment industry has been pushing hard for new copyright laws in Spain, even pretending that they might pull out of Spain if the laws aren't changed. That's because, under existing laws, file sharing for personal use is considered legal. Of course, economists have pointed out that the new laws would do more harm than good.

TorrentFreak is now reporting that someone has been checking in on Spanish gov't IPs, and discovering that it appears that gov't officials are regular uploaders and downloaders of unauthorized content. Of course, as noted, that is legal in Spain right now -- but it does raise some questions about why the government would be so keen to change the law. And, before someone brings it up: no, an IP address is not evidence by itself, but as a bit of aggregate information it is a good way of getting a general sense. The problems with IP as "evidence" is when they're used to accuse a single person, not of understanding the wider usage patterns.

Filed Under: copyright, spain

Economists Tell Spanish Gov't Its New Copyright Laws Are A Mistake

from the good-for-them dept

We recently pointed out that, following several very reasonable copyright lawsuit rulings in Spain (that recognized private copying shouldn't be illegal, and that secondary liability didn't make sense), the Spanish gov't was backing copyright reform, supported by the entertainment industry, and would basically make Spanish copyright law mimic all the mistakes found in many other countries. Thankfully, some economists are speaking up to let the Spanish gov't know that this sounds like a terrible mistake. As TorrentFreak notes:

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 .

You may recognize the name of one of the professors involved. Michele Boldrin is the co-author of Against Intellectual Monopoly, and took part in our CwF+RtB experiment last year, and even co-wrote a nice guest post on the site.

Filed Under: copyright, economists, michele boldrin, spain

Spanish Gov't Moves Forward On New Law To Make File Sharing And Links Sites Illegal

from the that-didn't-last-long dept

A bunch of free culture sites got pretty excited recently when a Spanish court ruled that file sharing sites, as well as links sites, weren't illegal. Of course, we noted this was hardly a new thing. Spanish courts had already made similar rulings in the past. In fact, the timing of this ruling seemed particularly bad, since we'd noted a few months ago that there were proposals being pushed to change copyright law in Spain. So it should come as little surprise that just days after that last ruling, the gov't has started moving forward with getting the new law approved, and many expect it will be in place within a few months.

The new law sounds particularly bad as well. It would set up a governmental bureaucracy that could simply denounce any site as illegal, if it feels that it offers links to infringing content. Once "denounced," the Spanish high court would get a grand total of four days to determine if the site should be shut down -- and the only reason why it would be allowed to not shut the site down would be if there were clear concerns about freedom of expression. Basically, if the gov't feels a site has too many "unauthorized" links, it gets shut down with minimal review. So much for a more balanced approach to copyright law.

Filed Under: copyright, file sharing, legal, p2p, spain

Judge Rules P2P Legal In Spain Yet Again

from the proper-liability-placement dept

Spain continues to be one of the few countries out there that seems to not have its judges lose their critical thinking abilities the second anyone mentions the word "piracy." We've pointed out a few times in the past that Spanish courts have ruled that file sharing is legal and it looks like they've done so again. Infophage was the first of a few to send in an article about the latest ruling, which again found that just linking to infringing material is not copyright infringement. The judge apparently went further, though, also noting that using P2P file sharing systems does not appear to violate copyright law in Spain, as long as the user isn't doing so for monetary profit.

Of course, this isn't over by a long shot. Late last year, entertainment industry lobbyists got Spanish politicians to propose new copyright laws that would (of course) ratchet up copyright to make it more like it is in other countries (i.e., more draconian). And, as we recently noted, a bunch of Spanish record labels have sued the gov't for not doing enough to stop file sharing. But, hopefully, this country that has explicitly rejected three strikes laws will stick to its guns and recognize that perhaps the court rulings make sense -- and that the first response to an industry unwilling to adapt to a technologically-changed market isn't to change the laws, but to ask those companies to start adapting.

Filed Under: copyright, file sharing, legal, p2p, spain

Spanish Indie Labels To Sue The Gov't For Not Stopping File Sharing

from the that's-one-strategy dept

We've discussed recently how Spain seemed to be one of a very small number of countries whose legal system seemed to be doing a decent job in responding to copyright issues. It has rejected three strikes, said that broadband is a basic right, said that personal file sharing is legal and even fined "anti-piracy" groups for "bad faith actions." Of course, all of those reasonable moves have made Spain something of a target. Industry lobbyists have convinced the government to propose new copyright laws.

But it's not just the big entrenched players. Reader Tor sends over the troubling news that a group of indie labels in Spain are suing the government for "negligence" in failing to stop file sharing. Specifically, they're really upset about the rulings that have found personal, non-commercial file-sharing is legal. They want the right to sue their biggest fans. Apparently, they haven't been paying attention to how that's worked (i.e., it hasn't) elsewhere:

"The measure would not resolve the most relevant problem, which is the actual impossibility of us taking civil action against those final users who appropriate music without paying, and systematically violate intellectual property rights," he adds.

"We think the Administration is responsible for our plight," says Carton. "We demand that the government take effective measures imminently to protect the rights and interests of the record industry, as well as the intellectual property rights of the agents that intervene in the creative musical process within Internet."

