Spain tightens copyright law – update

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The Spanish government has proposed legislation to make it easier to shut down piracy sites . Search engines such as Google also have to pay for the display of copyrighted content.

Not only should piracy sites be taken down more quickly, but there will also be sanctions for websites that refer users to illegal content, Reuters reports. In addition, advertisers on piracy sites and companies that process payments for such sites will be targeted. Spain is one of the countries in Europe where residents download music, movies and games the most illegally.

Search engines are also being addressed. Websites such as Google will soon have to pay for the display of copyrighted content, although it is not yet clear what kind of content will have to be paid for. It probably involves showing articles from newspapers and magazines; similar legislation has been introduced in other European countries.

Update 15:11: This piece initially suggested that the sanctions for redirecting to illegal sites would go against a recent European Court ruling that hyperlinks are not copyright infringement. However, this concerns hyperlinks to content that the copyright owner has published themselves; that has nothing to do with this.

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