P2P file sharing is legal in Spain

EKRIUQ

In Spain, a Madrid magistrate has declared the case against Sharemula, a website publishing download links through which users can acquire TV series, music, software, etc., dismissed.

In October 2006 15 individuals were arrested, among which were people responsible for Sharemula. Now a year later court came to a decision that the site or its administration have not committed any violations against the copyright law by publishing links to peer-to-peer downloads.

The ruling was a considered a success by the Sharemula attorneys, who based the defense on three existing court rulings on similar cases. By not directly profiting from the downloads or storing illegal content, Sharemula did not break the law and was released from the accusations.

And I checked Spanish copyright law in Wikipedia

Right to the private use of private property

The law explicitly allows the right to make private copies of copyrighted work without the author's consent for published audiovisual works if the copy is not for commercial use. To compensate authors, the law establishes a compensatory tax associated with certain recording media (CDs, DVDs, cassettes), managed through societies of authors and editors (as SGAE and CEDRO). Copies of a protected work may be made for the private use (not collective, nor lucrative) of the copier (2�º of art. 31): the author is compensated by a tax on the means of reproduction (e.g. photocopiers, blank cassettes) determined at article 25. However, computer programs may not be copied except for a backup copy (art. 99.2): they may be modified for the sole use of the person performing the modification (art. 99.4). Any work may be "communicated" within a setting which is "strictly domestic" (art. 20.1). The moral rights of the author may only be exercised in the respect of the rights of owners of copies of the work or of rights to its exploitation, as detailed in article 14.

It pretty much gives the person the right to download a TV show as long as it's for their own use.Interesting, I wonder will the rest of Europe go this way

(I was on holidays in Spain and I brought my laptop "Judge")

rogue-entity

True, but it also provides for this "compensatory tax" bullcrap. Im sorry, but I wont pay a tax on my CD-R/DVD-R's or recording equipment, on the premise that publishers deserve compensation for a recording that I /could/ make using said equipment. And besides.. if Spain became host to a BitTorrent tracker, you can bet your ass the US Government would lean on and threatnen them unless they changed their law to suit the US's software and publishing companies, just like they did in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.