A post by TMV columnist Wayne Rosso has been entered into evidence by a Spanish court against notorious Spanish P2P network Blubster. You can read the post entered into evidence here (http://www.themusicvoid.com/2009/06/can-spain-finally-fight-piracy/).
Even though back when the court case started against Blubster, Wayne Rosso offered his help to Promusicae, the local Spanish RIAA chapel but they never returned his calls. Kind of strange considering at one stage Wayne was President of Optisoft, publisher of Blubster and its sister software Piolet, and he was offering to testify in the court case against the company’s founder.
TMV has to ask was that arrogance or just plain stupidity on the part of the Promusicae? Considering acceptance of evidence was closed, yet the prosecution pushed for Wayne’s post on TMV to be entered as testimony with the judge allowing it into evidence, I would have to say totally stupid from Promusicae’s perspective.
The fact a post written by a previous president of a P2P company has been entered into evidence against the founder of that file sharing company must be a first? Especially considering the Ex-Presidents written blog post words are being used to prosecute the P2P Company’s founder.
Personally, If, I were running a major label in Spain I would be calling for the person in charge of Promusicae to be sacked for gross incompetence. After this scandal perhaps they will be fired.
The leftwing paper, which broke the story in Spain was El Publico and since then it has been published in numerous Spanish newspapers. The key point here is that it is generally rightwing newspaper reporting on P2P prosecutions and a lot of leftwing newspapers usually come across as being on the side of the pirates. Interestingly the defendant in the case Pablo Soto was actually suing the record labels for 13 million euros and this new evidence was allowed for the prosecution’s case even though it ended last May.
Surely, there are serious problems if personnel managing a domestic IFPI office (or equivalent thereof) do not even return calls to a former employee of that country’s most notorious P2P network. This is despite the fact that person in question had actually clearly stated both in writing and verbally that they would be willing to offer testimony in the court proceedings. Let’s hope this is not the case in other territories.
If anything, this just reinforces the perception that associations like the Promusicae really have got it wrong. They do need to be a lot more proactive in their dealings with P2P companies and by proactive, I mean engaging dialogue with, not just pursuing in court.
The case could have probably come to its conclusion a lot earlier if this vital evidence had been taken into account by Promusicae. Perhaps, contempt of court charges could be brought against the person in charge of Promusicae at the time in question? Surely by not calling Wayne as a witness for which he volunteered, Promusicae increased costs for both the court and its own prosecution, and in the process drawing out the process time wise?
TMV does believe the recorded music business does now realize it got it wrong with suing its own consumers and in the early days was not prepared to engage with these pirates (obviously TMV does not condone pirating of music). At least now it seems we could be turning an important corner where the industry is not going to miss the opportunity as they did with Napster 1.0. Here’s to hoping!
