Spain to criminalize file-sharing, crackdown on sites, may outlaw private copying - Polidicks

[URL]http://torrentfreak.com/spain-to-crackdown-on-pirate-sites-and-outlaw-file-sharing-130322/[/URL] [quote]After becoming known as somewhat of a haven for both file-sharing sites and their users, Spain is preparing to crack down on breaches of intellectual property rights. In a blueprint published by the government today, sites said to infringe copyright on a large-scale face fines of up to 300,000 euros and having their payment processors and advertisers removed. P2P downloads will also be outlawed by limiting the right to private copy.[/quote] Once again, the US government is bullying and coercing other countries into adopting extremely restrictive laws to prop up American companies' Right To Profit. Perhaps with all those unemployed people in Spain we'll see ACTA-level protests, but I'm sure their government will ignore them. Criminalizing at-home copying, which the rightsholders are already compensated for by a bullshit levy on blank media. Un-fucking-believable.

Thank goodness I'm not Spanish then, their government had just better keep their dumb laws in their country.

Read the article. [quote]The reforms see the right to private copying only covering legally obtained media, meaning that in theory file-sharers could be prosecuted for their downloads from unauthorized sources.[/quote] The changes to the laws aren't to criminalize copying all media, it's to criminalize illegally copying media. And websites that host illegal content are given a warning and opportunity to take it down before being fined. What here is unreasonable?

It's not like Spain has bigger problems at the moment anyway.

[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;40004211]adopting extremely restrictive laws to prop up American companies' Right To Profit. [/QUOTE] Implying that companies don't have a right to sell their work as they see fit?

[quote]Sites will be required to remove wide ranges of infringing content on request, such as that from a particular rightsholder or artist, without having to deal with each instance individually as is the case today. Failure to comply will be costly, with penalties of up to 300,000 euros ($388,400) for sites that repeatedly fail to remove illicit content.[/quote] Sounds reasonable to me. Give warnings then fine if they don't comply.

Oh boy, here we go again.

[QUOTE=catbarf;40004372]Read the article. The changes to the laws aren't to criminalize copying all media, it's to criminalize illegally copying media. [/QUOTE] Which is virtually impossible to properly enforce. Do they want you to show a receipt for every blank CD you buy, proving that you'll put "legal" music on it? Not to mention that criminalizing illegal copying means CRIMINAL penalties for downloading music, which is insane. None of the companies pushing for this are in Spain, they're all American companies in the RIAA/MPAA using US government threats of trade action to coerce the Spanish government into passing laws to protect them. Why should Spain listen or care?

These guys are on investigation. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tym0MObFpTI[/media]

[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;40004523]Which is virtually impossible to properly enforce. Do they want you to show a receipt for every blank CD you buy, proving that you'll put "legal" music on it? Not to mention that criminalizing illegal copying means CRIMINAL penalties for downloading music, which is insane. [/QUOTE] If it's virtually impossible to properly enforce, then why be concerned about it? At the very least it means it's on the books so it can be used in a situation where clear copyright violation is occurring, like someone selling bootlegs. [QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;40004523]None of the companies pushing for this are in Spain, they're all American companies in the RIAA/MPAA using US government threats of trade action to coerce the Spanish government into passing laws to protect them. Why should Spain listen or care?[/QUOTE] Why should they listen or care? Well, because American interests are being harmed by their laws, so the US is threatening trade action. They're free to refuse, although it might hurt them economically. We're not under any obligation to have open trade with all countries in the world, especially when they're causing domestic problems. Just look at the restrictions placed on trade with the Chinese, due to unsafe manufacturing processes leading to hazardous merchandise.

At least we here in Portugal don't give a fuck about piracy and any of that bs :v:

[QUOTE=dass;40004688]At least we here in Portugal don't give a fuck about piracy and any of that bs :v:[/QUOTE] It's also why you don't see stuff made in Portugal.

[QUOTE=KillerJaguar;40004883]It's also why you don't see stuff made in Portugal.[/QUOTE] what

[QUOTE=catbarf;40004372]Read the article. The changes to the laws aren't to criminalize copying all media, it's to criminalize illegally copying media. And websites that host illegal content are given a warning and opportunity to take it down before being fined. What here is unreasonable?[/QUOTE] Welcome to torrentfreak's quality journalism

Don't worry, their government bankcrupts soon, then they'll make new constitutional law and else.

