Spain: Indexing torrent files is not copyright infringement

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

The case of Sharemula.com, the eDonkey website publishing links allowing
users to download movies, music and software has been recently dismissed by
the Provincial Court of Madrid which ruled that the website was operating
legally.

The case had been brought to court by the Federación Antipiratería
(Anti-piracy Federation) in 2006 when 15 people were arrested in Spain in
relation with the operation of the site. The Spanish Brigade of
Technological Investigations had claimed that the site was illegal and asked
for its closure.

A year ago, a Madrid court dismissed the case deciding that the site and its
administrators had not infringed any law as the site included no illegal
content. It had only links to P2P downloads which had no commercial purposes
either.

The entertainment industry, including Columbia, Disney Company Iberia,
Twentieth Century Fox, Warner, Universal, Paramount, Sony, MGM and others
were very displeased with the court’s ruling and appealed the decision.

But the Provincial Court of Madrid rejected all allegations concluding
that indexing torrent files can not be viewed as copyright infringement. The
court found Sharemula as not responsible for where the links went and
considered that whether the site made profit or not was irrelevant. This
court’s decision is final and cannot be appealed.

“The hearing confirms the position of the defense that linking to P2P
networks does not constitute a criminal offense,” said David Bravo, a lawyer
in the case who emphasized the fact that the website only linked to files
that were hosted elsewhere, on computers of P2P users, and did not store any
copyrighted material itself.

This decision represents good news for P2P-site administrators and may be a
good basis for the upcoming cases against The Pirate Bay and Mininova in
Europe.

Auto final AP Madrid caso Sharemula (only in Spanish, 19.09.2008)
http://derecho-internet.org/proyectos/procedimientos-libres/browser/defensa-webs-enlaces/resoluciones/formato-pdf/2008-09-11_auto_ap-madrid-s-2.pdf

Linking to P2P Downloads Confirmed Legal in Spain (19.09.2008)
http://torrentfreak.com/linking-to-p2p-downloads-confirmed-legal-in-spain-080919/

Spanish Court Dismisses Piracy Case against Sharemula.com (24.10.2007)
http://www.whichwebsite.com/2007/Oct/spanish_court_dismisses_piracy_case_against_sharemula.html

EDRi-gram: Website with P2P download links found legal by Spanish court
(24.10.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.20/p2p-website-legal-spain