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Kazaa Ruled Legal in The Netherlands
DreamerFi writes "Developers of Kazaa cannot be held liable for the way people use their software, the Dutch Supreme Court has ruled. The dutch version of the RIAA, BUMA Stemra is now expected to start lawsuits against individuals, following the american lead, according to dutch news channels."
Nuff said.
Because of all this shit over music I have stoped buying. I use to try out stuff on the old napster (tells you how long ago that was) and if I liked I would get the CD, but now that the RIAA (and co.) has made it clear they don't want my busness, I have stoped, stoped listening and stoped buying. And the radio music stations have way to many comercials to be enjoyable. I have moved on to talk radio, and I have to say I think I enjoy talk radio more, and there seams to be far less comercials then music radio. Good by music, hello talk.
Ah, it's refreshing to see some sanity in the courts, even if it is on another continent. If the courts blame kazaa for what its users do, it would logically follow that we'd have to blame gun manufacturers for the actions of bank robbers, blame car manufacturers for the crimes of people involved in hit-and-run accidents, and blame alcohol manufacturers for the stupid things drunk people do.
WARNING: If accidentally read, induce vomiting.
Well, riding a bicylce at nigth without lights. And the police in Amsterdam are checking this like mad. On the other hand, since last week people smuggling up to three kilograms of coke into the country just get sent away. They don't get arrested, they will just be sent away. Amazing country, this! It's just that we don't have enough prison cells, so over here it's better to smuggle large amounts of drugs than to ride a bike without lights. ** blink, blink **
A couple of months or so, Buma/Stemra's spokesman had a media interview, in which he said that they would not be suing consumers until there was a good commercial music download option for consumers in the Netherlands. Apparently, at that time they felt (correctly) that the country would be in an uproar if they started suing consumers over trading.
So if they started suing now, that would be in direct contradiction of their earlier statements (and it would be extremely unpopular, I could even see it leading to a law that makes music sharing over the Internet explicitly legal). In current law, downloading is legal, uploading is not.
And anyway, all they could get in a lawsuit is an order for the person to stop sharing, I think, as long as there's no commercial piracy involved.
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
"musical industry should embrace mp3 and find a new bussines model"
Interestingly, a lot of the people saying this are also saying "We shouldn't have to change careers, we're entitled to our jobs, mean ol Bush is sending all our jobs overseas, wah wah wah!", and then they get all pissy when you say "Deal with it, adapt, change, overcome. Everyone else has."
(Not saying you're that type, just pointing something out that's been bugging me, that finally clicked when I read your post)
This is obviously off topic, but I need help...
As a retail store owner of a punk rock music shop, I really want to open a section (and eventually make it my only section) of "Non RIAA Punk Rock music." It should be bands of national scale, doesn't have to be popular bands, and definitely shouldn't be radio or MTV bands.
Does anyone have a link or knowledge of which labels are not RIAA linked? The distributors have no idea...
Well, that was not the reasoning of the court. The case in first instance was that the copyright association should continue talks with Kazaa on how to tackle copyright fees. Some people think the associations stopped the talks under pressure of the RIAA. The case has been started by Kazaa.
The reaction of the copyright association was that Kazaa should modify it's programme so it could discriminate non-infrining content from infringing content.
Well, we all know how to toggle the MP3 copyright bit.
In first instance, Kazaa was ordered to stop distribution, the judge (only one, as it was a provisional decision) thought that it would be best not to distribute the programme at all. This was considered as a less-invasive decision than a software modification.
The court of appeal ruled different and also stressed the possibilities of non-infringing use. They have provided a well founded decision, in my opinion. Therefore, going to the supreme court to send the case back to the court of appeal was very difficult and indeed, the advocat general (who prepares the decision of the Supreme Court) has shredded the request of BUMA/STEMRA.
With respect to continuation of the talks between BUMA/STEMRA: Kazaa has dropped their charges.
As far as I know, there are on-line translation programmes that understand Dutch. Good Luck.
And thank you for the subject of this thread! Hahaha!
Heavy taxation is the best thing for helping the free market or the Austrian-libertarian/anarchocapitalist idealism. When you tax an item, overregulate it, or even criminalize the use of said item, you create a black market. The black market has no taxes, and is generally cheaper to use than the white market -- in some cases its the only way to get said item or service.
When an item is taxed, it forces people to pay more. If people think they are paying too much, they will find a way around it.
I say lets raise all taxes on every item 100%. Then find your way around it. I know people in Canada who find numerous ways around the CD tax, and while its illegal and I don't recommend breaking local laws or avoiding taxes, its good to see that taxes almost always have negative effects on production and sales.
Because that would make too much sense.
