EU Public Affairs Monitor - 19/12/08

RIAA to end its “Sue The World” policy
“In a week dominated by the Leonard Cohen classic, can I just say "hallelujah". A year that began with the news all four majors had ended their kamikaze love affair with digital rights management, is ending with the news that the Recording Industry Association Of America is axing its other self-defeating, unhelpful, surely-record-company-execs-cant-be-this-dumb policy of suing individual music fans over their use of P2P file sharing technology to acquire or share unlicensed music.

From the word go the RIAA has been at the forefront of the litigious approach to tackling the piracy threat of the internet, which was good news for lawyers, but bad news for pretty much everyone else, not least the record companies who had to foot the bill for the legal campaign that was destined to fail from the word go, and which destroyed the already sagging reputation of the record industry at a time when it needed public and consumer support, partly because the labels were clearly going to have to develop direct customer relationships moving forward, and partly because it needed enough goodwill to fight for a re-evaluation of copyright systems.
The original strategy was to sue any company making P2P networking possible. But it soon became clear that suing Napster, Grokster, Kazaa et al was not effective because, even when the US courts eventually started to find in the labels' favour, the kids had always transferred their loyalties to newer P2P systems by the time older ones had been sued out of business.” [CMUDaily]

Culture announced an imminent "unpopular" measure against piracy
“Molina says that EU ministers have in their agenda actions against practices "illegitimate"

Today, Cesar Antonio Molina, the Spanish Culture Minister, announced that "not too late" there will be legislation, "which is likely to be unpopular" to regulate Internet piracy, a practice that has branded as "illegitimate" during the ‘Breakfast Briefing Europe Press’ and that, in his view, affects the whole culture.

Asked about the possibility of blinding access to Internet pirates repeat, Molina has stated that they are "exploring ways" and that "not too late there will be a regulation" this whole issue. Probably it’ll be a regulation that will be very unpopular, but what is unpopular, dilapidated and a disaster is that thousands of jobs that gives the culture will disappear by this illegal action. That can’t be allowed, he said.

Also, Molinas says that from the Ministry of Culture is struggling and acting very well" against piracy since "many fronts" and that at European ministers meetings is a "reiterative theme”, with the development of new laws and new forms of organization, to prevent piracy, "a termite that is destroying entire network of industry, to acquire such extreme shades."” [UFI]

Copyright cop wedding crashers fined by Spanish court
“The next time you have a wedding, make sure your videographer isn't a secret spy for the RIAA or similar copyright group. This real-life scenario happened to a couple in Spain thanks to the efforts of the Spanish General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE), a rights group for musicians and artists. But although the group managed to bust the reception venue for copyright violations, SGAE itself has been fined for violating the privacy of the newlyweds.

The incident originally took place back in 2005, when SGAE snuck a private detective into the wedding reception acting as a cameraman. The group had suspected the venue—La Doma restaurant near Seville, Spain—for using music without paying royalties. Predictably, this series of events have horrified privacy advocates who argue that the couple's privacy was breached. As noted by The Sunday Times, however, the issue has come to light recently because SGAE has increased its efforts to catch venues that are avoiding royalty payments, and another, similar case is about to go to court.” [ArsTechnica]