Bit Torrent sites a step closer to legality in Spain
In September a Spanish court decided that the Emule indexing site, called Sharemula operated legally, indicating that linking to material that infringes copyright is allowed by law. Now that decision has been reinforced because a court decided that a site previously closed by the police, operated legally.
In July 2007 we reported the case of TodoTorrente.com, one of the largest BitTorrent sites in Spain. After a long investigation by the Anti-Piracy Federation in Spain, an announcement was made by the Directorate of the Police and the Civil Guard: The site was closed by court order and the administrators arrested.
According to the Spanish police, the site has caused losses of 35,000 euros and obtained benefits of 30,000 euros. Unfortunately, the authorities do not have the benefit of the forecast, which would have made them understand how Spanish law would deal with a site that links to material that infringes copyright.
In September 2008 a Spanish court decreed that providing links to copyrighted material is not a crime. The Provincial Court of Madrid decreed that Sharemula.com, a site that offers Edonkey links to movies, music, software, and games, does not violate the law. Moreover, the decision of the court was final and there is no right to appeal. click here for more information.
If the failure of the Sharemula case is maintained, that means that TodoTorrente was not breaking the law either. The lawyer David Bravo who was involved in the case of TodoTorrente, contacted TorrentFreak, updating the situation of TodoTorrente. David noted that the raid and arrests had a great impact on Spanish and foreign media.
Of particular interest was an editorial published in Portal Latino, which stated that TodoTorrente was not "children playing in a network", but an illegal business and celebrated its closure. David explains that the uproar caused by the media left little room for the arrested administrators to be considered innocent until proven guilty.
However, after an appeal was made to the Magistrate of the Court of Orihuela, a provisional order of dismissal of the TodoTorrente case has now been issued. The court decided that the site and its administrators have not committed any crime "since the investigation showed that the website was limited to providing links to download and did not offer downloads directly."
Essentially, the court decided that TodoTorrente operated in a similar way to Sharemula. The decision is open to appeal, but there is no doubt that Bit Torrent sites are closer to legality in Spain.