A Spanish judge has dealt a blow to the global music industry after ruling that there is nothing illegal about downloading music for free from the internet as long as it is for personal use.
The decision, the first of its kind in Europe, opens the way for Spain's estimated 16 million internet users to swap music through online sites. "This is extremely unusual," said a spokesman for the international recording industry body IFPI, as the judgment was announced yesterday.
Judge Paz Aldecoa threw out a case against an unnamed 48-year-old man who offered and downloaded digital versions of music on the internet. He also sent selections of music recorded on CDs out to people in the post, claimed the prosecution.
The judge ruled that, under Spanish law, a person who downloaded music for personal use could not be punished or branded a criminal. "That would imply criminalising socially admitted and widely practised behaviour where the aim is not to gain wealth illegally but to obtain private copies," she said in her judgment.
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