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Germany Accepts Strict Piracy Law

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the slap-on-the-wrist-that-takes-the-whole-hand dept.

A beautiful mind writes "The TimesOnline is reporting that Germany has accepted a new piracy law, currently the toughest in Europe, which comes into effect on January 1, 2007. From the article: 'Germans risk two years in prison if they illegally download films and music for private use under a new law agreed yesterday. Anybody who downloads films for commercial use could be jailed for up to five years.' Many politicians defended the new law, amongst them Günther Krings, the Christian Democrat legal affairs spokesman, who claimed: 'There should be no legal distinction between stealing chewing gum from a shop and performing an illegal download.'"

5 of 478 comments (clear)

  1. Evidently the law does distinguish by aminorex · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I seriously doubt that anyone in German has been imprisoned for two years for taking a stick of chewing gum from a shop. Well, unless they were in a politically despised class such as Jews or Historians.

    --
    -I like my women like I like my tea: green-
  2. I said it before, and I'll say it again by thesatch · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Germans are the shittiest people on the planet.

  3. Without Entertainment DROIDS you'd be left with... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    As an entertainment droid, I get a little pissed off by the yahoos (most everybody, in other words) who think it's okay to steal music. 2 years is not justifiable. What WOULD be justifiable is if all the garage bands and dancers and singers and actors and writers and, well, us ENTERTAINMENT DROIDS just took a year off so that you bastards could just all wallow in your own lame attempts at amusement. How much you wanna bet that masturbation would become the hot trend in such a world?

  4. Re:well, if that's what you do to gum thieves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    The nazis are fucking crazy!

  5. Reality check by drsquare · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    This is all rehashing rehashes, but it bears repetition lest we find ourselves slowly and finally boiled in this slowly heating water.

    You're acting as if the goverment is taking away your god-given right to piracy. Maybe you weren't aware, but internet piracy has never been legal, you have never had the right to do it. This is just increasing the punishment, which considering how rampant piracy is, may be a necessary deterrant.

    Law abiding citizens like you and I have no more to worry about than we did before.