[QUOTE=catbarf;40004673]If it's virtually impossible to properly enforce, then why be concerned about it? At the very least it means it's on the books so it can be used in a situation where clear copyright violation is occurring, like someone selling bootlegs. Why should they listen or care? [B]Well, because American interests are being harmed by their laws[/B], so the US is threatening trade action. They're free to refuse, although it might hurt them economically. We're not under any obligation to have open trade with all countries in the world, especially when they're causing domestic problems. Just look at the restrictions placed on trade with the Chinese, due to unsafe manufacturing processes leading to hazardous merchandise.[/QUOTE] because it erodes rights anyway, this is an attempt to control the internet by corporate interests, also the idea that piracy is so dangerous and harmful and most importantly preventable is a joke, as is the idea that piracy is anything new, hell shakespeare acts were pirated back in the day, there were laws forbidding copying anything during the act, to avoid this, it didn't work. you know its a good thing, that the chinese have a culture that considers the idea of copyright in general to be ridiculous, at least to counterbalance the US insanity.

Good luck making EVERYONE criminals.

[QUOTE=Wizards Court;40005486]because it erodes rights anyway, this is an attempt to control the internet by corporate interests, also the idea that piracy is so dangerous and harmful and most importantly preventable is a joke, as is the idea that piracy is anything new, hell shakespeare acts were pirated back in the day, there were laws forbidding copying anything during the act, to avoid this, it didn't work. you know its a good thing, that the chinese have a culture that considers the idea of copyright in general to be ridiculous, at least to counterbalance the US insanity.[/QUOTE] So you're ideal image of freedom is China? What is it with Facepunch and kneejerk reactions to anti-piracy measures? They aren't eroding your rights, they're protecting their content

[QUOTE=Ericson666;40005609]So you're ideal image of freedom is China? What is it with Facepunch and kneejerk reactions to anti-piracy measures? They aren't eroding your rights, they're protecting their content[/QUOTE] where did i said china has freedom? i merely said china serves as counterbalance for the copyright insanity in the US, thats all, and no they're not trying to protect their content, this is the old media trying to stay revelant, they know their days are numbered, especially after they angered silicon valley with SOPA.

[QUOTE=Wizards Court;40005486]because it erodes rights anyway, this is an attempt to control the internet by corporate interests, [/QUOTE] Since when is attempting to protect your work, when you're a multinational corporation doing business all around the world, attempting to control the Internet? You could frame any law that benefits a corporation as trying to control something 'by corporate interests'. It's a meaningless phrase. The only additional control that corporations are getting here is that the Spanish [I]government[/I] is going to try a little harder to prevent illegal copyright infringement. How horrifying. [QUOTE=Wizards Court;40005486]also the idea that piracy is so dangerous and harmful and most importantly preventable is a joke, [/QUOTE] Talk about citation needed. Yes, I'm sure you know better than the companies that invested millions upon millions to analyze the effects of piracy before spending millions upon millions more to actually implement these schemes. They just burn money for [I]fun[/I]. Does anyone really think a rich CEO woke up one morning, decided that piracy must be bad because it seems bad, and then invested enormous amounts of money to prevent it without even a freaking case study? The investors would have his head on a platter. [QUOTE=Wizards Court;40005486]as is the idea that piracy is anything new, hell shakespeare acts were pirated back in the day, there were laws forbidding copying anything during the act, to avoid this, it didn't work.[/QUOTE] Shakespeare didn't have to deal with throngs of morons who could not only distribute his work to millions of people with about five minutes of work and without leaving their homes, but would also come up with all sorts of tortured justifications for why it's really okay. [QUOTE=Wizards Court;40005486]you know its a good thing, that the chinese have a culture that considers the idea of copyright in general to be ridiculous, at least to counterbalance the US insanity.[/QUOTE] You don't know the first thing about Chinese business. They're [URL="http://rt.com/business/apple-china-copyright-fine-012/"]just as serious[/URL] [URL="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/11/us-china-congress-piracy-idUSBRE8AA04620121111"]about copyright infringement[/URL] [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_in_China"]as the US[/URL], the difference is that their government is still dealing with absurd corruption and is struggling to get it under control. Of course, if you're holding up Chinese business practices as an example for the US to follow I don't know what to tell you.

