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.'"

Comments

They didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition

[Anonymous Coward]

They criticize pirates but can't keep their hands out of the booty.

Not surprising

[Windwraith]

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.

Re:Not surprising

[Hazel Bergeron]

Do you actually know anything about Spain?, because that statement makes no sense.

They've been relying heavily on American investment and northern European (little American) tourism since Franco, like all new conservatives, discovered trickle-up enonomics. This is built on the classical Catholic Spain of a few wealthy business-families enjoying special relations with the powers that be. So, I guess you could say that America imitated Spain, did a very good job of it, and then sold its success back to Spain.

Beyond the obvious (Eating better, living longer, having clearly different political, institutional, educational and health systems).

This is merely legacy. The direction is to the Amerian system. The EU is fundamentally a corporation of corporations in the American style designed to force its members to transfer state/national control to "free competition" amongst private companies. (These freely selected companies tend predictably often to be the same French or German behemoths.) And Spain's official line is that it loves the EU and should swallow its bait along with hook, line and sinker.

Spain's message against Piracy is not "don't steal or else", but rather "protect your culture".

Please justify. Spain is full of self-hate about its recent past while its youth are one of the most alienated in Western Europe. There's a lot of "protect the middle-age who have ridden the first wave of prosperity which ended about 5 years ago", but culture? Nah, fuck culture, everyone in that group was too busy buying second homes until the bottom fell out of the economy.

the justice system over there can actually do something about it.

Coming from a common law nation, I am quite scared by the thought of any justice system which consists entirely of a panel of professional judges. However, I acknowledge that Spain's judiciary has remained more impartial than I would have expected over the past half-century - it's not that the very well-connected won't always get off; it's more that fascist fetish for correct bureaucratic process hasn't been pierced. In Britain, law at this level is little more than ex-public school lawyer buddies having a well-paid debating competition while the jury is hoodwinked and the judge grins on.

Re:Not surprising

[Windwraith]

Yeah I happen to live there.

A lot of things are shaped as known trends in the US. It goes from TV to pop culture to business plans, and I have been seeing those since I was a kid, specially in IT where the latest coding trend is the latest coding trend...in the US.

And, anyway, SGAE's "message" against piracy is about protecting culture. But who is buying that? With the spokesmen they have, it's obvious they are there for the money.
Also they are the people that made storage media much more expensive with their digital canon, making production more expensive for amateurs out of their "protection". Indie stuff is culture too. And we are not protected, at all.

Re:Not surprising

[Inconexo]

That's unfair! We don't live only from tourism. We used to live of the housing bubble!

Re:Not surprising

[Windwraith]

I absolutely disagree with his post, but in his defense, he is also Spanish (judging from the name) and just happens to disagree with the statement.

Re:They didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisitio

[Frosty Piss]

...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".

In related news: IFPI is also in trouble

[surveyork]

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

Re:They didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisitio

[surveyork]

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.

Re:They didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisitio

[Inconexo]

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.

Nice slanted summary

[volpe]

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.

Re:Nice slanted summary

[cyberfin]

No. The victims are the authors who haven't received their share because corrupt administrators set up unfair payment rules and embezzled their money.

Re:Nice slanted summary

[Alioth]

But it's those very senior officials who want things like Sinde's law (a highly illiberal law to shut down any website suspected of copyright infringement with little judicial oversight).

The SGAE is an emergent property of the people it is made up of, organizations only do things the people within them do. The very same people ripping off the artists (which is what embezzling SGAE funds is doing) are the very same people pushing for things like Sinde's law.