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On 2 March 2011, the Audiencia Provincial de Barcelona (Barcelona Provincial Court) acquitted Padawan, a company which owns a computer store and which had been sued by the Spanish collecting society Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (General Society of Authors and Publishers - SGAE) for not paying the private copying levy in respect of CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R and MP3 players marketed by it. The Court stated that, in this case, it had not been able to determine which equipment and devices were sold to companies and which were sold to individuals. This is the first case challenging the private copying...

On 8 February 2011, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) released its latest reports on Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Monaco, Spain and Turkey, adopted in the fourth round of its monitoring of the laws, policies and practices to combat racism in the Member States of the Council of Europe (for commentary on earlier reports, see IRIS 2010-9/2, IRIS 2010-4/3, IRIS 2009-10/109, IRIS 2009-8/4, IRIS 2009-5/3, IRIS 2008-4/5, IRIS 2006-6/4 and IRIS 2005-7/2). In respect of Armenia, ECRI recommends that the national authorities promote: (i) “without encroaching on the independence...

On 15 February 2011, the Spanish Parliament finally adopted the Sustainable Economy Act. The new act includes a series of controversial measures against the illegal downloading of protected works (the so-called Ley Sinde), which the Parliament had initially removed from the bill prepared by the Government and which were later reintroduced with slight modifications (see IRIS 2011-2/23). These measures amend three further acts, namely the Act on Information Society Services, the Intellectual Property Act and the Act on Administrative Jurisdiction. The Ley Sinde aims at blocking or closing down in...

On 21 December 2010 the Spanish Congress rejected a controversial bill aimed at protecting intellectual property rightsholders from Internet downloaders. All of the main Spanish parties, except for Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's Socialist Party rejected the so-called Sinde Bill, named after Culture Minister Ángeles González-Sinde. The draft legislation would have set up a government commission which would have then provided courts with details of websites offering access to copyright-protected material, such as music, movies, video games or software. A judge could then have ordered...

At its meeting on 28 October 2010, the Spanish National Competition Commission (CNC) approved the merger between TV channels Telecinco and Cuatro subject to the commitments given by Mediaset’s channel last 19 October 2010 by stating that they have addressed the competition concerns identified. On 28 April 2010 Telecinco had reported to the CNC its planned acquisition of Cuatro. This concentration had been previously subject to a referral by the European Commission, which considered that the CNC was the authority best placed to carry out the analysis. The CNC Council decided on 30 June 2010 to move...