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Legal Victory for P2P in France
nietsch writes "The Register is reporting that a french Kazaa user that had been sued by the SCPP (the french equivalent of the RIAA) has been acquitted by the courts in his county. 'The Judges decided that these acts of downloading and uploading qualified as private copying' Ars Technica has more coverage on the subject, or you can read it in english from the organization that lead the defense."
Someone should have checked judges personal computers to understand merits of this verdict.
SCPP:
Go and tell your master that we have been charged by God with a sacred quest. If he will give us money for the MP3s, he can join us in our quest for the Holy Racketeering Scheme.
FRENCH JUDGE:
Well, I'll ask him, but I don't think he'll be very keen. Uh, MP3s are free you see...
SCPP:
What?
RIAA:
He says MP3s are free!
SCPP:
Are you sure they're free?
FRENCH JUDGE:
Oh, yes. They're very nice-a. (I told him MP3s are free.)
POLICEMEN:
[chuckling]
SCPP:
Well, u-- um, can we come up and have a look at your MP3 collection?
FRENCH JUDGE:
Of course not! You are English types-a!
SCPP:
Well, what are you, then?
FRENCH JUDGE:
I'm French! Why do think I have this outrageous accent?!
RIAA:
What are you doing in England?
FRENCH JUDGE:
Mind your own business!
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
"The music industry is very used to getting their way. They have plenty of money to give to politicians when they aren't giving it to radio stations in illegal pay for play schemes. Give them a while and they will bribe the bad news away..."
Because God Forbid the music industry actually gives any of that money to the people that write/play/record/produce/create the music that makes them an industry. I figure the artists should actually see some of the money instead of it being spent on lawsuits and red-tape.
I mean, that's like winning the $100M lottery and only getting $5 out of it because someone decided that they'd use the rest of the money to sue other people to make sure someone doesn't steal my $5.
I guess I just don't see how the RIAA isn't a wholy owned subsidiary of the Mafia.
-=JML=-
Must explain the WWII stuff and all.
Like why France was the first country to declare war on the Nazis in Sept '39 while the US just sat on their hands?
I would have thought, in this specific occurrence, that it is the US who surrendered to big business.
But I'm just French. And not even Republican. What do I know about spinning news?
It would be nice to be sure of anything the way some people are of everything.
FYI, CD-R/DVD+/-R/RWs are taxed in Europe, as insisted by artists. IOW, if you have downloaded MP3s or movies and burned them on CD/DVD - you are clear, since you are already compensated artists thru recordable medium tax. (And every CD/DVD burner is taxed too.)
And to cool off your hot (in legal sense) American heads, I have to remind that European legal system is NOT precedent-based. IOW, one case over here means nothing. Judge decides the case after looking into the circumstances of the case before him, not by searching prehistoric records of how Gutenberg/etc were judged.
What can you tell from the case, is overall mood over here. People in Europe are sick of taxes. And another association asking for another compensation and protection against competition is just what it is - another association asking for another compensation and another protection against competition. And artist associations here are far from being first in the queue of the beggars, looking for gov't help.
What is illegal here putting such CD-R pile for a sale. But I think it's illegal everywhere. As long as you give it away for free - you are Okay.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Must explain the WWII stuff and all.
It's funny how people always mention WW2 and the french Vichy Government, while completely ignoring the whole history of social and democratic progress.
The Vichy government was a mistake and a shame. But that doesn't erase the fact that Americans owe France their freedom, most of their constitution, and a pretty statue. Looking at thing from a different angle, America's image as bringers of freedom, fighters against tyranny, and lighthouse of the world for democracy was right at the end of WW2. Since then, it's been going downhill quite frankly. Yet nobody seems to blindly ignore America's more glorious past. So give France a rest, read up some of its history, and understand that every country can sometime slip.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
We do have precedent. It's called "jurisprudence", and although a judge is not legally bound to apply the same judgment twice for two similar cases, it is was is done in the courts.
And when the judge deviates (because the precedent is obsolete for example), he better have good reasonning wrapped around its verdict, because higher courts will break the judgment if not.
The French did not Surrender , the French government did . .the D-Day landings would likely have been a lot harder had it not been for the French Resistance .
France had some of the best organised Resistance movements in the War
French Aristocracy and rulers have a habit of Bending over , The French People have a habit of Kicking them up the arse when they do .
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though