Criminalization around P2P can halt innovation

تميز IDC المشاريع التكنولوجية في البرتغال

Spain experienced the filing of yet another case involving a portal that featured links to P2P sites. The responsible judge defended that there was no crime.

The decision states that the site, «given the police reports themselves, does not contain files of audiovisual works, but only P2P links (…). There is no content at www.naiadadonkey.com», writes El Mundo, citing the magistrate.

The case goes back three years ago, in a large-scale operation that involved the arrest of several people and the blocking of web pages, including naiadadonkey.com, which now sees the lawsuit filed, just as it had already happened with the Indicedonkey and emule24horas, writes El Mundo.

«It is complicated to criminalize someone who has developed a technological tool, as this creates absolute uncertainty for all those who bet on innovation», says the judge in the sentence of 19 June known now.

It is also written that, «although it is true that the Anglo-Saxon criminal law of intellectual property has recently pursued this type of conduct, that same right has nothing to do with Spanish legislation».

Recognizing the need to defend copyrights, the judge considers, however, that they must be coordinated with «users’ rights» and that this relationship cannot be made at the expense of «generalized criminalization of society».