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Deutsch: Asociación de Internautas wendet sich wegen Gerichtsurteil an Europä...
Asociación de Internautas (the Spanish Association of Internet Users - AI) has recently denounced to the European Commission (EC) the Spanish Supreme Court decision in the case introduced by SGAE (the General Society of Authors and Editors) in March 2004.
In its ruling at the end of December 2009, the Supreme Court decided against AI and later on ordered the association to remove the website "putasgae.org" and pay SGAE damages for user generated content that insulted SGAE and other persons and entities.
The association considers that the sentence has ignored the Spanish as well as the European jurisprudence on the provision of Internet services, as it was found responsible for content placed by third parties. "It is as if when a letter with insults and threats was sent, the Post office were responsible for carrying the letter and not those who wrote it" says the denounce.
AI also argues it had no previous control over contents especially as this would be contrary to the Spanish and European norms at least until there is a notification of an illicit activity and that it lacked effective knowledge of the illicit content. According to the Spanish Act 34 that implements the European E-commerce Directive 2000/31/EC, a judicial order is required to prove the existence of effective knowledge.
Furthermore, AI stated that it had blocked the access to the respective content when notified by the existence of a complaint.
The association draws the attention on the dangerous precedent created by this decision which could bring sanctions for other web sites and even other communication means because any "information could be now denounced by anybody".
In the meantime, a campaign was initiated by Internet users in order to gather money to support AI to pay the fine. According to Víctor Domingo, AI President, the amount of 25 500 euro has already been gathered.
PUTASGAE case: We are going to Europe! (only in Spanish, 8.04.2010)
http://www.internautas.org:80/html/6093.html
Asociación de Internautas takes Putasgae case to Europe (only in Spanish,
8.04.2010)
http://www.libertaddigital.com/internet/la-asociacion-de-internautas-l...
Supreme Court ruling against owners of defamatory website (13.04.2010)
http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=dd847cb4-5e68-4c3b-97fd-...
EDRi-gram: Spain: NGO fined by the Supreme Court for hosting offensive
contents (13.01.2010)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.1/putasgae-case-spain