Spain gets tough with new anti-piracy measures

The government in Spain yesterday approved new legislation for blocking websites deemed to be supporting copyright infringement, as part of the controversial worldwide spread of tough anti-piracy measures.

Spain is to have a new government body with the power to force internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to sites.

Similar rules are already on the table in the US, despite widespread opposition from internet users and the technology industry.

The creative industries have welcomed the global crackdown on piracy, but net activists feel that it is a draconian and ultimately futile approach.

Spain's Sinde Law, named after the former Spanish culture minister Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde, enables copyright holders to report any websites thought to be infringing their rights to the new government body.

The commission will then decide whether to take action, including options to ask a judge to rule on whether the site should be shut down. If this is completed, the ISP must block the site within ten days.

Spain has been under pressure to act on piracy ever since a 2008 US report found it to be among the worst countries in Europe for copyright infringement.

A later IDC report claimed that piracy in the country cost legal copyright rights owners 5.2bn euros (£4.3bn) in the first half of 2010.

Spanish deputy prime minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said that the new legislation would "safeguard intellectual property, boost our culture industries and protect the rights of owners, creators and others in the face of the lucrative plundering of illegal downloading sites".

However, UK campaigning organisation the Open Rights Group said that it was "another example of bad copyright law eating away at the safeguards around freedom of expression".

Peter Bradwell, from the group, told the BBC: "The same overblown demands to pare down proper legal processes are being made to the government here in the UK.

"Our policy makers must not throw away the keys to the internet simply because copyright lobbyists are quite good at complaining."

Bloggers, journalists and technology professionals in Spain have also criticised the Sinde Laws, including hacking group Anonymous staging a protest at last year's Goya Awards - Spain's equivalent of the Oscars - in which the culture minister was booed.

In the UK, the Digital Economy Act introduced measures to block websites found guilty of copyright infringement, but the creative industries have found other ways to take action.

Movie industry trade body the Motion Picture Association successfully managed to force BT for prevent access to Newzbin2, a members-only site which is alleged to host links to pirated material.

The landmark legal case against the operators of Newzbin2 by the MPA - which represents major studios such as Universal, Disney and Fox - was brought in July last year under the UK Copyright, Design and Patents Act.

Sky has also since agreed to block the site following a court order, while pressure is mounting on fellow ISPs, Virgin Media and TalkTalk.

Over in the US, the new Sopa (Stop Online Piracy Act) legislation has widely been criticised by a number of technology firms and activist groups.

Sopa aims to 'throttle' foreign online copyright pirates by stopping web advertising networks and payment processors from doing business with them.

But the founders of Google, Twitter, eBay and Wikipedia were among a large group of signatories to an opposition letter submitted to Congress, criticising Sopa as a new form of censorship.