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P2P (More) Legal in France

Posted by Hemos on from the not-in-the-free-and-open dept.

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.

3 of 463 comments (clear)

  1. Opening phrase of the article by gowen · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Un internaute
    An internaut!

    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.
  2. Blank media tax... by zecg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

    --
    .i lu doi ringos.star. xu do puku'aroroi dunli dopecaku leni virnu li'u
  3. So how was he caught? by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 5, Interesting
    So how was he caught? Downloading without sharing is a pretty quiet activity. You're not broadcasting your library - just your search list.

    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."