Spain will not apply a three strikes law
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Deutsch: [Spanien wird kein Drei-Treffer-Gesetz anwenden | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1586]
As a ray of sunshine in a European environment favouring the disconnection
of Internet users downloading allegdly copyrighted material, Spain (that
will hold the EU Presidency from 1 January 2010) and Germany have decided
not to join France and UK in promoting three strikes laws.
On 5 November 2009, the Spanish culture Minister Angeles González-Sinde
stated during a TV show that the government “is not considering punitive
measures for the end user of Internet” and that what needs to be done first
was to “attack the origin of all these products that are on the Web sites,
as well as those who benefit from them.”
The minister also stated that “What is certain is that culture is a right
and must be accessible but must be compatible with the people living out of
it being able to do it”. The Minister’s opinions are shared by the Coalition
of Creators and Content Industries as well as by Redtel representing the
Spanish ISPs.
Already, in June 2009, the Spanish Coalition of Creators and Content
Industries had decided to abandon plans for a three-strikes system after the
Spanish Government indicated it would refuse to enact legislation allowing
the disconnection of illegal file-sharers.
An inter-ministerial commission established by the Government in October has
the task to find ways of ensuring that the availability of cultural content
on the Internet does not reduce the copyright revenues of creators or
content providers. The commission has to provide a report by the end of this
year.
Another copyright-related scandal emerged last week in Spain, after Youtube
decided to take down a parody video of a declining rock musician healvily
involved with the Spanish collective society SGAE. The video produced by the
satirical magazine El Jueves was posted in the portal of the magazine on
YouTube. But the video-sharing website decided not to take down only that
video, but the whole section produced by El Jueves with hundreds of videos,
subscribers, comments etc. without previous notice or check. The magazine,
of course, just posted another satirical press release hosted on a different
videosharing website.
The musician declared he had just contracted a company to scan the network
and complain against any comment considered offensive towards him. 72 hours
later, when the lawyers retired the claim, the El Jueves portal was restored
on YouTube.
The recently elected German governmental coalition, in a document outlining
its policy proposal issued at the end of October 2009, expressed its
intention to “achieve a high level of protection and an effective assertion
of the copyright law.” However, there is no question of disconnecting
Internet access for repeated copyright infringers. “We want to promote the
possibilities of an internal regulation with the participation of the
right-owners and the Internet-providers,” says the document. “We will not
take initiatives for legal possibilities to block Internet access in cases
of copyright infringements.” The document also includes a commitment to
facilitate European-wide licensing of online rights by copyright collecting
societies.
González-Sinde: if the money invested is not recovered, the artist cannot
continue to record” (only in Spanish, 15.11.2009)
http://www.cadenaser.com/cultura/articulo/gonzalez-sinde-recupera-dinero-invertido-artista-podra-volver-grabar/csrcsrpor/20091115csrcsrcul_1/Tes
Spanish Govt Rules Out Three-Strikes Law (5.11.2009)
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i6391eb52691ab08c796782a0a307ec43
Spanish Copyright Industry Abandons “Three-Strikes” (25.06.2009)
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86493/spanish-copyright-industry-abandons-three-strikes/
Ramoncín makes ‘El Jueves’ channel disappear from Youtube (only in
Spanish, 11.11.2009)
http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/562971/0/ramoncin/youtube/jueves/
The TangaMan beats YouTube (only in Spanish, 13.11.2009)
http://www.eljueves.es/2009/11/13/youtube_caga_nos_devuelven_cuenta.html
German Gov’t To Tighten Copyright Law (29.11.2009)
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i018a992ff2ce5f8eae092e04cb24039e
Germany says “nein” to three-strikes infringement plan (6.02.2009)
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/germany-walks-away-from-three-strikes-internet-policy.ars