Copyright Law

Spanish Copyright Industry Abandons ?Three-Strikes?

By soulxtc

Will focus on BitTorrent tracker sites instead.

The Spanish Coalition of Creators and Content Industries , comprised of copyright holders from the music, film, and software industries, has decided to abandon plans for a "three-strikes" system to disconnect illegal file-sharers from the Internet after govt indications that it’ll refuse to enact legislation permitting them to do so.

CCCI will instead target BitTorrent tracker sites "within a short space of time." It claims the number of them has ballooned from 70 to 200 in a just a few months, and is still in the process of compiling evidence of the sites’ activities.

Coalition president Aldo Olcese however, also made the humbling acknowledgement that suing file-sharers who download copyrighted material illegally isn’t the best of ideas considering it means targeting their "current and future clientele."

"We have no desire to criminalize Internet users who download illegally," he said.

It should be noted that his was said after it realized the govt wouldn’t go for a "three-strikes" system.

RedTel, the association of Spanish ISPs, also refused to meet with CCCI until the govt comes up with a sensible plan to deal with piracy, one that ostensibly doesn’t include disconnection.

Olcese says he’s confident the govt will move to tackle piracy soon, saying ""it is no exaggeration to say that Spain has become a paradise for global piracy."

He’s no doubt referring to the fact that the courts there have ruled that file-sharing is legal so long as its not for commercial gain.

As a sort of carrot to entice the govt into enacting comprehensive anti-piracy legislation, Olcese says the CCCI would launch a site that would offer "wide-ranging and abundant" legal cultural content "at competitive prices" as an alternative to illegal file-sharing that "would begin operating the moment the government announces definitive steps to tackle piracy."

Considering that decent legal alternatives is what drives many to illegal file-sharing in the first place, denying customers such an option hurts only the CCCI. It should’ve fired up the site about 10 years ago.

jared@zeropaid.com

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on June 25, 2009 (boomark / email).