[A2k] Spanish court rules free music downloads are legal for own use

[Vera Franz]

[ Converted text/html to text/plain ]
Spanish court rules free music downloads are legal for own useGiles Tremlet=
t
in Madrid
Friday November 3, 2006

Guardian
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1938302,00.html[1]
A Spanish judge has dealt a blow to the global music industry after ruling
that there is nothing illegal about downloading music for free from the
internet as long as it is for personal use.

The decision, the first of its kind in Europe, opens the way for Spain's
estimated 16 million internet users to swap music through online sites. "Th=
is
is extremely unusual," said a spokesman for the international recording
industry body IFPI, as the judgment was announced yesterday.

Judge Paz Aldecoa threw out a case against an unnamed 48-year-old man who
offered and downloaded digital versions of music on the internet, according=
 to
Spanish press reports. He also sent selections of music recorded on CDs out=
 to
people in the post, prosecutors claimed.

The judge ruled that, under Spanish law, a person who downloaded music for
personal use could not be punished or branded a criminal. "That would imply
criminalising socially admitted and widely practised behaviour where the ai=
m
is not to gain wealth illegally but to obtain private copies," she said in =
her
judgment.

"If the purpose of the copy is not to gain wealth there is no way that it c=
an
be considered illegal," Victor Dom=EDngo, head of Spanish internet user's
association Internautas, told the Abc newspaper yesterday. "It would be a l=
ot
different if someone downloaded in order to sell on."

But Antonio Guisasola, from Spain's Promusicae recording industry federatio=
n,
said the judge had got it wrong. "We have already appealed against the
decision," he said. "Peer-to-peer [P2P] sharing is not legal in Spain."

Mr Guisasola, whose federation had backed a prosecution case that demanded =
a
two-year prison sentence and 25,000 (=A316,700) in fines and compensation,
explained it had tried to prove the man was selling the music he sent out o=
n
CDs, rather than just distributing it for free.

Even though it had failed to prove that he was selling, Mr Guisasola said h=
is
federation was still convinced "private use" was not a legal excuse for
downloading music for free. "I have been with both the justice minister and
the culture minister today and they are both quite clear that peer to peer =
is
illegal," he said.

This was even more clearly so in a case where music was being shared by mor=
e
than one person, he said. "People should understand that we all have to
respect people who create," justice minister Juan Fernando Lop=E9z Aguilar =
said
yesterday. "These are people who have the right to control the use of their
literary or artistic creations in all media."

But the judge insisted Spain's intellectual property law protected people
against being prosecuted if they could prove private use. Spain is drawing =
up
a new law that is likely to strike out the existing right to "private copie=
s"
of material.

The licensing of digital content has become a major issue for the
entertainment industry. The Financial Times today reported that Google has
been offering up to $100m to media companies including CBS, Viacom, Time
Warner and News Corp to license their content to the video website YouTube,
which it bought last month for $1.65bn. Analysts have warned that YouTube
could be targeted by lawsuits for carrying copyrighted material.

--
Vera Franz
Program Manager
Information Program
<www.soros.org/ip[2]>
Open Society Foundation
100, Cambridge Grove
London W6 0LE
phone +44 20 7031 0219
fax +44 20 7031 0247

=3D=3D=3DReferences:=3D=3D=3D
  1. http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1938302,00.html
  2. http://www.soros.org/ip