Spanish anti-piracy law approved by the Government

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Deutsch: Spanische Regierung bestätigt Anti-Piraterie-Gesetz


The Spanish Council of Ministers approved on 19 March 2010 the draft for the Sustainable Economy Law (LES) that gives legal cover to the closure of sites that links to "illegal" content made available without the the copyright owners' permission.

Despite the very active and strong opposition and criticism (even that of the Spanish Fiscal Council) the draft LES was approved by the Spanish Government without any change as stated Ángeles González Sinde, Minister of Culture.

The approved draft stipulates the setting up of an Intellectual Property Commission that would have the power to denounce to the high court websites deemed to facilitate illegal downloading of copyrighted content. The court is to rule in a 4-day term whether one website accused of illegal downloading can be shut down or not, meaning that the court only decides on whether a website closure would violate fundamental rights such as the freedom of expression.

The draft law will further on go to the Parliament.

The Government approves the Sustainable Economy Law draft (only in Spanish, 20.03.2010)
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/economia/Gobierno/aprueba/proyecto/Ley/...

Sinde answers that "everything is all right" with the anti-downloading law (only in Spanish, 22.03.2010)
http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20100322/sinde-responde-que-todo-esta-orde...

Spanish Govt Backs Anti-Piracy Proposals (22.03.2010)
http://www.itespresso.es/es/news/2010/03/22/ley-antidescargas-paso-fir...

EDRI-gram: Spanish Fiscal Council criticizes the new draft law on IPR enforcement (24.02.2010)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.4/spanish-fiscal-council-criticiz...