The 'Soto case' began in June 2008 when, through civil proceedings, the record industry - represented by Promusicae, Warner, Universal, EMI and Sony - sued software developer Pablo Soto for 13 million euros in damages, considering that his programs Blubster, ManolitoP2P and Piolet, developed under his MP2P protocol, were "for the illegal exchange of protected music between individuals". During the marathon trial, the defendant admitted that he did not see himself as "the hero of downloads".

The lawsuit was the first through civil proceedings to try to combat the downloading of protected files in Spain after several unfavorable sentences to the industry through other channels. It was also the first in which unfair competition was argued in addition to intellectual property infringement, in an attempt to replicate the 'Napster case' in Spain that ended the file-sharing network in the US.

In the judgment that absolves Soto, the judge, Antonio Martínez-Romillo Roncero - substitute for Miguel María Rodríguez San Vicente, who was in charge of the trial, retired - dismisses, first of all, that there is an intellectual property infringement. Thus, it establishes that the P2P network in question fulfills a "totally neutral technical function" for communication between individuals. It also emphasizes that "the transparency in the activity of the [companies] defendants is absolute" and that "the defendants do not provide any service", only developing a "software that serves for the exchange" of files.

The judgment itself states, like so many others before it, that even linking protected works managed by entities such as the SGAE and disseminated in P2P networks cannot even be considered an intellectual property infringement. All this despite the fact that some judges have recently tended to consider the activity of linking as illicit.

To reason this extreme, it refers to the first absolute judgment of El Rincón de Jesús or the judgment that acquitted the people responsible for indice-web.com (later confirmed by the Provincial Court of Barcelona); that is, the judge insists that the infringing conduct would be the exploitation of the work through public communication, "and in no case the mere fact of facilitating this conduct".
No trace of competition

The judge also dismisses the case for unfair competition. Moreover, it establishes that "the plaintiffs are not competitors of the defendants, since neither participate in the markets of production and commercialization of phonograms nor do the defendants participate in the business of exploiting P2P portals" as is the case with Soto's companies.

The judgment even establishes that the tools developed by Soto are "neutral in nature", that in no case do his companies provide "phonograms" protected by copyright and that the defendant "does not cooperate with users for having developed the'software' that they use, nor do they compete with the plaintiff since their activity is private".

Another of the arguments of the accusation, the fact that there is no "effective filtering" against the exchange of protected files in Soto's'software' is also dismissed in the judgment because, on the one hand, there is no database to check which ones exist, and on the other, because users are encouraged to exchange music with a 'copyleft' license, as argued by the defense in court.

After learning about the judgment, Pablo Soto, in conversation with this newspaper, has shown himself to be "happy", has assured that it is time to celebrate and has acknowledged that he does not believe there will be an appeal, although it would be possible to execute it before the Provincial Court of Madrid. "I am crying with happiness, remembering a lot of my brother, who is making a living outside of Spain and would like to hug him", Soto wrote on Twitter.

The president of Promusicae, Antonio Guisasola, stated in a press release that this judgment will make those who "profit from, by creating programs that encourage the 'piracy' of protected content" feel "a little more unpunished". "The judgment will be duly appealed", he assured, and added that he hopes the new government will take "decisive measures" against exchanges. "It makes no sense that when throughout Europe 'piracy' is pursued decisively both through download websites or links and, in many cases, to users of P2P networks, here sentences like this one are given", he commented.

David Bravo, one of his lawyers along with Javier de la Cueva, has stated to ELMUNDO.es that in his opinion "the judgment marks a before and after in matters related to the conflicts that exist between intellectual property and new technologies" because "a judgment that admits the claim would have meant an important brake on the legal certainty of software developers". He also takes the opportunity to congratulate his client for enduring "with fortitude all kinds of challenges in this lawsuit by the multinational plaintiffs".

Source: Pablo Soto vence a las discográficas | Navegante | elmundo.es