Judge Rules P2P Legal, Sites To Be Presumed Innocent

[Overnet User]

Story : http://torrentfreak.com/judge-rules-p2p-legal-sites-to-be-presumed-innocent-0907

After Spain virtually ruled out imposing a “3-strikes” regime for illicit file-sharers, the entertainment industries said they would target 200 BitTorrent sites instead. Now a judge has decided that sharing between users for no profit via P2P doesn’t breach copyright laws and sites should be presumed innocent until proved otherwise.

The entertainment industries in Spain must be progressively tearing their hair out in recent months as they experience setback after setback. Most recently the ‘Coalition of Creators and Content Industries’ - which includes the likes of Promusicae and SGAE - had demanded a “3-strikes” regime for illicit file-sharers, but after they failed to provide viable and attractive authorized alternatives, ISPs lost patience and called off government-mandated talks.

The Coalition quickly backtracked, suggesting they would accept some type of throttling instead, but that fell largely on deaf ears too. Then new Coalition president Aldo Olcese said that the solution would be to go after the country’s 200 torrent sites instead, but this could also prove problematic. Time and again Spanish courts have ruled that sites that link to infringing content are not illegal, providing profits aren’t made directly from any infringement.

But of course, wealthy operations like SGAE aren’t put off by such rulings and instead go after eDonkey and BitTorrent sites privately, often demanding that they are forced to close via injunction in advance of a full court hearing to assess their legality.

[User100100]

Go Spain?

[Overnet User]

“P2P networks, as a mere transmission of data between Internet users, do not violate, in principle, any right protected by Intellectual Property Law,” said Raul N. García Orejudo, a judge in Barcelona. Although some activities are barred, those do not concern P2P he said, noting that there has to be a presumption of innocence.

Speaking with Elmundo.es, attorney Carlos Almeida-Sanchez said: “This is the first time a court clearly states that P2P itself does not violate any rights.”

On possible infringements of the Intellectual Property Act, the court said:

“Adding a work or video recording to Emule, that has previously been converted to a compatible computer file, is not an act of reproduction,” adding that “Copying is not a profitable use, or collective use [such as broadcasting in a store], as these two terms refer to the subsequent use made of the work once downloaded, after the copy.”

Perhaps the best part.

[nifty]

whoops - someone forgot to bribe the judge!