Arrested the person responsible for the leak online of the Extremoduro album

21-11-2013

The so-called Operation Agila of the Guardia Civil has led to the arrest of the suspected offender responsible for the leak online of the long-expected new album of Extremoduro, Para todos los públicos almost four weeks before the planned release date. The investigations of the IT Crime Group (Grupo de Delitos Telemáticos) have developed in the city of Madrid and in the neighbouring towns of Alcorcón and Móstoles, where the disc manufacturing company (Novodisc) and logistic company (Arvato) are based.

The so-called Operation Agila of the Guardia Civil has led to the arrest of the suspected offender responsible for the leak online of the long-expected new album of Extremoduro, Para todos los públicos almost four weeks before the planned release date. The investigations of the IT Crime Group (Grupo de Delitos Telemáticos) have developed in the city of Madrid and in the neighbouring towns of Alcorcón and Móstoles, where the disc manufacturing company (Novodisc) and logistic company (Arvato) are based.

The band leaded by Robe Iniesta enjoys great support from music fans, so the announcement that the new album would see the light this autumn generated a logical expectation. Their company had all the promotional campaign and logistics ready for the release on 19^th November, but the leak of content online on 4^th November spoiled all the plans and the work of dozens of professionals.

Since early this month, the traffic in some file sharing networks had experienced rises of up to 1,000% before the chance to access to new Extremoduro tracks, even if files were low quality ones. In only 3 days the album was available in at least 54 websites. Some of them, such as www.argentinawarez.com or www.thepiratebay.sx, are fully devoted to piracy and Promusicae filed complaints more than a year ago before the Intellectual Property Commission, without any action from this body up to date.

In view of the situation, the band’s record company decided to prompt the release of Para todos los públicos to Friday 8^th November, without even being able to respect the long-lasting practice of bringing new releases to shops on Tuesdays. The specific damages caused by this episode is still under evaluation, but the last research by Gfk on that regard (2013) estimates losses in Spain due to music piracy online in 542 million euros yearly. This amounts to some 4,000 new jobs.

The Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Guardia Civil could track the leak after a user of a well-known advertising site posted an ad offering the Extremoduro album (the catchword was: “Extremoduro, one month before”); the user documented the offer with a picture of the CD which was going to be released at the end of the month. Besides making available the material through download sites, the now arrested offered physical copies (burnt) of the album at 10 euros/unit. The band manager contacted directly the advertiser requesting to remove the ad and give back the allegedly stolen exemplar. In view of his refusal, the band made a complaint of the facts and that triggered Operation Agila.

Open investigation

The officers’ inquiries have led not only to the arrest of the suspected, but also to a search of his home and workplace. Some computer devices assumedly used for the leak have also been seized. Due to his position in the production chain, this employee had access to many recordings before release date. The case is in the Court of First Instance number 6 of Alcorcón and the Guardia Civil has informed that the investigation is still open to determine the possible liability of other people being investigated.

The swiftness of the enforcement agency, the readiness of the recording company to be able to bring forward the disc release and the immediate opening of legal proceedings by the court have allowed to dampen the enormous impact of the leak. Finally, Para todos los públicos could be distributed to all POS more than two weeks in advance regarding the planned date of release.

Promusicae’s President Antonio Guisasola has welcomed “the swiftness and efficiency showed by the Guardia Civil in undertaking and completing their investigations”. The executive of the society representing the wide majority of Spanish music producers highlighted the fact that Operation Agila (so-called as a tribute to one of the most popular Extremoduro albums) “constitutes the first time that the direct responsible of the theft and leak of an album is identified and arrested”.

“The impact of the leak in this specific case was enormous, and only through the coordination and efficiency it has been possible to mitigate the damages, that even though have been very significant”, insisted Guisasola. In his view, “the most important thing from this operation is that for the first time public authorities put an end to the sense of impunity online. Making available to any Internet user songs that have owners − real persons with a surname and a name such as authors, performing artists and producers− constitutes a serious offence and causes an immense economic harm”.

“The efficiency the Guardia Civil has showed in this case”, concluded Promusicae’s President, “represents a reason for hope for music workers and a clear warning: offending online against intellectual property is prosecuted”.

Recent consulting firm Gfk research on the Spanish recording market, as mentioned above, estimates a 72 per cent drop of recorded music since 2001. The growth of the digital market in the Spanish case is still shy: 27% underneath the global average. And the reason has a name in capital letters: Piracy. Throughout the last decade, Gfk calculates that a total of 2.118 billion music files have been pirated in Spain.

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• The so-called Operation Agila of the Guardia Civil has led to the arrest of the suspected offender responsible for the leak online of the long-expected new album of Extremoduro, Para todos los públicos almost four weeks before the planned release date. The investigations of the IT Crime Group (Grupo de Delitos Telemáticos) have developed in the city of Madrid and in the neighbouring towns of Alcorcón and Móstoles, where the disc manufacturing company (Novodisc) and logistic company (Arvato) are based.
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