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.'"
From the Fine Article:
Also from the Fine Article:
So, you can get two years in prison in Germany for stealing chewing gum from a shop? Cool.
This is all rehashing rehashes, but it bears repetition lest we find ourselves slowly and finally boiled in this slowly heating water. It's more heavy-handed power and money grabbing by those who have the money and power (entertainment droids and politicians). I only hope one of the first "caught" with their hands in the downloading cookiejar is some son or daughter of one of the anointed government members. Also from the article (emphasis mine):
First of all, what supports their estimates? Secondly, I've still yet to see causal studies whereby there are directly related losses because of illegal downloads. I have seen some convincing studies showing strong correlation between downloading and sales.
That's just crazy, two years!? You wouldn't get that if you went out and stole the DVD itself.
Darn. For a moment, I read that as "Germany accepts strict privacy law" and said "cool, some good news for a change"...
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
This is undoubtedly a sad day for justice and liberty in Germany. It's the kind of abuse we generally get when one group of thieves becomes the sole provider of necessary goods and services to the people.
I just wish they'd give someone 2 years in prison for those stupid VW commercials.
Last time I went to the box office, I wouldn't call it "piracy". Somewhere between fraud, misrepresentation and highway robbery.
Why would I "pirate" something, you couldn't PAY me to see!
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
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.
That would be 'rich, monopolistic thieves'.
And dont be suprsied if we dont get those laws here in the US, or worse... Remember the WTO? They will mandate all other members follow suit.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
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 ----
It seems like an unenforcable law. They are going to have to put 1 out of every 5 people in jail for 2 years, and that's not going to fly.
If you overstep your bounds against the populace, you'll find that, while they might stretch at first, they will soon 'spring back' and you'll find yourself in a worse position than before.
--Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
I'm sorry, but I just don't think they're quite the same. An illegal download doesn't prevent the 'owner' from benefiting from the origninal. Whereas when you steal a physical object, it does. If I steal a loaf of bread from you, you no longer have that loaf of bread to eat. If I copy the recipie for making that bread without your permission, it does you no harm (unless, possibly, you're the proprieter of a bakery.) I'm not claiming that illegal downloads are morally ok, just that its not quite the same thing as stealing a physical object.
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.
Compare this to France trying to legalize P2P via an 8E/mo tax and it looks like it's about time to get out of Europe.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
Many people believe that this is due to corruption, it can no longer be attributed to "goodwill" towards the industry and stupidity alone. In any case, it goes way beyond being irresponsible and neglecting the government's duty to take care of its citizens and the long-term effect of this will be civil disobedience and loss of respect for laws in general.
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
Hey, anyone in germany (including me, I guess) - for two years in prison, click here http://images.google.com/images?q=mickey+mouse&hl= en&btnG=Search+Images. I wish bubble gum would come this easy!
Most popular music out today isn't even worth a stick of chewing gum!
"Better to be vulgar than non-existent" -Bev Henson
Facts;
1. It's incredibly easy to copy digital media.
2. It's done privately.
3. It harms no one directly and immediately.
No law in the world will stop this people downloading digital media, unless the power of the police is extended to the point that the download behaviour of every individual is monitored.
Unfortunately and utterly unbeliveably and to my utter, inexpressible disgust and revulsion, the law has in fact taken that step, with the new European Data Retention Act.
Welcome to the Police State.
That's the whole problem - people feel that a lot of the stuff out there isn't worth the asking price. The "asking price", for a couple, is a LOT more than the ticket price ... and it doesn't help that the theatres don't make any money on the screening itself, so they have to gouge on the food concessions.
Lower the price to $5 a head, give half to the theatre so they can charge reasonable prices for eats, and make it up in volume. So Jim Carey won't get $20 million for his next movie unless its really good. The solution to THAT problem is obvious - make better movies.
German politicians are very much like every other politician or normal person not awar of the general principles of IT. They are blissfully ignorant of the actual consequences of todays IP laws they pass. The last draft of internet copyright protection law that made it into the real world was a haphazard and naive mess, littered with wrong vocablurary and barely made it not to be a classical 1984 "Thought Crime Law" as the US american DMCA is. This new law is a step closer to that though. ... No word about that in the law.
Brigitte Zypries said it right there though: She can't be bothered bugging the decision boards with such minor details as seperating IP control and access/market control and thus doesn't care about the effects. Politicians have other things to worry about - like the deficit. When asked if it where a proactive DRM circumvention if copying a CD on PC Linux (where current DRM is unaffective) she said something like "Well, in that case I would say, sort of, that if DRM is unaffective it's not there so it's no circumvention in this case."
It boils down to the courtroom again, where it's up to the judge to introduce sanity into the process again. I understand there are some US judges that have ruled the DMCA as unapplicable in some cases, as it's against the american constitution.
Goes to show what we all should never forget: Laws are made by humans and should be subject to perpetual scrunity.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
This brings up an interesting thought. On Star Trek, they have that Replicator thing. If Captain Picard wants a steak, he asks for a steak and it seemingly materializes out of thin air. If he wants a million steaks and that replicator thing can create them all, efforlessly, exact duplicatible copies ... is he _stealing_ those steaks? Where did they come from? Did he kill a million cows? (Or more accurately, did 1 cow divided by steaks multiplied by a million get killed? Were they real or virtual cows?)