The whole point is to create rarity in the market, my friend. They sit on crap for 30 years, because they CAN, because they own it. Slowly, the existing copies disappear -- misuse, breaking of LP decks/8-track players, obsolescence of the playback technology.
Then, when just about nobody can play them back even if their original copy is still in decent shape, they release a "new" edition and charge ridiculous amounts of money for something that, though they claim it's "digitally restored", all they did is digitally record the line-in feed from the original master.
How else would we get all those "best of" collections years later, the ones that miss half the artist's good songs and include half the stuff that we all want to forget they made?
I'm not sure how much difference there is between 'decriminalise' and 'turn a blind eye', because the laws still forbid those decriminalised things.
Pretty big difference. In the first case, you can not be prosecuted no matter what; in the second, it is ultimately up to the mood and whim of the police, prosecutor and court whether you will be punished.
THe difference between decriminalisation and allowability is, if I understand it - and I may not as I am not a legal professional - illustrated well by Swedish road crossing light rules.
In Sweden, it is indeed illegal to cross the road on foot when the light is red for pedestrians. It is, however, not a prosecutable offense. You can walk to and fro the light all day long, in front of a whole conference of traffic police with nothing happening. If, however, you get hit by a car while doing this, the fault is yours, not the driver's. You were doing something wrong, and it is your fault. You (or rather your insurance company) will even be required to pay for the damages to the front of the car.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
I was really sick and tired of buying a CD and having to skip most "non-advertised" songs. What da hell?! i don't listen to radio much either, mostly in the car, but the commercials HAVE gotten annoying.
What I have found more enjoyable is actually internet radio. there seems to be plenty of choices, and non-stop supply of music. There are less and less free stations now, but even if you pay $10 or so per month and have a month of music to enjoy it still beats buying 4 cds and getting sick of them in a week.
I also can't wait to see how the situation develops with sirius and xm radio. they sound promising. my friend has xm, very happy with it. but i wonder - how long would it take for it to also become bloated with commercials as well? hey, once enough people listen to it, it'll be extremely tempting for the stations to go the ad route...
I have to disagree with you. I can not believe that in other countries all criminal acts are acted upon by law enforcement.
My opinion is that this "gedoogbeleid" happens in other countries too. But then why do we Dutch think we are the only ones having it?
Recently there have been some incidents (fireworks explosion in Enschede, fire at new-years party in Volendam) where poor law-enforcement has been part of the discussion. However, I think that a major reason why soft-drugs usage, copyrighted file trading (and perhaps other issues too) are not acted upon as much in the Netherlands as in other countries is, because everyone accepts them.
Dutch tolerance and freedom? Yes, but not given by the parliament or government, but defined by all Dutch people.
(Score:5, Not Funny)
This just in:
From The Associated Press:
Dec 19, 10:45 AM EST
Record Industry May Not Subpoena Providers
By TED BRIDIS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Friday rejected efforts by the recording industry to compel the nation's Internet providers to identify subscribers accused of illegally distributing music online.
In a substantial setback for the industry's controversial anti-piracy campaign, the three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned a ruling by the trial judge to enforce a copyright subpoena.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates had approved use of the subpoenas, forcing Verizon Communications Inc. to turn over names and addresses for at least four Internet subscribers. Since then, Verizon has identified dozens of its other subscribers to music industry lawyers.
The appeals court said one of the arguments by the Recording Industry Association of America "borders upon the silly," rejecting the trade group's claims that Verizon was responsible for downloaded music because such data files traverse its network.
Verizon had challenged the constitutionality of the subpoenas under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The law, passed years before downloading music over peer-to-peer Internet services became popular, compels Internet providers to turn over the names of suspected pirates upon subpoena from any U.S. District Court clerk's office. A judge's signature is not required. Critics contend judges ought to be more directly involved.
Verizon had argued at its trial that Internet providers should only be compelled to respond to such subpoenas when pirated music is stored on computers that providers directly control, such as a Web site, rather than on a subscriber's personal computer.
In his ruling, the trial judge wrote that Verizon's interpretation "makes little sense from a policy standpoint," and warned that it "would create a huge loophole in Congress' effort to prevent copyright infringement on the Internet."
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Racism is absolutely not accepted in Europre. Of course in many regions there just cannot be racism because everyone is of the same ethnicity. But where it occurs, it's a big no-no for the majority of the population.
Also note that there are still many people living in Europe who experienced national socialism first-hand; others have to deal with the fact that they work for some high-tech factory that has a high reputation worldwide now, but used to build weapons for Hitler 60 years ago. They know their history, and they're able to learn from past mistakes. There are _far_ fewer Nazis in Europe than in the USA today.
but what do i know, i'm just a model.