Copyright Laws in Spain (advice pls)
 

So I find a site that has content that I need taken down. They dont have permission to use this. Anyhow, I find the contact details and I email a formal DMCA letter.

I receive a letter back saying:
"Hi Amy, we are a hosting company. You'll have to complaint directly to the webmaster, sorry."

I respond with, please give me the contact email for the webmaster to this site.

He responds with:
"Hi Amy, if our customer register the domain with illegal characters, not allowed by ICANN, then the domain is registered with a default data, our company profile.
We cannot provide any information of our clients. Here in Spain there is an strict protection data law. Please tell your lawyer he will have to ask for this info directly to a judge. We cannot provide any personal data without judge authorization."

So what now? If he is the hosting company, isnt he responsible for what is on his server? Can I send a formal complaint to google?

Tell them you will send an abuse report to their upstream provider and have their hosting shut off.

Thanks so much.

I'm not a lawyer but it sounds they're actually right. DMCA is an American thing so it doesn't really count. And also data protection always counts heavier than copyright...

So they are protected because of "data protection"?

Europe has pretty much the same thing. They have the Copyright Directive or EUCD.

whatabout the registrar of the domain, cant they do anything?

They are listed as the registrar.

Then also tell them you will file a complaint with ICANN.

You don't have to contact the webmaster. The content is on THEIR servers (their property) and they are violating the copyright laws.

Try reading this http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=973036

Good read... still reading. Thanks :)

The hosting company can't forward the complaint on your behalf to the client? I never get DMCA's directly, they always go to the host and the host sends it to me.
WG

This is what I was thinking. I even mentioned that to him. He didnt want to hear it and doesnt want to help. I just sent him an email about filing a complaint with ICANN. So I will see what he says.

isn't pirating legal in spain as long as its not for profit? or something along those lines. its deff a lot less strict than in the us.

no you have to file the appropriate paperwork for the country you are dealing with

stop expecting US laws to punish NON US citizens.


btw sending a notice to the upstream provider, has a liability too, remember your effectively censoring every hosted site because you don't want to file the appropriate paper work, and they are obeying the privacy laws of their country.

http://mk.ucant.org/info/ip/takedown.pdf
read that, info on EUCD...

Whom are they hosting with?

There are different ways to deal with that situation, but usually knowing whom do they host with makes things much more easy.

Here in Spain the laws are very funny, but you can make the offenders go down by inducing extra costs they could not pay or the hosting company not wanting to take that customer anymore because it costs more to maintain the client than kicking him.

Do a tracert and send DMCAs to the Host's host.

Their attitude will change once they get heat from above.

Also send DMCAs to any credit card processing on the site.