Today, March 1, the new law controlling illegal downloading on the Internet, Ley Sinde-Wert, comes into effect.
The aim of the law is to stop the illegal downloading of contents protected by authors’ rights. The first forced closures of web pages could come into effect by the end of March.
The new government of Mariano Rajoy approved the anti downloading legislation on December 20, 2011 and it takes effect from March 1, 2012.
The Commission of Intellectual Property (the members´ names will be kept secret) will act as a “bridge” between the owners of the intellectual rights and the owners of the web pages
in order to “reestablish the legality of the Internet.” The commission will be able to apply for a webpage to be withdrawn or close sites which facilitate downloading material without the authors’ permission.
The procedure will initiate when a complaint is received from an author. At this point the Commission will consider whether the webpage is profit making or has caused “patrimonial damage.” The process could take up to 20 days.
Once the Commission accepts a complaint it must apply to a judge for a petition to identify the responsible person in order to inform them of the allegation. The owner of the webpage then has 48 hours to withdraw the material or enter a defence.
If the judge decides in favour of the complaint the execution of this decision may be voluntary or enforced in cooperation with the telecommunications businesses.
Since the closure of Megaupload by the FBI the most popular webpages for downloading or “streaming” such as Series Yonkies have already withdrawn their links.
