Spanish court revokes its decision to shut down P2P-related sites

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Deutsch: [Spanisches Gericht widerruft seine Entscheidung P2P-verwandte Webseiten zu schließen| http://www.unwatched.org/node/1614]

A preliminary shut down decision against two P2P file-sharing link sites has
been recently overturned by a Spanish court which also fined the anti-piracy
group involved in the case.

Two eD2K file-sharing link sites known as Elitelmula and Etmusica were shut
down by court order in April 2009 on the basis of an action of by
anti-piracy group SGAE. Shortly after, Juan Jose Carrasco Colonel, who ran
the two sites, received a visit from a lawyer and a computer expert of SGAE
who, under false pretences of coming from the court with a warrant, entered
his home and inspected his computers and hard drives to find proofs of music
downloads through the two sites between September and December 2007.

The two lawyers of the sites succeeded in convincing the court that the hard
drive evidence collected during the controversial raid was worthless and
therefore the evidence was dismissed and both sites can now be reopened.

“The reason for reopening the websites is that a hyperlink, per se, does not
violate intellectual property law,” said Javier de la Cueva, one of the
lawyers, who explained that the dismissal of the hard drive evidence was due
to having proved that it was impossible for the site’s users’ sharing
statistics to be stored in it.

He also pointed out that SGAE requested injunctions against Etmusic and
Elitemula without summoning their client. “When this happens and injunctions
are adopted, the defendant should have the opportunity of opposition, and
this is what we have won,” he said.

Furthermore, the court fined SGEA with 500 euros for bad faith (“mala
fides”) concluding the group had acted on the intention to avoid the right
to a defence of the defendants and for having failed to tell the court that
earlier criminal proceedings brought by Promusicae to achieve preliminary
injunctions against both sites, had already been dismissed.

P2P Sites’ Injunctions Overturned, Anti-Piracy Group Fined (24.11.2009)
http://torrentfreak.com/p2p-sites-injunctions-overturned-anti-piracy-group-fined-091124/

Spain: the judges fining an anti-piracy group guided by SGAE. (only in
Spanish, 25.11.2009)
http://www.onep2p.it/tag/juan-jose-carrasco-colonel/

The Judge orders the reopening of the two p2p sites and fines SGAE for mala
fides in its request for closing down (only in Spanish, 22.11.2009)
http://derecho-internet.org/node/497