The penultimate step for the modification of the Spanish Intellectual property Law

24.10.2014

Last October 15, the reform of the Spanish Intellectual Property Law, also known as Lasalle Law, passed its penultimate step of the procedure before the Plenum of the Senate.  After receiving the approval of both the Senate’s and Congress’s Culture Commission and the Upper House, the draft law will be sent back to Congress to be finally approved.  

One of the most important modifications of the Lasalle Law is the harder punishment against piracy, incrementing the quantity of the fines by changing its maximum from 300.000 to 600.000 euros and its minimum from 30.000 to 150.001 euros.  This law gives the Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission (entity responsible for the investigation and closure of pirate websites) more agility in its management, giving it the power to intervene if “the provider in question has an appreciable level of audience in Spain or an appreciable – not “notorious” – volume of works and the unauthorised provision of protected works”.

Aside from this greater punishment for internet piracy, the reform also includes a compensation for private copy, the ‘one-stop window’ as a single payment system for copyright payment and invoice, or the compensation of the news aggregators to the editors, commonly known as the “Google fee”. 

The “Google fee” is the economic compensation for the news editors for the exploitation of their content in the online news aggregartors scope.

The ‘one-stop window’ payment system imposed by the Lasalle law will entail the need to name a private legal entity to be in charge of centralizing all the operations. 

Another modification found in the content of the new law is the extension of the protection deadline of the artists’, performers’ and phonogram producers’ rights from 20 years to 50 to 70 years. 

All the signs indicate that the final decision on its approval will be made next week.  If it is finally approved, it will come into force on January 1, 2015. 

Written by: Athena Poysky

Source: http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2014/10/16/actualidad/1413441422_686312.html

Image: HTC PC36100. Bajo licencia creative commons. (CC BY 2.0)

 


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