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P2P (More) Legal in France
A reader writes:"A french appeal court ruled yesterday in favour of somebody who downloaded about 500 movies, on the ground that those were private copies, and that he didn't redistributed them, and that a tax was payed on blank media. This sets the huge precedent that P2P is legal over there. For the details, apparently no distinction was made on the method used to download the movies (upload issues) and the famous EUCD directive was even used by the defending lawyer." You'll want the fish for this one, unless you speak French.
I wasnt aware that the civil law legal system france uses relied heavily on precedent...
Viral software licensing is not freedom, it is in fact GNU/Socialism.
That's a seriously cool word. Better than "web surfer" or "'netter". I say we port it to English immediately.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
What happened to the person from whom the movies were downloaded? He/she most certainly WAS distributing them in violation of copyright law.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Although in this I can see (see me not judging, merely observing) the trend of French trying systematically to piss off America, there is one interesting point - the blank media tax. If people who pay for it are not allowed to download movies and burn them on taxed media, then what is its point?
Oh, yeah, this will go over big in sharing communities. Only the leeches are legal. Pretty funny of you ask me.
(I suppose he could have gotten them off oc the usenet, but then how did he get caught?)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
He must have downloaded a few movies from the wrong sharer (i.e. copyright enforcer). But if those files were offered for public download (to trap the unwary), how can they be illegal. Hey, you offered them. Why am I in trouble for taking what you freely offered?
Something is missing in this story so far, and I really would be interested in hearing what it is.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Bittorrent has an interesting impact on that equation, because it makes the relationship between uploading and downloading explicit. If I start the client, get the file, have a share ratio of one, and sign off, then how many new copies of the file exist because of my actions? Well, if I hadn't joined, the people who got the file from me would have gotten it from the people I got it from instead. Thus, by my actions exactly one new copy of the file exists: mine.
I don't know if it stands up legally, but morally and practically, the only thing I did was to make a single copy. That's it. Makes it kind of hard to support those $5,000 damages figures for a single file, doesn't it?
Did Radio kill Music? No.
But Radio pays money only to original song authors not to recording artists.
So how come radio doesn't kill the record Industry? Back in the day the RIAA equivalent said it would and lobbied hard to stop it.
But no, Radio enhances music.
Radio sells more records.
It creates a bigger market.
People swapping music create a bigger market, everyone listens to more music than they own, if they like it then they buy more like it and go and see the band play and buy merchandise.
In a free market, some businesses fail when they are uneconomic. The RIAA is a Government Enforced Cartel.
P2P file sharing increased CD sales, it brought the CD single market to life, the Figures for the UK are crystal clear.
Even if the "Industry" tries to use the world economic downturn at the time of Napster to hide the facts in the US - they know the truth P2P generated a massive resurgence of intrest in music and thus CD sales.
What is killing music is Overpriced CDs and I-Tunes, Restricted Radio Play, Clear channel owning the venues, Lawsuits against fans, Overcontrol of Musicians, Unfair Contracts and Low pay for Musicians, insanely overpriced 'samples' destroying the vitality of rap, house and ambient, etc. etc.
How come they can do all this in a Free Market Economy? Because they are a cartel with a Government Enforced Monopoly.
Video was a lifeline to the Movie Industry yet they tried to outlaw the video recorder.
P2P will save music, stop couterfieting for cash not fans sharing for free.
Gorillaz rocketed to number 1 Album sales, largely attributed to the pre-publicity of fileswapping.
Fans are loyal they will support things, don't know how to make money out of being famous - then get out of the way of the up and coming.
Fan = Someone who Fanatically supports something or is into it.
In France or otherwise.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Earlier this week, the US decided to renounce and reject the treaty, on the grounds that other countries were trying to use it to gain access to their citizens detained in the US.
Apparently, international law is for the convenience of America to impose its views on other nations and woe betide those who try to use it the other way round. International Law, according to the current administration, is a one-way street, with US checkpoints at both ends, each of which has the right to fire at will at anything that moves.
The last time things got this bad for any nation, England passed a law stating that NO king may ever again hold the name of John. Now, that is seriously pissed off.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)