Madrid - The major record labels' units in Spain announced on Thursday that they have filed a $20 million copyright infringement claim in the country against Pablo Soto Bravo, the founder of MP2P Technologies -- which operates file-sharing sites including Piolet, Omemo and Blubster. In their complaint, the units of EMI, Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG, Universal Music and Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) -- represented in Spain by industry trade group Promusicae -- allege that Pablo Soto obtained profits from the sites both via paid advertising, and subscription plans.

Promusicae said a "private detective agency" it hired found ad rates on the services went "from 10,000 dollars per month, negotiable."

Antonio Guisasola, President of Promusicae, said that the claim will be used "to fight the sense of impunity with which people take advantage of the new technologies to infringe intellectual property rights of creators and other music professionals."

"Promusicae tried to proceed with civil suits against users of P2P networks in Spain and, after being halted by the Court of Justice of the EU, it has decided to go against a neutral communication tool such as P2P technology," said MP2P founder Pablo Soto.

"We intend to vigorously defend ourselves against this shake down attempt by the major label cabal. Rather than embracing technology, they have chosen a path that will ultimately lead to their own demise, as evidenced by the label's [sic] consistent decline over the past decade."

Related Links:
http://www.ifpi.org/content/library/promusicae-blubster-050608.pdf

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/6/prweb1001324.htm

http://www.promusicae.es

http://www.mp2p.net