Germany Enacts Harshest Anti-Piracy Law to Date

2 years in prison for copying a file not that bad? wow.

Keep in mind the artist doesn't own thier work, the record company does. Also, it is not stealing, since some of you don't seem to own a dictionary, here:
unlawfully taking property belonging to another person with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of its possession.

furthermore, I don't know if Germany has fair use rights, but if so, then digital copies are the same as analog copies. If you distribute it for profit then you are violating the law, but otherwise you aren't.

You may have noticed that old hat industries are trying to extend thier reach into the new information realm, and trying to brow beat into us that thoughts and ideas can be owned and copyrighted, which would have been looked upon as ridiculous 20 years ago. This new information age is changing everything in an unprecedented way, and these organizations are seeking to solidify thier old place in a world where thier archaic business practices don't apply. Instead of adapting thier business to the new technology, they seek to adapt the technology to thier old business model, which in the end won't work. Companies that fight change historically die out, and that's what we'll see, unless these people keep getting thier greasy hands on politicians. It's not the responsability of society at large to safeguard corporations against thier own self-destruction.

Also, I think it's kind of funny that when something involving the US RIAA or MPAA suing or prosecuting people comes up, there's a lot of, "stupid americans" posts but when someone does something even worse in your own backyard we see, "it's all good". :lol:
 
No one will go to prison for two years for downloading a movie, a song whatever.

Legal practice is not to pursue smalltime offenders. Most of these cases will be dropped. If you should ever end up in court for whatever reason you won't get the full two years. After some legal haggeling you will have to pay a small administrative fine.
 
That's the point. You're basicly depending on the mercy of law.

I agree with you though. Our legislation has partly sold out to the interests of the economy. We had a small case law which will be dropped when this comes into effect.

Private copies are allowed but you can't bypass copy protections in order to do so. Come on !
 
zenkidori said:
If I get a copy of a CD from my neighbor that I haven't purchased or don't already own, I would think that would be stealing,
It's 100% legal via fair use so no, it's not stealing, this is the same reason that DVD recorders and VHS recorders aren't illegal. Again, in the act of stealing by definition you must deprive someone of the stolen product, a copy is not theft be it's very definition.
someone is distributing whatever you aredownloading arent they
your point being? The distributors still aren't stealing anything, the closest you could come to a physical definition is counterfeiting, and you don't get 2 years in jail for carrying a fake LV bag(they even sell knockoffs in some malls).
I dont see it as stealing. im just saying how others can argue against it. what would the internet be if you couldnt illegally download anything??
 
The same with the DMCA, which is where this debate comes from. Basically big corporations got together and passed legislation that condtradicts earlier legislation protecting consumers.

just another example of how big busines overriding democracy is a universal concept.
 
Is not the internet synonymous with free circulation of information? :?

It looks like we are going to need a revolution earlier than planned... :evil:
 
zenkidori said:
Does it matter? the possability is there.

I say that's pretty fucked up of Germany, and shows no backbone towards private interests.
yes, we have got a new government, consisting of democrats and conservatives since last fall and the conservatives are now forwarding the industries copyright ideas from last century...its true and its fucked. before we got this new coalition, the democrats planned to include a clause into the new law that would declare sharing of under 150(? not sure on the exact amount...) items to be tolerated on the basis of fair use.


but its not time to panic yet. the Public Attorney's Office is still advised not to engage in cases with less than 100 items shared, because they have been flooded lately thanks to a company that developed a software which automatically searches for users on edonkey and kazaa that share software of their clients and then sents those to a lawyer's office who then sends prepared claims to the public attorney's office and providers to find out the adress. 40.000 of these claims have been made throughout the last half year, but only about 10.000 have yet been reviewed by the public attorney's office. of those, not a single one led to any legal action, because the attorneys refused to engage over a single shared file.
in contrast, the lawyers office was quite succesful with their civil claims, because they proposed a settlement for all in all 300?, which most of the scared sharers dutifully payed. others, however, refused to pay on the basis that a 250? charge for a prepared letter was disproportional and none of them had any more trouble.

so there have yet not been any of those disputes and huge claims we have heard of from the usa. ;)
 
Lusitano said:
It looks like we are going to need a revolution earlier than planned... :evil:

So how's July for you? I'm pretty much booked until then but after that I can attend :p
 
Top