On the 30th of December 2011, the Spanish Parliament approved the implementing regulation of the controversial “Sinde Law” (named after former Minister of Culture, Ángeles González-Sinde). This law contains important innovations against digital piracy, and had already been approved in February 2011 (and published, together with extraordinary measures to support the Spanish economy, in the official bulletin of March 2011, available at the following address: www.boe.es/boe/dias/2011/03/05/pdfs/BOE-A-2011-4117.pdf), but had never been put into practice, in the absence of implementing rules, now disciplined by the Iberian Parliament.
Since March 2012, therefore, the two key measures of the legislative text will enter into force:
- On one hand, the abolition of the so-called “Digital tax”, (the Italian equivalent of fair compensation on blank media). This reflects the elimination decided by the majority judgments of Spanish courts, that on several occasions acknowledged as illegal the presumption of unlawful use of blank CD / DVD;
- On the other hand, and in this case in complete contrast with the case law, the new procedure for the removal of content in violation of copyright from websites and inhibition from accessing to the sites in question from Spanish IPs: the new-born Committee of Intellectual Property will be granted the power to act against anyone who publishes online content in violation of copyright, also by sanctioning hosting providers and ISPs that fail to comply with the order of removal, all this in a maximum of 10 days from the complaint by rights holders, following a procedure of notice and counter-notice.
The second measure cited above, as is evident, takes a different path from the “three-strikes-rule” adopted by the French “HADOPI law,” and aligns with what has already been subject to consultation by AGCOM in Italy: the provision of an additional procedure, not alternative to the judicial one, by which the rightful owner of the rights may, in a faster way and by consulting with the parties involved, obtain removal of illegally distributed media on the net, using mechanisms to block access to Web pages involved.
The Spanish public opinion has so far shown mixed reactions to the new measures proposed, alternating strong protests for alleged constitutional violations by the measures in question, to months of substantial apathy towards the Sinde law. Undoubtfully, it will be interesting to see whether the mechanism set up by the Spanish Parliament will produce or not the desired effect, especially considering the possible adoption of similar measures in Italy.
It is useful to remember that in the past November 2011 elections, the Popular Party won an absolute majority of seats, as well as its best result ever: among the many initiatives of the new government led by Mariano Rajoy, it is expected, in the culture and media sector, a review of the reform process of RTVE, initiated by former Prime Minister Zapatero, which led to removal of advertising from the Spanish public television.