(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

The Spanish General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE) has been fined for having placed a private detective in a restaurant in Seville, in 2005, to film a wedding in order to prove that the restaurant was using music for which it had paid no royalties.

The court in Seville where the action was heard found that the video presented by SGAE as proof against the restaurant was inadmissible because it was "a clear violation of the constitutional rights to a person's own image" and it was in breach of the privacy of the couple because it had been taken clandestinely. The law requires the "unequivocal consent of the affected person" in the treatment of his (her) personal data.

The society was given a 60 101 euro fine, imposed by the Spanish Data Protection Agency.

The case has brought up the fact that using private detectives to clandestinely check weddings in search of copyright infringements is a common practice for SGAE. "Using private detectives to investigate fraud is common. We will carry on doing it" said Pedro Farre, SGAE Director. Concerning the fact that its detectives acted clandestinely he stated: "There are times when in order to protect the legal good such type of proofs are necessary".

The court also decided that the detective had breached the law of private safety which forbids this type of professionals to use in their investigations "technical means that may infringe the right to honour, intimacy and the right to one's own image". Although SGAE argued that it did not specify to the detective what means to use in his investigation and that filming does not imply the generation of a personal data file, the court decision considered the video as belonging to the personal data category. According to the law, personal data is "all numerical, alphabetical, graphic, photographic, acoustic or any other type of information susceptible of being collected, processed or transmitted referring to an identified or identifiable natural person" as was the case of the wedded couple.

The restaurant was however fined 43 179 euro for having used music without paying copyright fees on the basis of other proofs.

Farré declared that the Society was going to consider whether to appeal the decision.

Secret wedding video ruling is music to ears of privacy groups (15.12.2008)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5342297.ece

SGAE will have to pay 60.101 for recording a wedding without authorization(only in Spanish, 8.12.2008)
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/12/08/cultura/1228709280.html

SGAE will have to pay a 60.000 euros fine for recording a wedding without permission (only in Spanish, 7.12.2008)
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/12/07/cultura/1228662714.html