This is pretty disappointing. Last year, I actually bought a bunch of CDs (yes, physical CDs) from an indie label in Spain that I only heard about after a friend sent me some MP3s suggesting I might like a couple of the bands on the label. After checking out their websites (and being able to listen to some of the songs) I ended up ordering a bunch of CDs from the label. Just last week, I bought two more albums (downloads, via CDBaby) from the same label. Yet, according to these labels (and I can't tell if the label whose CDs I purchased is part of the lawsuit), they would have been better off suing my friend. Indie labels should be leading the way here: focusing on giving fans real reasons to buy, rather than suing the government for not putting up more protectionist barriers to pretend it can hold back what the technology allows.

Filed Under: civil lawsuits, file sharing, indie labels, labels, spain, suing fans

Spanish ISP Telefonica Claims Google Gets Free Bandwidth; Says Google Should Pay Up

from the can-we-explain-the-internet-to-you? dept

And I thought Ed Whitacre had moved on to run United States General Motors. You may recall that, half a decade ago, when Whitacre was running SBC (prior to its takeover of AT&T), he made sure that a lot more people heard the term "net neutrality," after he claimed that SBC should charge Google and other big online companies. His explanation was that Google and Yahoo and others were "reaching" his customer's for free. This is, of course, wrong. Very, very wrong. It's actually an attempt to double charge, based on the false belief that when you pay for your internet connect, you are only paying for the connection into the cloud, but then not out to any end point. Google is not getting anything for free. It pays (and pays a boatload) for its bandwidth. What Whitacre was trying to do back then was double dip and get everyone to pay twice for their bandwidth. The reasoning was so bizarre that you would have hoped it had died off by now.

No such luck.

Alan Gerow points us to the news that Spanish telco Telefonica's President Cesar Alierta, appears to be channeling Whitacre, by claiming that big sites like Google and Yahoo get too much bandwidth "for free" and he wants to start charging them for it. Just like Whitacre, he's really looking to double dip. Google pays for its bandwidth. What Alierta really means is he wants Google to pay again just to reach his customers over the bandwidth the customers have already paid for. The claim that Google, Yahoo or any of those companies are getting their bandwidth "for free" is ludicrous. But since Alierta believes that Google is getting bandwidth for free, perhaps he'll agree to pay Google's bandwidth bill.

Filed Under: double dipping, isps, net neutrality, spain
Companies: google, telefonica, yahoo

Prisons And Hair Dressers Latest To Push Back On Ridiculous Collection Society Demands

from the pay-to-listen dept

We've noticed lately that music collection societies have been going overboard in demanding more and more money from pretty much anyone who listens to music, claiming "public performances" and assuming that they're worth a lot more than they really are -- almost everywhere you turn. mikez sent in two new stories about collection societies -- both involving operations pushing back on the demands.

The first involves prisons in the UK who are refusing to pay the licensing fees, and thus are telling prisoners (hey look, real thieves!) that they can't listen to music any more in any area where multiple people might be (the kitchen, workshops, restrooms, etc.) since others might overhear it. Yes, listening to music in a prison apparently requires a separate performance license.

The second story involves Spanish hairdressers who are similarly refusing to pay and, instead, are telling customers to bring their own MP3 players to listen to their own music, privately.

The really ridiculous thing is that in both cases all this is really doing is harming musicians. When places play music, it actually acts as advertising for that music -- and these collection societies are basically demanding to be paid for having people promote the music of various artists. So the artists get less promotion and don't get money from places like the examples above refusing to pay. Everyone loses!

Filed Under: collections, hair dressers, music, prisons, spain, uk

Looks Like Entertainment Industry Lobbyists Got To The Spanish Government

from the and-here-we-go-again dept

We had just been noting how Spanish courts seemed to be actually interpreting copyright law in a reasonable way, and slapping down industry attempts to abuse the laws. Of course, that couldn't last. It appears that Spain is now proposing new copyright laws that would bring its existing laws down the well-lobbied path of draconian punishment, increased third party liability and other mindless ideas that have more to do with propping up an old business model than encouraging the creation of new quality content. A bunch of professional content creators in Spain are organizing to protest these new rules, but do they stand a chance against the usual onslaught of industry lobbyists?

Filed Under: copyright, laws, lobbyists, spain

Anti-Piracy Group In Spain Fined For Bad Faith Actions Against File Sharing Systems

from the another-one-for-spain dept

We were just talking about how the justice system in Spain seems at least somewhat more reasonable on the subject of file sharing, and here's yet another example. A court has overturned injunctions on two file sharing sites and fined the anti-piracy group that brought charges against them in the first place for "acting in bad faith." The case was dismissed because the court realized (yet again) that linking to infringing material is not infringing itself. But, the "bad faith" part involved the anti-piracy group, SGAE, tricking the operator of the sites into believing that two SGAE employees were representatives of the court and had the right to search his home and confiscate computer hard drives. We've seen such things allowed elsewhere, so it's nice that the Spanish courts are letting private anti-piracy groups know that they are not law enforcement.

Filed Under: anti-piracy, file sharing, spain
Companies: sgae