Piratería en España
Cable en el que se califica de "agresivas" las prácticas de la SGAE
Este telegrama cuenta cómo está formada la entidad de gestión y las fricciones que existen entre la industria cultural y esta sociedad
| ID: | 184379 |
| Date: | 2008-12-22 16:29:00 |
| Origin: | 08MADRID1351 |
| Source: | Embassy Madrid |
| Classification: | UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY |
| Dunno: | 08MADRID1150 08MADRID1194 08MADRID1318 08MADRID1346 |
| Destination: | VZCZCXRO2600 RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR DE RUEHMD #1351/01 3571629 ZNR UUUUU ZZH R 221629Z DEC 08 FM AMEMBASSY MADRID TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5815 INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE RUEHLA/AMCONSUL BARCELONA 3726 RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC |
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MADRID 001351 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/WE, EEB/TPP/IPE, EEB/CIP STATE PASS USTR DWEINER USDOC FOR 4212/DCALVERT USDOC ALSO FOR PTO E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD, KCRM, KIPR, SP SUBJECT: SPAIN: IPR PIRACY GETTING MORE ATTENTION REF: A. MADRID 1346 B. MADRID 1318 C. MADRID 1194 D. MADRID 1150 MADRID 00001351 001.2 OF 003 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY SUMMARY 1. (SBU) In addition to IPR-related developments reported in ref A, the Ministry of Culture recently unveiled a new IPR enforcement manual, prepared in concert with law enforcement agencies and rights-holders' organizations. Meanwhile, the country's largest copyright management society has come under fire for its aggressive and allegedly deceptive practices in enforcing its members' rights. Recent GOS actions and declarations concerning internet piracy have attracted widespread media and public attention and prompted a small demonstration by anti-regulation internet users December 20. The amount of recent activity on the internet piracy front appears to reflect growing expectations that some sort of regulatory change is in the offing. End Summary. IPR ENFORCEMENT MANUAL UNVEILED 2. (U) On December 11, Ministry of Culture Director General for Policy and Cultural Industries Guillermo Corral Van Damme unveiled a Manual of Best Practices for the Pursuit of Crimes Against Intellectual Property. Coordinated by the Culture Ministry, the Manual includes input from the Interior and Justice Ministries, the Prosecutor General's Office (Fiscalia), the National Police, Guardia Civil, Judicial Council, Tax Authority, the Federation of Provinces and Municipalities, and copyright management entities. The Manual provides background on the phenomena of IPR and piracy in Spain and provides statistics and charts on enforcement actions. It also provides a series of guidelines on how to investigate complaints, obtain and preserve evidence, and bring offenders to justice. While it refers to "crimes against intellectual property," the Manual is devoted specifically to copyrighted cultural content, without reference to patent or trademark protection. It addresses "top manta" - the sale of pirated or counterfeit merchandise on sidewalks and in informal street markets, concealed under blankets - as well as digital piracy. 3. (U) In addition to DG Corral, Jose Antonio Robles Garrido, Chief Inspector of the IPR Crimes unit of the National Police; Joaquin Delgado Martin of the Central Secretariat of the National Judicial Conference; and Jose Luis Perez Quintero of the investigations and anti-fraud department of the Music Producers of Spain (PROMUSICAE) spoke at the launch of the Manual. In his remarks, Corral said the Manual presents the most common piracy problems, with suggested and recommended solutions to those problems and especially ways to coordinate among all affected and interested parties, from owners, rights-holders, and intermediaries to technical experts, police, prosecutors, and judges. 4. (U) Perez of PROMUSICAE expressed appreciation on behalf of rights-holders for the government's work in preparing the Manual and its efforts to improve protection. He noted with satisfaction that the Manual stipulates that peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing and downloading without permission of the rights-holder of the material always constitutes some sort of infringing activity. The Manual specifically lists, as a legitimate investigative practice, a police agent's registering on-line with a false identity in order to gather evidence of unauthorized P2P file-sharing. 5. (SBU) Comment: The Fiscalia's Circular 1 of May 5, 2006 on Crimes Against Intellectual and Industrial Property in Light of the Reform of Organic Law 15/2003 states that alleged IPR infringers are subject to criminal prosecution only when they act "with a profit motive and to the detriment of a third party," a provision which many internet users and law enforcement officials have read as essentially decriminalizing P2P downloads. Rights-holders complain that one consequence of the Circular's language is a reluctance on the part of police and prosecutors to act against unauthorized P2P activity. Furthermore, numerous judges have rejected criminal complaints involving P2P file-sharing on the grounds of no established profit motive. The GOS has thus far shown little interest in amending or clarifying the MADRID 00001351 002.2 OF 003 Circular, arguing that it is legally correct and leaves open to rights-holders the option of civil litigation when criminal prosecution fails. While the Manual does not correct or even contradict the Circular, rights-holders hope its unambiguous characterization of unauthorized P2P downloads as always infringing may spur authorities to pursue such behavior more vigorously, and judges to punish offenders more often. End Comment. COPYRIGHT MANAGEMENT SOCIETY CRITICIZED 6. (SBU) According to Clara Mapelli, Ministry of Culture