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Judge Paz Aldecoa threw out a case against an unnamed 48-year-old man who reportedly shared music on p2p networks and distributed custom CDs of the downloaded music. She said that there are no grounds in Spanish law for labelling such a person as a criminal.

'That would imply criminalising socially admitted and widely practised behaviour where the aim is not to gain wealth illegally but to obtain private copies,' she said in her judgement.

The case was brought by Promusicae, Spain's record industry association, which said that it has appealed the decision.

'Peer-to-peer sharing is not legal in Spain,' said Antonio Guisasola's Antonio Guisasola. The association had demanded a two-year prison sentence and fines and compensation totalling €25,000. It had attempted to show that the man was selling CDs of downloaded music, not posting them for free as he had claimed.

But all is not lost for the record companies. The Spanish government plans to introduce new laws that remove the existing right to private copying.