MUMBAI: Marking a new strategy in combating rampant piracy plaguing the sector, Spain‘s newly installed center-right government has passed the anti-download law.
 
The law has been designed to "protect the owners, creators and other rights holders rights against the profitable sacking of their assets on illegal downloading websites," government spokesperson Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said.

Santamaria said a commission of intellectual property would decide whether to shutter a website violating the law.
 
"I think it is a quite a gesture that it has passed so quickly. And very positive," Spanish Film Academy President and veteran distributor of Alta Films Enrique Gonzalez Macho has reportedly said. "If it wasn‘t approved until now it‘s because it was because they didn‘t want to," he added.

It‘s noteworthy that the center-right Popular Party (PP) resolved the problem of the infamous Sinde Law, named for the Socialist Culture Minister who left office last week and staked her reputation on the anti-piracy measures, but met with energetic resistance from Internet consumer groups.

The government also eliminated a controversial measure called the digital canon, that taxed all electronics, CDs, DVDs, MP3, MP4, etc to cover the costs of anticipated private copy and pay for authors‘ rights.