p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- In 2001 Pablo Soto, based in Madrid, Spain, created the Manolito protocol, and P2P file sharing applications Blubster and Piolet.

Blubster was the first to advertise in p2pnet, the other perfectly legal companies Morpheus, LimeWire and BearShare followed suit, and the four were for a number of years p2pnet’s sole source of income.

Like p2pnet, they believed P2P and sharing was the way of the future and tried to build independent businesses around the concept.

But Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, in their bloody-minded efforts to gain complete control of online music distribution,  forced Morpheus, LimeWire and BearShare out of business, leaving Blubster the only survivor.

Now, these pariahs who systematically destroy anything and everything which looks even remotely like competition, are using their Promusicae association in Spain to sue Pablo Soto out of existence for, they allege —- unfair competition.

With Bluster’s exception, I wrote in October last year, the early innovators of P2P file sharing were all either destroyed, absorbed by the Big 4 Music Borg, or reconfigured to the extent they’re no longer recognizable.

“But Blubster is the exception,” I said. ” Its creator, Pablo Soto, has kept on keeping on and now, even in the face of a renewed attack by the Borg 4 … he’s developing a service that’s a natural progression of P2P sharing.”

Pablo, a victim of a rare form of the debilitating disease muscular dystrophy now puts his energy on Omemo, an open source P2P application for storage space sharing.

The multi-billion-dollarBig 4 are, meanwhile, determined to wipe this last survivor of the early P2P companies off the map, claiming Soto owes €13 million (about $C20,440,111) they would have made had Blubster not been around.

“Spanish courts have repeatedly ruled that free music downloading is not illegal if it is not for commercial use,” says the Associated Press, going on »»»

This stance has infuriated the music business which claims it is being cheated of rightful earnings. The industry says Spain is among the worst offenders for what it says is internet piracy.

Soto says business groups are now trying to target program designers after several failed cases against people who downloaded music for personal use.

His supporters argue that people in Spain already cover the alleged losses made by music companies and artists by paying a special tax on CDs, pen drives and mobile phones.

Spain’s Culture Ministry said talks are being held with all parties with the aim of drawing up new legislation to try to end disputes but there was no immediate prospect of a bill.

The case is slated to be heard again tomorrow and, “A spokesman for Madrid’s Superior Court said a ruling was expected within a month,” says AP, adding:

“News reports say the case could drag on for years with appeals.”

Not at all coincidentally, the labels are well to the fore in entertainment cartel attempts to use national governments to compel local ISPs to become corporate copyright enforcers, paid for by the companies themselves and local taxpayers.

France is currently leading the way.

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Associated Press –  File share programmer sued by record companies, May 20, 2009
leading the way – ‘We won’t be copyright cops,’ say UK ISPs, May 14, 2009