Almost no one would ever have heard of the Polytechnic University of Valencia UPV in Spain, and even fewer would have heard of Jorge Cortell, if they hadn't tried to censor him.
The problem was that Cortell was "invited by the ETSIA Student Union and Linux Users' Group ... to give a conference in one of the university's buildings. During that conference I was to analyze the legal use and benefits of the P2P networks, even when dealing with copyrighted works," he reports.
It seems the university tried to block the talk, then forced Cortell to resign.
Cortell has posted background information at http://jorge.cortell.net/,and the case has naturally been taken up by Spanish newspapers and hundreds of bloggers. Now it is going to reach the rest of the world as well.
"Upon the request of various foreign media that would like to cover this story, and would like a link to the source in English, here is a recap of my ordeal," writes Cortell.
Due to what looks like the Spanish university's crude and stupid attempt at censorship, an event that would have passed without notice will now reach tens of millions of Internet users -- as was entirely predictable, given the subject.
And whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, the Polytechnic University of Valencia's reputation has just gone down the tubes.
