Category: Technology Author : Duncan Riley Posted: July 7, 2008
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Julio Alonso, the founder of the leading Spanish blog network Weblogs SL, has been fined €9,000 plus legal costs for comments made by other people on his personal blog.
What makes the story more interesting is that Alonso was sued by SGAE, (the General Society of Authors and Publishers), the Spanish equivalent of the RIAA. The post that ultimately led to the court case was made way back in 2004, and was titled SGAE=Thieves. That post then hit the top of the Spanish version of Google for the term “ladrones” (Thieves).
It’s not clear from the email Julio sent me (nor the links provided) exactly what the comments were, and as of July 4 they were removed per the court order. What I did make out (with some Google translate help) is that the court found that the 22 comments posted by readers in response to that post had damaged the ‘honor’ of SGAE. Alonso still has the right to appeal against the sentence.
The questions then raised: is it safe for anyone is Spain to offer open comments on a blog? and is this even a legal under European law?
If you speak Spanish, you can follow the case on Julio’s blog here, and I’ll be keeping in touch with Julio as the appeal is put together (I’ve been following Weblogs SL since the early Blog Herald days). I’m not sure if there is anything we can do from outside of Spain, but I’m sure many will join me in offering moral support to Julio at this time.
Jul 7, 2008
I wonder if the RIAA have any idea at all of the damage they are doing to their own name and industry through their continually heavy handed actions…
Jul 7, 2008
This sounds like a defamation case to me. Publishing content that is “per se” defamatory (such as so and so is a thief or so and so has AIDS) is an easy court win.
Jul 7, 2008
Fucking spaniard retards.
Jul 7, 2008
In Germany similar laws apply to both bloggers and people running forums. They are held responsible for user comments which means they have to actively monitor and remove comments if they could be labeled libel,… So some bloggers have only allow pre-approved comments because they could be in serious trouble if a comment is for several hours on their blogs.
Jul 7, 2008
A bit of elitism from both the SGAE and the Spanish courts perhaps.
Jul 8, 2008
The google bombing was started and instigated elsewhere, the post on merodeando is just informing about it.
Jul 9, 2008
I hope you realize that this case has nothing to do with the the RIAA.
Aug 31, 2008
From friends I have been informed that you too have problems with your freedom of speach.
I would like you to check out my home page http://www.chupa-protest.dk, where you can read about how Chupa Chups from Barcelone has tried to shut me up for the last 6 years.
I hope this might be helpful to you in your own fight.
Jun 2, 2010
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Jun 2, 2010
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