image from http://www.elcorreodigital.com/Let's see if this one survives appeal (it does come across as slightly nutty):
from http://technology.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329617493-117802,00.html
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Friday November 3, 2006
Guardian
A Spanish judge has dealt a blow to the global music industry after ruling that there is nothing illegal about downloading music for free from the internet as long as it is for personal use.
The decision, the first of its kind in Europe, opens the way for Spain's estimated 16 million internet users to swap music through online sites. "This is extremely unusual," said a spokesman for the international recording industry body IFPI, as the judgment was announced yesterday.
Judge Paz Aldecoa threw out a case against an unnamed 48-year-old man who offered and downloaded digital versions of music on the internet, according to Spanish press reports. He also sent selections of music recorded on CDs out to people in the post, prosecutors claimed.
The judge ruled that, under Spanish law, a person who downloaded music for personal use could not be punished or branded a criminal. "That would imply criminalising socially admitted and widely practised behaviour where the aim is not to gain wealth illegally but to obtain private copies," she said in her judgment.
"If the purpose of the copy is not to gain wealth there is no way that it can be considered illegal," Victor DomÃngo, head of Spanish internet user's association Internautas, told the Abc newspaper yesterday. "It would be a lot different if someone downloaded in order to sell on."
But Antonio Guisasola, from Spain's Promusicae recording industry federation, said the judge had got it wrong. "We have already appealed against the decision," he said. "Peer-to-peer [P2P] sharing is not legal in Spain."
full story on the Guardian.co.uk website
No comments:
Post a Comment