Thursday, November 09, 2006

File-sharing legal in Spain ? not quite

The news in 5th November told a story about how Spanish court ruled against the music industry, finding a man trading his music not guilty. According to that article, the man had downloaded music using a P2P application, then burnt to CDs and give them to his friends (via email or chatroom). The judge's argument for her decision is that any "practiced behavior" that does not aim to gain wealth or profit can not be considered illegal. With current actions of IFPI against file-sharers and music piracy, it could be considered as a complete blow-out for them.
However, just 2 days later, the IFPI commented that this case is not at all related to its ongoing battle against P2P, but is about piracing CD. He insisted that P2P sharing of coyprighted music remains illegal everywhere. That maybe true, in fact the IFPI would not have sued the man for his use of P2P, as he was just a downloader, all the case against individual file-sharers so far are about heavy uploaders. On the other hand, perhaps the IFPI has put way to much money and effort to the fights against P2P, but seems to ignored other more tangible, simpler ways to trade music (such as piracing and distributing CD).

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