Spanish record industry cartel sues business prof who called their system an illegal cartel, claims "threatened honor"

Enrique Dans is a professor at Spain's IE Business School and a well-known blogger who has been a fierce critic of the entertainment industry. Last summer, Prof Dans wrote a blog post, Siete motivos por los que el caso SGAE es mucho más que la propia SGAE, which set out his view that Promusicae, the Spanish record industry consortium, had formed an illegal cartel to distribute music for radio broadcast, which shut out non-members and independents.

Now Promusicae is suing Dans for EUR20,000, accusing him of libel and "threatening their honor," and they are demanding a retraction. As Ernesto writes on TorrentFreak, Dans is standing his ground.

The professor, on the other hand, says his claim was well researched and that he consulted experts in competition law before he wrote it up. And even if that’s not the case, Dans believes he has the right to make such claims in an open and free society.
“In short, what I said in the article was my opinion, protected by the right to freedom of expression and, as I documented it properly and professionally, the right to freedom of information.”
” I stand by my opinion,” he writes in a new blog post. “Of course it may be debatable, but even if it were not well founded and I was wrong, I can not think how it can be an attack against the honor of a society such as Promusicae... The reality? Promusicae are using the ‘honor’ argument to restrict the right to freedom of expression and information. After many years of direct confrontations and repeatedly being humiliated in numerous public forums, now they want to shut me up through a lawsuit.”

Spanish RIAA Sues Blogging Professor for Defamation

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: censorship • competition • Copyfight • corporatism • spain • streisand effect • waahmbulance

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fuzzyfuzzyfungus

Sorry chaps. That which does not exist cannot be threatened.
- Ashen Victor
  
  So true!
http://twitter.com/reposter_net Mr. Reposter

The Streisand effect begins.

http://www.reposter.net/2012/03/siete-motivos-por-los-que-el-caso-sgae-es-mucho-mas-que-la-propia-sgae-seven-reasons-why-the-sgae-case-is-much-more-than-sgae-itself/
caitifty

Any hope for pistols at dawn?
- http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith
  
  Left handed sword fight. My name is Promusicae. You stole my music. Prepare to die!
- benher
  
  I think there needs to be some kind of glove-face-slap involved – simply a matter of protocol.
http://marjaerwin.livejournal.com/ Marja Erwin

When people speak of defending their honor, I think of this, and of honor killings, and of lynchings:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Brooks#Sumner_assault

Let honor crawl back to the pestilent hellhole it came from.