Slashdot Mirror
Germany Accepts Strict Piracy Law
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.'"
As far as I recall, the law is that theft is punishable with imprisonment of up to two years. But to actually get that, you'd have to steal designer chewing gum sprinkled with diamonds and go about it professionally. For normal chewing gum, you'll pay a fee unless you're a repeat offender.
Except for the reality of the situation that one is theft and one isnt..
Must be nice to have enough power to go buy your own laws when you feel like it.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
This is not a law yet - it's a proposal that the cabinet agreed on. It will only become law if it finds a majority in parliament, which may or may not happen, but it hasn't been voted on yet and Germany is still enough of a democracy to wait for that to happen ;)
Actually, theft can get you up to five years. But yes, anyone who steals some chewing gum (a regular amount, that is - not an entire truckload) won't get a prison sentence, much less one of two years (and if you did, you could fight the verdict as being not appropriate for the offense). In fact, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't even get a trial - it's just not worth it.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
They have strict privacy laws. As strict as it gets. Possibly one of the strictest in the world. Last time I looked you cannot even get a phone bill for a company phone without it being anonymised. Last numbers used to be deliberately scrambled so that the employer can see what is the call pricing category but without being able to see who has been called. So on so fourth.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
To play devil's advocate: One of the goals of judicial sentencing is deterrance. When piracy is widespread and enforcement is difficult, penalties must be disproportionately high to have a deterrant effect.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
There's a word for something like that: it's called a public good, by definition a non-market item, and the recording industry has spent the last century and millions of dollars convincing people that music isn't one.
Unfortunately the time of strict privacy laws will be OVER in Germany soon. There are concrete plans to provide content providers (i.e. the movie and music industry) with a right of access to personal data of internet users. It these plans go in effect it will be enough for the content provider to claim that a copyright violation (e.g. P2P downloading) has happened from this and this IP address in order for the ISP to be obliged to provide the personal data of the person who was assigned/using this IP! No warrant neecessary anymore!
Welcome to the german world of lobbyism and corruption. It seems that most politicians are not serving their people anymore but are hookers for the industry instead.
if all the garage bands
You obviously have not been paying attention - the bands that are helped the most by piracy are the "garage bands" - they make virtually nothing off CD sales anyway, but they gain from the increase in attendance at their live performances due to the expansion in their fan base.
When music is "free", people are are much more willing to try new things. And new music.
No, that's a CDU person, they live to serve the corporations and erode civil rights. Usually you hear them spew FUD about all jobs being outsourced or cut if you don't do EXACTLY what they say (which usually involves working longer for less pay, how that creates jobs is still beyond me). Oh and of course they always want our country to be Bush's lapdog (funniest moment was when they supported attacking Iraq* and later made a 180 and accused the government of letting the war happen because "they were so undecided". Yeah, as opposed to full-on warmongering. That sure would have prevented that attack, right?).
*= Which, BTW, is a violation of the constitution. "Actions that are fitting and executed in the desire to disturb the peaceful coexistence of the peoples, especially the preparation of a war of aggression, are anticonstitutional. They are to be made punishable by law."
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
The article is factually wrong. "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." This is not true. Neither has Germany "accepted" such a law, nor is it true that it will come into effect on the date mentioned. On Wednesday, the ruling coalition of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats presented their draft of a proposed law containing many of the things mentioned in the article. This law will be discussed in both chambers of the parliament within the next 6 months. Individual politicians of both ruling parties, as well as many from the opposition have already called for changes to that draft. At this point, one can only speculate how the result will look like and when it will be passed.
And then Ambrose Bierce disappeared without a trace...