Economists Tell Spanish Gov't Its New Copyright Laws Are A Mistake (original) (raw)

from the good-for-them dept

We recently pointed out that, following several very reasonable copyright lawsuit rulings in Spain (that recognized private copying shouldn’t be illegal, and that secondary liability didn’t make sense), the Spanish gov’t was backing copyright reform, supported by the entertainment industry, and would basically make Spanish copyright law mimic all the mistakes found in many other countries. Thankfully, some economists are speaking up to let the Spanish gov’t know that this sounds like a terrible mistake. As TorrentFreak notes:

The report, published by the economy research center FEDEA, harshly criticizes the Government’s plans to clamp down on the file-sharing public. They say that the current proposals are a “useless and an ineffective way to defend the artists because it is already an ancient form of fighting piracy.”

According to professors Fernandez and Boldrin, the proposed legislation only benefits the major labels and artists “at the expense of users and lesser-known artists.” They further say that it would be more effective for the entertainment industry to explore new business models instead of clinging to an old model that has proven to be ineffective.

“The Internet has changed the playing field and there are new rules that would allow a substantial reduction in property rights,” Professor Pablo Vazquez said commenting on the report. The researchers therefore advise the Government to stop its war on piracy and come up with legislation that would allow for reduced copyright terms .

You may recognize the name of one of the professors involved. Michele Boldrin is the co-author of Against Intellectual Monopoly, and took part in our CwF+RtB experiment last year, and even co-wrote a nice guest post on the site.