Méndez de Vigo meets with management entities to address the issue of piracy

The Minister of Education, Culture and Sports invites the commissioner responsible for the Digital Agenda to maintain direct dialogue with the cultural industries in Spain on digital property matters

The Minister of Education, Culture and Sports, Iñigo Méndez de Vigo, met this morning with the presidents and vice presidents of the rights management entities that comprise the Coalition of Creators to take stock of the progress in intellectual property that has occurred throughout the legislature.

In addition to highlighting the three legislative changes that reinforce the fight against piracy on the Internet - Civil Procedure Law, Intellectual Property Law and Penal Code -, Méndez de Vigo has pointed out that the Second Section of the Intellectual Property Commission is giving results in the fight against piracy, although it is a scourge that we must all try to eradicate and analyze together with the sector what new measures can be put in place.

An example of the results obtained is that when the Intellectual Property Commission came into operation in 2012, there were 30 allegedly infringing websites among the 250 most visited by Spanish Internet users, according to data from Alexa Spain, which records the number of website visits by number of clicks. Today there are 14 in that ranking, and their position is lower (lower number of visits), which allows us to speak objectively of a decrease in the consumption of pirated content on the Internet in Spain.

Since its entry into operation in March 2012, the Second Section has received 445 requests submitted by management entities and authors, and has resolved 93.7% of them (417).

Their actions have affected 253 websites, including 75 link websites, almost entirely resulting in the voluntary removal of infringing content and also 33 cases of complete cessation of activity.

Regarding the applications submitted in 2015, after the entry into force of the new Intellectual Property Law, 19 applications have been submitted - practically all of them since March -, of which four have been resolved, resulting in the cessation of the activity of the web pages in question.

Oettinger will visit Spain in October

Íñigo Méndez de Vigo has reported on the importance of the legislative changes that the European Union is preparing, with the creation of a Digital Market as a strategic path for the future of cultural industries.

In this sense, he has invited Commissioner Günther Oettinger, responsible for promoting the Digital Agenda for the European Union, to come to Spain next October and, in addition to reporting on community legislative plans, maintain direct dialogue with the Ministry and the cultural industries.