25/01/2011

The debate about the anti-piracy law, better known as the Sinde Law, has claimed another victim. This time, it is none other than Spanish Film Academy president Álex de la Iglesia, who in recent weeks had got very involved as a mediator in the complicated dialogue between government, creators and Internet users associations. The Basque director has announced that he will leave his post immediately after the Goya Awards ceremony, to be held on February 13.

Judging from the article he sent to Spanish newspaper El País, De la Iglesia’s decision seems to have been triggered by his disagreement with the new formulation of the Sinde Law agreed between Spain’s two main political parties, PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) and PP (People’s Party): “The best thing would have been to start again from scratch. Pitting creators against the web is a huge mistake. [This law] is no solution for anyone”.

After the Sinde Law was rejected in parliament on December 21 (see news), talks between the PSOE and PP have led to a series of amendments which increase the time allowed for closing websites to 17 days and introduce greater judicial safeguards by adding a second intervention by a judge. There is every indication that the text, which is backed by a broad political majority, will be approved on February 9.

From the moment the Sinde Law was defeated, De la Iglesia started intense efforts at negotiating with Internet users associations and reached the conclusion that the matter needed to be looked at from a totally different perspective. “The market model needs to be expanded and improved, the range of legally available films isn’t enough,” he said.

However, instead of seizing on the common ground forged through this dialogue, politicians chose the easiest solution and corrected the text presented before parliament in December. Film Academy president De la Iglesia thinks they’ve gone too far.

(Translated from Spanish)