Spain to Clamp Down on File-Sharers

A bill that would allow Spain’s authorities to close down illegal websites with limited judicial oversight has caused anger among the country’s Internet users.

The law, known as Sinde’s bill (after the current culture minister Ángeles González-Sinde) is designed to close the loophole that sharing sites such as Roja Directa have exploited.

If you go to the website today, you will find a pithy warning against Internet piracy, courtesy of the U.S. authorities. The U.S. has exerted considerable pressure on Spain over what it sees as Madrid’s failure to tackle Internet piracy.

A banner with the seals of the U.S. Department of Justice, plus two other bureaucracies, informs Internet users that the Spanish domain name, formerly a hub of illegal sports content, has been seized in accordance with U.S. copyright law.

But if you do a search, it takes very little to realize that Roja Directa is alive and kicking. It just has been moved somewhere else and, much like Sweden’s The Pirate Bay, continues to put global file-sharers in contact, so they can download recent sports games, movies and more from each others’ computer.

Before the U.S. authorities shut down its main website in February, Roja Directa survived a legal challenge in Spain, as a local judge ruled that the website doesn’t break the law by putting file-sharers in contact with each other.

The Spanish authorities are getting fed up with this kind of thing. So despite some serious backlash from organized Internet users, they are set to make Sinde’s bill into law over this summer, aiming to get the ultimate tool to get rid of the likes of Roja Directa, and other notorious file-sharers.

“This is clear breach of the separation of powers,” says Enrique Dans, a professor in Madrid’s prestigious IE Business School.

The bill has had a troubled birth. A previous attempt to introduce the bill at the end of last year faltered after the government failed to attract enough support, as critics zeroed in on a proposal to let the government shut down the website without judicial oversight. Having watered down this proposal—a judge will now have to approve the government’s decision before it’s implemented—the government is confident it can secure enough support to pass the bill.

Alejandro Ramos, an Internet security expert in the SecurityByDefault website, estimates that 41% of the 517 webpages engaging in some sort of file-sharing in Spain will come under threat from the new law.

Those opposed to the law note that it comes on top of existing copyright regulations, which are among the most restrictive, and widely flouted, in the developed world. For years, Spain has been adding a surcharge on the price of CDs and DVDs payable to the country’s powerful artists’ unions.

The government’s anxiety over piracy may be explained by a desire to keep in with these unions, as they have a knack for making political statements.

However, there are more direct concerns—according to the Paris-based consultancy TERA Consultants—Spain’s creative industries generate about €62 billion in annual added value for Spain’s €1 trillion economy. They also employ 1.2 million, in a country with five million unemployed, just over 21% of the working-age population.

All the same, Sinde’s law will only affect Spanish-based websites, which may dampen its impact. As for Roja Directa, it’s been overseas for a while, and its email contact has an Indian domain extension.

 

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