Spanish Protest in Anticipation of Harsh P2P Laws

The rumors that the Spanish government is working on implementing draconian measures for p2p traffic and especially p2p file sharers, has caused people in the country to take to streets in protests. The culture ministry in Madrid was assaulted by citizens speaking out against such potential restrictions of their freedom on the Internet.

‘Some 300 members of the Internet Users Association (AI), according to police figures, also demanded the annulment of a special tax on devices that can copy music or films, known as the 'digital canon,' and the "universality" of broadband connection and use. The 'digital canon' was imposed last year after being demanded by content suppliers and collecting societies. It is fiercely opposed by Internet groups such as AI’, Billboard writes.

The crowd’s discontent was expressly directed at the new culture minister Angeles González-Sinde, a former president of the Spanish Cinema Academy and a known fervent opposer to file sharing. In AI president Victor Domingo’s words she is “legally incapacitated" due to "her prior association with the world of cinema."

Domingo expressed his views towards the need for the industry to realize that “business models that cannot compete in the new technological scenario have to disappear, and they cannot sustain themselves artificially at the cost of restricting civil liberties."

Further on, the AI made it clear that"to convert public funds into a free bar accessible to just a few, to finance projects without economic viability, or installing privileges such as the 'digital canon,' is not just lacking in solidarity, but is profoundly immoral."