Leading Spanish producer associations FAPAE and Egeda are forming a coalition with the local anti-piracy organisation, FAP (supported bythe Motion Picture Association), the Federation of Spanish distributors (Fedecine), the music producers association Promusicae and representatives from the publishing sector to help build relations with internet service providers and clamp down on copyright infringement online.

The organisations have already been working together on an informal basis, and 'it is only a matter of weeks before the coalition is formalised as a legal entity,' Chris Marcich, head of the MPA, told ScreenDaily.com.

The Spanish film industry lost an estimated $1.2bn to piracy in 2007, according to Jose Manuel Tourne, director general of FAP. '[Spain] is the worst offender in Europe due to improper legislation, lack of enforcement and not enough awareness of the severity of the crime among users.'

Also, peer-to-peer (P2P) filesharing is legal in Spain, which has caused tensions in relations between copyright holders and ISPs. That's something that Marcich hopes will be addressed by the new coalition working with the Association of Telecommunications operators (Redtel), which includes Telefonica, Vodafone, Orange and ONO.

'We want to bring all the parties to the table and help find a solution to the problem either by pushing for new legislation or working within the current legislative framework,' says Marcich. 'One way of doing that could be to work with the privacy authorities and define a regime in which the ISPs or a legal body send messages to those users who are misbehaving alerting them to the fact they are doing something wrong, without the rights holder actually knowing who these culprits are.'

An official announcement about the coalition is expected in the coming weeks.

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