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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. thats how i think things should work.... by Moonlapse · · Score: 0, Redundant

    The guy ( if what he said was true ) is just the last branch on the tree of sharing. If the whatever-AA wants to stop this stuff, they need to cut off some roots or bigger branches.

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    - I got my free iPod and a free Nintendo DS....why not
  2. No theft invloved by CarrionBird · · Score: 1, Redundant
    Actually the ruling seems to say that he did not steal anything, because he paid the media tax which is intended to compensate for just this situation.

    The same argument would not in the US because we do not have the media tax, except on "Music CD-Rs" required by consumer cd copiers.

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    Free Mac Mini Yeah, it's
  3. He paid for it already by CarrionBird · · Score: 1, Redundant
    When he bought the discs, he paid of the content via the tax. Therefore, according to the ruleing, the downloading was not stealing. He was simply recieveing what he already paid for.

    None of this absolves the person serving the files, since he is not authorized to reproduce the works at any rate.

    --
    Free Mac Mini Yeah, it's