Spanish court: File sharing is like loaning out a book

Three judges in Spain recently compared peer-to-peer file sharing to loaning books instead of theft, as the country continues to be criticized for its lax copyright law enforcement.

The EGEDA audiovisual rights collecting society helped during investigations, which led to the shut down of CVCDGO.com, a popular file-sharing forum.  The site was accused of providing access for members to download movies directly off different peer-to-peer file sharing networks.

Police eventually arrested four people who ran the site, after conducting raids in Madrid, Malaga and Seville.

Interestingly, the site was supported based on advertising alone and did not have additional revenue sources like many traditional P2P programs do.  Furthermore, the site didn’t physically host any shared copyrighted material, and wasn’t generating direct revenue from the files being shared.

After numerous delays and legal maneuvering, the judges involved in the case finally ruled that the site’s practices were more like loaning instead of stealing.

Spain has recently been accused of hosting a large amount of organized piracy within its borders, and has been listed as one of five pirate nations.  In addition, IDC Research pegs nationwide piracy during the second half of 2009 as costing copyright holders $6 billion in just six months.

The copyright groups obviously have a steep uphill battle to climb in Spain, but they plan to take it one step at a time. Even though this case may have been dismissed, and it cannot be appealed, it’s possible that copyright holders will file additional lawsuits.