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Spanish Copyright Society Raided For Embezzlement
esocid writes "Senior officials in Spain's Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE), the country's leading collection society for songwriters and composers, face embezzlement charges in the wake of a Friday raid on the organization's offices. Investigators say Jose Luis Rodriguez Neri, the head of an SGAE subsidiary called the Digital Society of Spanish Authors (SDAE), made payments for non-existent services to a contractor that then paid kickbacks to Neri and his associates. SGAE, the Spanish counterpart to American collecting societies like ASCAP and BMI, is known for its high fees and aggressive enforcement tactics. According to El País, 'the society has been often accused of exceeding its remit by going as far as to infiltrate private weddings to check whether fees had been paid for the music being played at the banquet.'"
Sigh. There was even a UTF8 fail in the #AskObama thing earlier today.. Saddens me.
They criticize pirates but can't keep their hands out of the booty.
Wait and watch. The worst that can happen is the corporation will take the fall. The individuals will get off free (maybe with golden parachutes) a la SCO.
This kind of behavior is well-known, and the SGAE and all its branches are known to be leeches by several villages/small cities, they have even disrupted weddings in order to charge people for copyright violation...
Spain loves to imitate the US, but generally half-asses it, so it's not surprising for a RIAA-wannabe to be such a walking disaster.
However, despite everyone knowing they are leeches, they still have free action to do as they please. This will have little effect on their activities on the long run.
They criticize pirates but can't keep their hands out of the booty.
People in all sorts of organizations including many worthwhile charities embezzle funds. This situation might be superficially "ironic", but there is really little other connection.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
...The individuals will get off free...
Embezzlement is different than excessive executive compensation and is illegal in most places. Note that TFA says there was a raid and that they face "fraud, misappropriation of funds and disloyal administration" and that a High Court judge grilled him for more than four hours over the charges.
I suspect that they will not "get off free".
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
They criticize pirates but can't keep their hands out of the booty.
Making them privateers outside the bound of their letters of marque, then? I say... hang them.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
Spanish have been singing many more centuries than modern anglo- Americans. Where did these strong arm tactics for this terrible methodology of enforcement origionate?
Parent is SPAM
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Making them privateers [wikipedia.org] outside the bound of their letters of marque, then? I say... hang them.
Might be hard to find a yardarm on their building though...
...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
They criticize pirates but can't keep their hands out of the booty.
The captain's parrot got his claw in the tambourine.
--
Avast, nothing to see here. Move along matey.
Criminal organization does crimes. News at 11.
Seriously, what do you expect from organized crime? (= The record distribution [well, not anymore, that's the point], litigation and artist extortion industry.)
IFPI Boss and CEO Accused of Tax Evasion in Germany http://www.zeropaid.com/news/94106/ifpi-boss-and-ceo-accused-of-tax-evasion-in-germany/ After the SGAE, Germany investigates IFPI and its dome accused of tax fraud http://en.wikinoticia.com/Technology/general-technology/90182-after-the-sgae-germany-investigates-ifpi-and-its-dome-accused-of-tax-fraud
2019 is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop.
At least 3 SGAE/SDAE bosses are facing prison charges. Two of them are in prison now (they didn't pay their EUR 300,000 & EUR150,000 bailouts). Another one of remains free for now but he faces charges of up to 10 years for one of the crimes and 12 more for another one --at least.
2019 is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop.
So what you're saying is that the issue is differring views of how a reasonable person might interpret the contract.
Sounds like a civil matter.
/IANAFL
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Who watches the watchers...
I don't think the people that run these organizations really have any type of ethics to begin with so it's very easy for them to move into truly illegal activity.
Making them privateers [wikipedia.org] outside the bound of their letters of marque, then? I say... hang them.
Might be hard to find a yardarm on their building though...
If for this, I'd pay for it from my pocket and be one with them.
You aren't from Spain, are you?
Even if it's proved that the used the royalties money to enrichen their consulting companies, I will not bet on they entering prison.
At least with politicians it is always more complicated than that.
Embezzlement is different than excessive executive compensation and is illegal in most places.
Depends on who does it.
Here in Luxembourg, the director of a charity (Transfair) affiliated with the ruling CSV party embezzled funds by buying fake services from her husband (who operates a web hosting company). She didn't get any problems from this...
A couple of month later, a member of parliament of the ill-liked ADR party does the same thing (gets a fake bill from a friend of his who operates an IT business, and gets that bill "refunded" by parliament), and he's sued and it's all over the news.
Moral of the story: if you want to embezzle, be affiliated with people in power.
They criticize pirates but can't keep their hook out of the booty.
Fixed for ya.
Moral of the story: if you want to embezzle, be affiliated with people in power.
The same is true of most crimes.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition!
Criminal organization does crimes. News at 11.
Seriously, what do you expect from organized crime? (= The record distribution [well, not anymore, that's the point], litigation and artist extortion industry.)
You might want to look the definition of "crime". Hint: it's not "somehing I disagree with"..
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Fuck yeah they will get off free!
Sadly those fuckers have been charging 0.30 eur of every DVD I bought over the last 10 years. They got the money in their pockets and now will be rewarded with paid holidays instead of going to prison.
It seems to me that SGAE is the victim here. They were the ones from whom money was embezzled. The perps are the senior officials within that organization.
Moral of the story: if you want to embezzle, be affiliated with people in power.
Just be sure that you don't embezzle from people who are affiliated with more powerful people than those you are affiliated with...or that your embezzlement raises a significant risk of reducing the power of the people you are affiliated with.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Argentinian "SADAIC" does the same. They appear in parties, weddings, ANYWHERE, and check if fees had been paid. And if you don't settle with them $$$ immediatelly, they call the police to have the meeting shut down. And some artists defend them with all their heart, cause they're SURE they're not getting robbed by SADAIC. Brainwashed. Also, the other day, SADAIC got offended because someone was angry at them about a thing happening here called "taxes to storage-enabled devices, cause they can be used for piracy".... they got to KNOW who that someone was, and they called the company that employees him (an argentinian inter media isp) to have him shut up. Pathetic.
Buanzo Consulting - 15 Years of GNU/Linux experience, for you.
Ladrones
Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
Delendae sunt RIAA, MPAA et Windoze
If I steal 10,000,000 (assuming I was able to stash the money somewhere safe) and get 10 years in jail, I make 1,000,000 per year. This is more than most people make in a decade.
NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.
They'll just get a contractor to install one for an inflated fee and kickbacks.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
You might look at reality for once in your sorry life, and realize, that "crime" is "something that hurts someone else".
PROTIP: Copying information doesn't hurt anybody. That is a physical fact of resource management. But what those criminals do, DOES hurts EVERYBODY except for themselves.
QED, you sorry delusional loser.
No emoticon can represent the joy I feel right now
Wont be that simple getting rid of the crooks...there's always going to be replacements more than willing to raid a three years old's birthday party for an unpaid 'happy b*rthday". Am i ever glad i escaped the music cesspool.. er i meant business
Those morons,
If they wanted to get off for free, they should have gone to the United States. In the USA, "freedom" means being a slave to one or more sociopaths (we call them "wallstreet bankers") who have the the right to steal everything you own and screw your wife and daughters right in front of your eyes. "Justice" in the USA means you can go to jail or loose everything you own for inventing something cool, or independently publishing music or videos.
I really don't know why ANYONE bothers committing crimes anywhere else in the world, the US government lets sociopaths get away with anything.