[QUOTE=Sprockethead;40005599]Good luck making EVERYONE criminals.[/QUOTE] At least some are bound to be smooth criminals.

[QUOTE=catbarf;40006057]Yes, I'm sure you know better than the companies that invested millions upon millions to analyze the effects of piracy before spending millions upon millions more to actually implement these schemes. They just burn money for [I]fun[/I]. Does anyone really think a rich CEO woke up one morning, decided that piracy must be bad because it seems bad, and then invested enormous amounts of money to prevent it without even a freaking case study? The investors would have his head on a platter.[/QUOTE] Can you prove that they didn't just have a kneejerk reaction to piracy? Quite a few independent and government studies exist showing little to no negative effects from piracy. Some even show positive effects, especially in the gaming field. Remember that a lot of the groups saying piracy are bad are the same ones who think you shouldn't even be able to resell used media, despite that being a direct contradiction of First Sale Doctrine.

You guys do know that because of the scale of the internet, these laws often are guilty before innocent. What counts as Illegal media? It's vague.

Rev up those VPNs.

[img]http://irspscotland.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/international-brigade-flag.jpg[/img] they may need us again brothers.

[QUOTE=dass;40004688]At least we here in Portugal don't give a fuck about piracy and any of that bs :v:[/QUOTE] I'm not sure of that... Look at the mess that the BTuga owner got into...

[QUOTE=FlakAttack;40006349]Can you prove that they didn't just have a kneejerk reaction to piracy? Quite a few independent and government studies exist showing little to no negative effects from piracy. Some even show positive effects, especially in the gaming field. Remember that a lot of the groups saying piracy are bad are the same ones who think you shouldn't even be able to resell used media, despite that being a direct contradiction of First Sale Doctrine.[/QUOTE] Sales of music have been in decline for almost a decade now, while sales to concerts remain fairly static, indicating that demand for music hasn't decreased but revenue from the music itself has. There are plenty of studies indicating this. That's hardly conclusive, there's a lot of contradictory data on the subject, but it's pretty dumb to say that removing someone's ability to control their own work is absolutely harmless and completely unpreventable. [QUOTE=Paul McCartney;40006521]What counts as Illegal media? It's vague.[/QUOTE] It's vague? What's vague about it? If you don't own it, and it's not been made legal to distribute by the rightsholder, it's illegal to download it. It's [i]that simple[/i].

[QUOTE=catbarf;40006761]Sales of music have been in decline for almost a decade now, while sales to concerts remain fairly static, indicating that demand for music hasn't decreased but revenue from the music itself has. There are plenty of studies indicating this. That's hardly conclusive, there's a lot of contradictory data on the subject, but it's pretty dumb to say that removing someone's ability to control their own work is absolutely harmless and completely unpreventable. It's vague? What's vague about it? If you don't own it, and it's not been made legal to distribute by the rightsholder, it's illegal to download it. It's [i]that simple[/i].[/QUOTE] There's no slippery slope possible here, nope no siree

[QUOTE=catbarf;40006761]Sales of music have been in decline for almost a decade now, while sales to concerts remain fairly static, indicating that demand for music hasn't decreased but revenue from the music itself has. There are plenty of studies indicating this. That's hardly conclusive, there's a lot of contradictory data on the subject, but it's pretty dumb to say that removing someone's ability to control their own work is absolutely harmless and completely unpreventable. It's vague? What's vague about it? If you don't own it, and it's not been made legal to distribute by the rightsholder, it's illegal to download it. It's [i]that simple[/i].[/QUOTE] Sales of music are kind of at the highest they've been. The thing is, physical media for cd's being sold is at an all time low, since who the fuck wants to drive when they can just click on itunes.

It's a shame we got a government like this. There are high taxes, overcomplicated bureaucracy, widespread corruption, and they still focus and try their best to push ahead laws like this. You guys can rant about GB & USA politics and politicians as much as you want, but seriously, take a look into the spanish political system. It's as sad as it can get, eventhough we haven't been bailed out as Greece (besides Bankia's case) we're on the brink of destruction. Well, I hope old-time anarchists come back with their guns and grenades and take out as many leeches as possible.