Spain passes anti-P2P law
p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- Spain has joined Italy in putting the interests of Hollywood and Big Music before those of its citizens, launching a new department to specifically handle claims of illegal downloading.
Taxpayers, not the entertainment cartels, will as usual foot the bill.
France recently approved its version of the Three Strikes segment of the entertainment industry’s ACTA, to be operated by the so-called Hadopi agency, created by the government to administer it.
French taxpayers are funding it.
In Britain ISPs, rights owners and politicians “are tussling over the Digital Economy Bill (DEB), which, like Hadopi, details a gradual set of responses to illegal file sharers, starting with cease and desist letters, and culminating in disconnection,” observes paidContent UK.
An amendment proposed by Lord Lucas says copyright infringement reports, which “record labels and movie studios would send to to ISPs, detailing instances of alleged abuse by a customer”, must also “set out the value of the infringement on the basis described in the initial obligations”.
That could, for example, “force record labels to equate one pirated track with one lost sale — a conclusion that some would dispute”, said the story.
The UK Digital Economy debate entered the committee stage in the House of Lords on January 6.
Virtually identical Three Strikes laws are also being foisted as independent measures on governments in New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, to name but three.
Now, judges in Italy can order ISPs to block BitTorrent sites being used to “illegally disseminate copyright infringing content,” p2pnet reported yesterday.
Nor will it matter where they’re hosted.
For its part, the Spanish government says it’ll “quickly close websites that facilitate illegal downloading of films and music,” says the Hollywood Reporter, going on >>>
The new law, which was approved in Friday’s cabinet meeting, requires a judge to act on a formal complaint filed by the Intellectual Property Commission to remove illicit material or close a website within four days. The judge will summon the parties to determine the correct procedure.
Until now, it has taken over a year for a filed complaint to be heard by a judge.
“The new judicial procedure has no legal loopholes,” this story has Spanish vice president Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vegastating during a press conference “where she announced the measure, long requested by the country’s content providers”.
The intellectual property commission, part of the culture ministry, comprises “independent professionals from the legal, technological and judicial sectors” and “will receive complaints from citizens and companies” says the story.
Will Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures, succeed in turning world governments into corporate-controlled copyright agents paid for by local citizens, and with ISPs working as corporate enforcers?
Stay tuned …
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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
p2pnet – ISPs to block BitTorrent sites, says Italy, January 8, 2010
Hollywood Reporter – Spain passes anti-piracy law, January 8, 2010
its version – Correction: French 3 strikes law NOT enacted, January 4, 2010
ACTA – ACTA: epic fail, December 31, 2009
paidContent UK – Digital Economy Bill: Copyright Holders May Have To State Income Lost To Piracy, January 6, 2010
proposed by Lord Lucas – UK 3 strikes debate: ‘value of infringements’, January 6, 2010
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