$20 MILLION IN DAMAGES SOUGHT
Promusicae, which represents the recording industry in Spain, has filed a claim in the Madrid Court for Commercial Matters against P2P pioneer Pablo Soto Bravo, the creator of Blubster, Piolet and Manolito. The suit claims that these sites supply users with software to "facilitate the illegal interchange of copyrighted music" and Sony BMG, Universal, EMI and WMG have joined in support.
But Soto Bravo is not going quietly. "We intend to vigorously defend ourselves against this shake down attempt by the major label cabal," says the founder and CEO of MP2P Technologies. "Rather than embracing technology, they have chosen a path that will ultimately lead to their own demise...
as evidenced by the labels consistent decline over the past decade. Litigation is in itself not a valid business model for them, however, it has been a dogged and futile pursuit of theirs since the advent of P2P."
"PROMUSICAE (Spanish branch of the IFPI; international arm of the RIAA) tried to proceed with civil suits against users of P2P networks in Spain and, after being halted by the Court of Justice of the EU, it has now decided to go against a neutral communication tool such as P2P technology," he added.
