Spanish Culture Minister: No “3-Strikes” for File-Sharers

Says the govt “is not considering punitive measures for the end user of Internet,” and will focus instead on web sites that illegally host copyrighted material and those that profit from them.

The Spanish govt has now officially rejected any plans to disconnect illegal file-sharers from the Internet a la a “three-strikes” graduated response system.

Speaking to TVE1′s “TVE Breakfasts” morning TV show, Culture Minister Angeles González-Sinde said the govt “is not considering punitive measures for the end user of Internet.”

González-Sinde said it instead plans to “attack the origin of all these products that are on the Web sites, as well as those who benefit from them.”

It comes after the recent decision by the European Union to drop a crucial amendment (#138) from its much anticipated Telcoms Package that would’ve prevented member countries from disconnecting illegal file-sharers from the Internet.

The country’s Coalition of Creators and Content Industries, comprised of copyright holders from the music, film, and software industries, had already decided back in June to abandon plans for a “three-strikes” system to disconnect illegal file-sharers from the Internet after earlier govt indications that it’ll refuse to enact legislation permitting them to do so.

“We have no desire to criminalize Internet users who download illegally,”Coalition president Aldo Olcese said at the time.

The courts in that country have also regularly ruled both in favor of P2P as well for those file-sharers who use the applications to share copyrighted material with others.

Back in July Judge Raul N. Orejuda Garcia ruled that illegal distribution requires something “tangible” to exist, like a website, and on which the actual sharing must occur. This doesn’t happen in P2P where the transfer of data occurs between individuals.

He said that simply making a file available is not an act of reproduction and that downloading content from others is not a “profitable use.”

That case echoed a similar ruling by Spanish Judge Paz Aldecoa back in November of 2006 who found that since there was “no talk of money or any other compensation beyond the sharing of material available among various users” then P2P didn’t therefore violate the tenets of the country’s copyright laws since it was only about obtaining “copies for private use” which is legal.

In short, both recognized what the entertainment industry has thus far failed to, that file-sharing is done for noncommercial gain and this clearly separates it from other forms of piracy.

Now if only France could tell the difference before it begins removing entire households from the Internet, and thus arguable society.

Stay tuned.

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