So now Mr Picard can duplicate a million sticks of gum and steal them all... _then_ it's just like stealing a million sticks of gum from a shop... right? Well at least it's more like performing an illegal download.
The materialized steak was someone's idea of a steak... at the very least you may be stealing the idea, not the steak itself.
FLR
except for russia
In Germany, you beat piracy,
In Soviet Russia, a pirate beats you!!
sorry.
and, yeah I know the russian dude won the fight.
i'll go now.
did you notice how the first half talks about movies and the fear of piracy,
but the second half only mentions the music industry not making as much money
as they used to?
well, the german movie industry has their own association with a web site at
http://www.bvv-medien.de/, and despide a very, very aggressive anti-consumer
anti piracy campain, they still more than doubled their revenue in the last
five years: 860 mio euro in 1999 vs. 1747 mio in 2004.
I guess noone of the german movie industry will read this, but: if I'm in cinema
and about some movie, and you want to show some ad to me, it should start with the
word "Danke" (thanks). After all I already paid for the movie ticket. Instead they
show some anti piracy ad with people send into jail and about to be raped or similar
stuff.
Where are we going to put 45 million expatriot germans?
:)
Bienvenidos a Mexico! Disfruten su estancia
The problem here is that this law isn't going to be enforced properly.
By sneaking in these laws, they prosecute one or two people in the country every now and then. The laws stay in place, people don't care about them because they figure it "won't happen to them", and the movie/music companies are able to bribe politicians into creating even more ridiculous laws.
If only they would attempt to enforce this law en-masse, they would end up with at least 10% (probably more) of the population in jail. Then people would start caring about this and everything would be set right.
Instead, they're going to slowly introduce even worse laws, but only prosecute a tiny percentage of the population. It is an unfortunate situation.
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.
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.
Obviously you have never seen the bill of the Enterprise for licensing fees for steak blueprints.
I heard you go to a prison planet if you replicate using a blueprint for which you did not pay the license fees.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
Hello looser evil government people (that dont know what real work is)
Since my wages havent increased 12% yearly over the last 10 years like many govt people, I hereby
like to claim a 'stolen' amount of cash of $100,000 . The corporates who earned massive returns
have the cash, I would like to see them locked up and my cash returned, because in an infaltion economy
everyone DESERVES inflated revenue, even if their business models are crap.
So wheres my tax discounts eh?
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
It's worse to copy mission impossible 3 than to beat your wife, mug someone, or steal a car.
Ya, that makes sense.
"The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw."
Two years of jail for copyright infringement? That's pure overkill. I can't even begin to understand the valid reasons for this.
Even from the other side of the equation it makes no sense at all. I've spent the last couple of years or so working on some games. This is my baby, the result of me working my ass off. The thought of someone depriving me of potential income by downloading a cracked copy does make my blood boil. An appropriate consequence of them getting busted with it? Compensation for the loss, yes. Some sort of fine or community service, yes. But jail time? For duplication of an entertainment product!? You can't be freaking serious.
This is greed, pure and simple. Perhaps a demonstration of a massively overinflated sense of self importance (defy our will eh?.. off to jail with you, consumer!). It is also a demonstration of the very, very dangerous consequences of letting a powerful lobbying organisation get their way with the laws. I hope this doesn't remain on the books for long.
PS. Copyright infringement has never been, and will never be, theft. The former deprives someone of potential future income, and the latter deprives someone of something material immediately. Equating copyright infringement with the forced boarding, theft and murder of a ship at sea is an arrogant and flawed analogy.
Rant off.
Ahem. All good bands (i.e. Green Day and, uh...uh...uh) ARE taking a year off. There are almost no good bands. There _are_ some wealthy bands with geriatic performers, yes, but music has become like Disney movies -- locked in "vaults" and copyrighted for the next 5,000 years. First thing we do, we shoot all the copyrighters.
I come here for the love
Unless there is also a levy that compensates shopkeepers for stolen goods, the levy on CD writers and media should now be immediately revoked.
...I don't listen to the radio much any more, nor do I watch TV all that often. I DO listen to things like RenRadio, which is populated by performers that don't give a flying flip about what drivel the bulk of your ilk produce. You know what, I've been listening to real music for about 2-3 years now and I'm not very likely to be turning back any time soon- mostly because the media companies have been strip-mining culture for a couple decades now and it's almost all rubbish these days.
Go ahead, take a year off. Other people will gladly step up that don't have contracts that seem to love what they do and are actually GOOD and produce something worth listening to/watching for a change.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Copyright theft? Either I have been smoking some heavy shit lately, or I magically obtained the legal copyright to the works illicitly when I dwnloaded them. 0_o
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
Ask your public librarian. She's that shady little wench down on the street corner handing out free copies of copyrighted works. Books, movies, music... she's ur hook up!