Website owners whose sites profit from linking to unauthorized copyrighted material can now be jailed for up to six years under a new measure that passed today in Spain. Spain is considered one of the worst offenders in Europe when it comes to illegally downloading content; one study reported that 98.7 of music Spaniards listen to is pirated. The law will spare peer-to-peer filesharing sites, search engines, and users of the link-sharing sites.
The country enacted the law as a response to pressure from the US, where ironically the law is not as strict. Spain is in danger of being added to a list of countries that Washington considers to be the most egregious violators of copyright law, meaning it could be subject to trade sanctions from the US. Considering that Spain has just started recovering from the deep recession that began in 2008, it makes sense that citizens are downloading their music and movies instead of paying for it. But for the same reason, the Spanish government desperately wants to avoid angering one of its best customers.
Comments
disgusting.
By Vellion on 09.20.13 5:31pm
Google is tight
By VirusKA on 09.20.13 5:31pm
seeing as this is a complete abuse of power, sites that are deemed worthy will not have to obey the laws, i.e google
By Vellion on 09.20.13 5:35pm
Not just Google, all search engines.
By bfrostieone on 09.20.13 5:42pm
Wait, there are other search engines than Google?
By Pechente on 09.20.13 6:29pm
no.
By Vellion on 09.20.13 9:23pm
Yandex, Baidu, Qihoo, Sogou. There’s another world outside the US.
By Leica_Virgin on 09.20.13 10:26pm
Bing! Why does no-one remember Bing?!? Apple was proudly showing that Siri can search Bing!!!!!!
By valiantsace on 09.21.13 2:57am
Hmm, the fact that Siri can now find me pictures of wombats was severely under advertised
By moosedude on 09.21.13 5:13pm
Stop undermining Bing!
By valiantsace on 09.21.13 6:01pm
Didn’t they already get over the fascism?
By randomname123 on 09.20.13 5:35pm
Not really, many people in the right-wing party still adore Franco.
By undu on 09.20.13 7:17pm
Not true at all. Franco did a lot of horrible things but also did a lot of good things (for example outfitting the whole of Madrid with electric lighting). Bt nowadays, if you say something good about Franco you get bad looks everywhere
By never4getthis on 09.21.13 3:28am
First of all, your post have nothing to do with what undu said, which is true.
Second, lets talk about the good things Hitler did (Animal conservation, Anti-smoking laws, Autobahn…) and check how people look at you. You can think why that happens later.
By Julioq on 09.21.13 5:16am
As much as I hate Franco, don´t you dare compare him to Hitler – I personally find this comparison to be insulting Spain. Second of all, what undu said is not true, people in the right-wing party do not adore Franco – people who adore Franco adore Franco, that why they have a name “franquistas”.
My comment had to do with what undu said as my concluding sentence was “But nowadays, if you say something good about Franco you get bad looks everywhere”
By never4getthis on 09.21.13 4:01pm
That’s exactly undu’s point, most people at right-wing party are “franquistas”. You just need to check who their fathers were to see where they come from and what they say about Franco. Six months or so ago they were giving honors to the soldiers that were sent from Franco to fight for Hitler (Blue Division).
Why shouldnt I compare both of them? They were fascist dictators on europe at the same time who helped each other. They have their diferences (one won, the other lost) and thats why there’s still people who defend them on Spain.
By Julioq on 09.21.13 6:34pm
That was exactly my point…“But nowadays, if you say something good about Franco you get bad looks everywhere”. Anyways, yout view is very skewed. A lot of people like to think that people in the right-wing party are franquistas because it satisfies their hate against the Conservative party – but it’s not true.
Regarding hitler v Franco…. I’m not even gonna comment
By never4getthis on 09.22.13 3:14am
It’s amazing how some people believe themselves when they say, “this politician did this or that”. Franco didn’t do anything. Someone else did the job, which Franco may have facilitated, but more likely, just allowed to happen during his time as a dictator.
Or do you think that if it wasn’t for Franco personally, Madrid wouldn’t have electricity?
By DrDoppio on 09.21.13 7:03am
Sorry if I was not being 100% accurate in a comment at The Verge. I think everyone understands what people mean when “so-and-so did something”
By never4getthis on 09.21.13 5:26pm
With piracy rates that high the citizens of spain will never pay for music. Fighting a losing battle.
By theratchetnclank on 09.20.13 5:36pm
This isn’t about pirated music though. They want to kill the many streaming websites based in Spain that were considered legal under Spanish law until now.
By David- on 09.20.13 7:30pm
FIFY
By Someguyperson on 09.20.13 8:02pm
U.S. just being a bully again.
By dblevins on 09.20.13 5:50pm
This isn’t actually the USA’s fault though. It looks like Spain was not bothering with copyrights for a long time and then hacked a half baked law to do something, albeit not the right thing.
By walid on 09.20.13 6:58pm
Today, Spain (España, my country) has a new name, AssPain. Thanks to our dear and never corrupt politicians… >___< … :(
By Alvaro Cuesta on 09.20.13 5:55pm