Spain Legalizes File-Sharing if “Not for Profit”

A Spanish judge has dismissed charges against an anonymous 40-year-old man accused of file-sharing since the man’s intent was not to make money.

Yesterdays ruling by Judge Paz Aldecoa of No. 3 Penal Court in the northern city of Santander said that there was “no talk of money or any other compensation beyond the sharing of material available among various users.”

The judge furthered by saying that “No offense meriting penal sanction has been committed.”

The ruling was a huge blow to the music industry who had sought a 2-year sentence against the man accused of violating copyright laws by downloading albums from file-sharing networks and then offering them to others via e-mail and chat rooms.

The judge argued that a guilty verdict would “would imply the criminalization of socially accepted and widely practiced behavior in which the aim is in no way to make money illicitly, but rather to obtain copies for private use.”

It would seem tat the ruling may be short-lived however, as not only does the music industry plan to appeal but, Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopéz Aguilar says Spain is drafting a new law to abolish the existing right to private copies of material. He added that while copied material for private use had yet to be properly defined in legal terms, artists’ rights must be protected as much as possible.

Recent rulings against file-sharing have been dramatically different for people in other European countries, as 22 people in Finland, and also 2 in Sweden, were each fined for similar charges of illegal file-sharing.

SOULXTC: walking the streets of P2P

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