Update in Spanish Law: Gov’t to Ban File Sharing

March 25, 2010 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Legal P2P News & Issues 

You know the saying “If it sounds too good to be true than it probably is”? Earlier this month we published a post titled ‘File Sharing Remains Legal in Spain’ – Guess what? You can forget all about that because the Spanish government seems to depend on the entertainment industry just as much as any other government.

Indeed, learning about the Barcelona judge’s ruling we joined the ranks of those excited with the news although we’re not really Spanish residents. Just the fact that a change, a breech might be hoped for in an increasingly rigid system made us sigh in relief.

Early joy means deeper sorrow as the Spanish government teaches us. Only days after that loudly-announced ruling, the gov’t launched the first steps toward a new legislation that will outlaw file sharing sites and file sharing as a practice, commercial or non-commercial as it may be.

This new law announces tough times as it would create the perfect framework for governmental bureaucracy which, in turn, would have the means to accuse any site of illegal activities, if it considers that links to copyrighted material are offered through it. Following the accusation or denouncement there would be four days for the Spanish high court to decide the shutting down or not of the site in question. One thing only could stop the closing down of that site in this case – if there were serious issues related to the freedom of expression being threatened. This means that if the law is approved when the gov’t will ‘mark’ a site as having too many questionable links, that site is doomed since it is subjected to very little review before being shut down.

Is back in the arena for the filesharing bull!

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