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Decriminalizing File Swapping

Posted by Zonk on from the no-one-expects-the-french dept.

IAmTheDave writes "Wired reports that judicial activism is taking hold in France, much to the dismay of the recording industry, as judges are beginning to suspend the sentences of convicted file swappers. Further, they believe they are starting a revolution against the draconian laws at the base of the industry's legal agenda, and that sometimes laws need to be changed. Says Judge Dominique Barella of the laws against file swapping in today's society: 'It is similar to the sociological consequences of the Prohibition period in the U.S. (during the 1920s). Certain laws can have unexpected consequences on society.'"

2 of 665 comments (clear)

  1. Bwoot! Cognitive dissonance detector going off! by ianscot · · Score: 0, Troll
    Boy, this story's going to tangle some people up. The French? Judicial decisions and their relationship to legislative bodies? P2P file swapping? Criminal punishments for copyright violators?

    It's like a sampler of all the usual /. knee-jerk issues, only some of the knee motions will be in contrary directions. If only Taco had posted the thing with a note about how he loved his new OS X machine after all the Windows crashes, we'd have the whole ball of wax.

    --
    "Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
  2. Re:prohibition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll
    "National prohibition of file-swapping was undertaken to improve hygiene in America." Missed the mark on that one.

    See here.