Hacia una evaluación de la política criminal sobre propiedad intelectual en España

Abstract

The Spanish Penal Code Amendment from 2015 intensified the criminal law intervention in the field of copyright offenses. That involved both criminalization of new behaviors and increasing the punishment for acts already criminalized. This study assesses some elements of the amendments made by Organic Law 1/2015, 30th March., using Effectiveness, Efficacy and Efficiency as guiding criteria for the evaluation. For that end, we analyzed a number of official available data sources from Spain. Said data shed some light about different relevant aspects concerning effectiveness of the penal reform, as criminal prosecution intensity levels in copyright offenses, evolution of sentencing for such infractions and crime patterns shown by police statistics. Our study concludes that, since the coming into force of the Penal Code Amendments from 2015, sentencing for copyright crimes has peaked up significantly. In the short term, criminal prosecution of ICTs' infractions also increased. However, police statistics do not reflect a significant decreasing pattern in copyright offenses since the Amendments from 2015.