Last month, a Madrid court ordered ISPs in Spain to block The Pirate Bay within 72 hours. Now another file-sharing target in the country has suffered the same fate – thanks to efforts from songwriters’ body AGEDI and recorded music group ProMusicae.
Spain’s National High Court has blocked Goear.com, a website containing over four million audio files, after a judge accepted an appeal lodged by copyright collecting society AGEDI.
The court initially rejected a decision by the country’s culture ministry to declare the streaming site illegal but it eventually accepted AGEDI’s arguments on appeal and yesterday ordered operators to block access to the site within 72 hours.
Although the site had removed 6,883 audio files that violated intellectual property rights, according to AGEDI, it was unable to review the 1,645 new files it received every day. The website contains numerous free educational podcasts in addition to files from up-and-coming artists looking to promote their music.
AGEDI and music industry association Promusicae welcomed the court’s decision, describing blocking orders as “the only effective measure to eliminate websites that violate intellectual property rights.”
The Spanish government last year passed a reform of the country’s Intellectual Property Law, which aims to curb internet piracy by putting in place speedier processes to shut down offending sites, including a one-stop-shop for processing complaints related to copyright infringements.
Goear been operating for several years. This website offered listen audio streaming of almost four million music files uploaded by users.
The site encouraged potential sponsors to advertise by claiming it had “more than three million registered users and millions of quality impressions, one click”.
“This new resolution adds to the recently enacted [decision] in our country against The Pirate Bay and confirms the blockade as the only effective measure to eliminate the websites that violate intellectual property rights,” said Antonio Guisasola, president of Promusicae and AGEDI.
“The Order issued now ends a long process to combat one of many frauds in the digital environment… I always insist on the absolute need to act decisively to stop these kind of pages – they are unfair competition to other [outlets] that do offer guarantees for consumers and producers of music. It is especially pleasing that we are beginning to keep up with the countries that surround us in legal terms.”Music Business Worldwide
