Landmark legal battle now means P2P File-Sharing and Link Sites have been Declared Legal in Spain.

Landmark legal battle now means P2P File-Sharing and Link Sites have been Declared Legal in Spain.

In a landmark decision, the ripples of which are bound to have worldwide ramifications for the entertainment industry and file sharers alike. According to tie article posted on file sharing info site TorrentFreak, it was as a result of a case brought against link site owner Jesus Guerra by SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores or General Society of Authors and Editors, similar to our own Performing Rights Society aka PRS).

SGAE wanted to prosecute Mr Guerra for alleged abuse of copyright by the members of his site.

In the initial hearing, held in June 2009 SGAE sought to get an injunction to close the site down with immediate effect, in an effort to protect the intellectual property rights of its members. However, the judge surprisingly accepted the stance of Mr Guerra, who insisted his site was legal, providing the same links that could be found on any search engine.

The Judge, Raul N. García Orejudo dismissed the SGAEs request to shut the site with immediate effect stating: “P2P networks, as a mere transmission of data between Internet users, do not violate, in principle, any right protected by Intellectual Property Law.”

Now the case has been heard in its entirety, the outcome is nothing short of catastrophic for SGAE. Pivotal points in the case were firstly: Was merely providing a link to copyrighted material the same as the average search engine would provide, the same as distributing it.

Secondly: Did Mr Guerra actually make any money directly from providing this facility to the members of his site.

On both counts, the Judge found in favour of the site owner, stating that he considered non-profit file-sharing sites are legal, “P2P networks are mere conduits for the transmission of data between Internet users, and on this basis they do not infringe rights protected by Intellectual Property laws,”

This means that now in Spain, if someone wishes to use P2P networks like BitTorrent to source copyrighted material, as long as it is for non-profit reasons, it is entirely legal.

No doubt SGAE will appeal against the ruling.

This entry was posted on 24/03/2010 at 08:18 pm and is filed under Internet News, Tech News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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