Deputy Director General for Intellectual Property, the Ministry plans to undertake a campaign to improve the public image of copyright management societies. These societies, which collect royalties on behalf of artists, entertainers, and other creators and producers, are widely perceived as rent-seeking social parasites. Many ordinary Spaniards resent them for the "private copy levy" ("canon digital") on blank recording media and recording and playing devices, which emerged briefly as an issue in national elections earlier this year. 7. (U) The largest copyright management society, the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE), has some 91,000 members and reported revenues in 2007 of approximately 380 million euros. SGAE has come under critical media attention recently for an incident in late 2007 in which the society allegedly paid an undercover detective to crash and surreptitiously video-record a private wedding party in Sevilla to gather evidence that the organizers were having copyrighted music performed without having paid the required fees. This led in turn to an expensive judgment against SGAE for violation of the newlyweds' privacy rights, and to a series of articles in major media, led by daily of record "El Pais," aiming to expose SGAE's aggressive enforcement practices. 8. (U) At the unveiling of the Best Practices Manual, DG Corral was asked whether SGAE's methods of enforcing its members' rights constituted the sort of good practice the Manual strove to encourage. He replied that enforcement of the law is the sole competence of duly constituted authorities, and that while private entities like SGAE may provide the authorities with information and ask for their help in protecting their rights, they may not take the law into their own hands. Culture Minister Molina, likewise queried about SGAE at his press breakfast (ref A), noted that it is a legitimately established and well-respected entity with a long history, and which is entitled to defend its members' interests, so long as it conforms to the law in so doing; otherwise, he averred, it may expose itself to legal problems. SPOTLIGHT ON DIGITAL PIRACY AND POSSIBLE REMEDIES 9. (U) A series of recent GOS actions and statements (see refs A-B) - e.g., the launch of the Ministry of Culture's public awareness campaign; Culture Minister Cesar Antonio Molina's announcement that new anti-piracy regulations may be coming soon; and Minister of Industry, Tourism, and Trade Miguel Sebastian's remarks at the late November digital content conference (FICOD) on the importance of IPR protection - have generated increased media attention to the internet piracy issue and possible remedies. Following its critical expose of SGAE's activities, El Pais published an IPR-related news article or op-ed piece every day during the week of December 15. Contributors included Jose Manuel Tourne of the Federation for the Protection of Intellectual Property (FAP), laying out the rights-holders' perspective; Miguel Perez Subias, president of the Internet Users' Association, arguing for total legalization of P2P activity; Jesus Nunez Banegas of the Information and Communications Technology Business Association (AETIC), warning of the complications and perils implicit in graduated response regimes; Javier Ribas of business law firm Landwell-PWC, outlining legal underpinnings of a graduated response system; and Secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society Francisco Ros Peran, reiterating the government's position that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and rights-holders need to reach a mutually acceptable agreement that recognizes the competing rights and responsibilities of the different stake-holders. On December 21, El Pais published an inverview in which Didier Lombard, worldwide president of France Telecom - which operates in MADRID 00001351 003.2 OF 003 Spain under the name "Orange," one of the four members of the ISP association Redtel - expressed support for the implementation in Spain of a graduated response regime similar to one currently contemplated in legislation under consideration by France's parliament. 10. (U) On November 20, a group estimated at about 30 "cyber-activists" held a brief demonstration outside the Madrid headquarters of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE - ruling party) in favor of free, legal P2P downloads. The demonstrators set up two computers on which they downloaded copyrighted material. Activists unfurled banners and waved signs with such messages as "Digital culture should be free" and (playing on the Ministry of Culture campaign slogan, "If you're legal, you're all right") "Be legal: Create, copy, share, modify." The demonstrators' choice of the party headquarters was reportedly a reaction to the possibility of a more vigorous government response to internet piracy. COMMENT 11. (SBU) Fellow members of the Anti-Piracy Coalition recognize that the copyrights management societies' bad public image sometimes hurts rights-holders' efforts to secure better IPR enforcement. According to Jose Manuel Tourne, the election-related flap earlier this year over the digital canon - in which SGAE and similar organizations were portrayed as heavies - made the societies nervous about possibly losing significant revenues and thus reluctant to press the government too hard to amend the Fiscalia's Circular. The most recent spate of bad publicity involving SGAE could potentially damage the rights-holders' cause in the court of public opinion and strengthen the hand of the telecoms and the internet users' associations. At the same time, the lively debate in the pages of Spain's largest circulation daily newspaper and the demonstration may be seen as signs of expectations that some sort of regulatory change is in the offing. End Comment. AGUIRRE |
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