Music industry battles Spanish computer buff

MADRID -- Pablo Soto's story may be every computer whiz kid's dream — or nightmare. After leaving school at 16 to support his family, he managed to eke out a living doing what he loves most: designing computer programs.

Then in 2001, the Madrid native launched Blubster, one of the world's most popular peer-to-peer Internet file-sharing programs of recent years — with no training and operating out of his grandmother's apartment.

Now Soto may become a victim of his own success as he finds himself the lone defendant in the latest major legal battle by the mighty music industry against Internet piracy; a Madrid court is expected to rule this month. The case, although similar to others in Europe and the U.S., is being closely watched on both sides of the Atlantic because Spain is ranked as one of the world's worst Internet piracy offenders.

"We are attacking companies who are profiting by developing applications that are used for piracy," said Antonio Guisasola, president of Promusicae, the Spanish record label association that includes Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI. It is suing Soto for euro13 million on grounds of unfair competition.

Promusicae brands Soto an Internet parasite who robs artists and record companies by facilitating illegal downloads of music and other copyrighted protected material with his P2P programs.

Guisasola hopes the case will mirror recent court rulings against operations such as Napster in the United States and Pirate Bay in Sweden. He and others also hope it will also force Spain to finally draw up new legislation and enforce it. They cite a new law in France that aims to cut off Internet connections of those who repeatedly download music and films illegally.

But the case could cause problems for the music industry, too.

In Sweden, the Pirate Party received strong support in the run-up to European Parliament elections June 7 after a Swedish court gave prison sentences to four men behind the popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay for helping millions of users download copyright protected material.