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Sharing 2,999 Songs, 199 Movies Is Safe In Germany
unassimilatible writes "Torrentfreak is reporting that German prosecutors will now only pursue larger-scale file sharers on the Internet, as they are tired of being the entertainment industry's profit collector. 'Prosecutors in a German state have announced they will refuse to entertain the majority of file-sharing lawsuits in [the] future. It appears that only commercial-scale copyright infringers will be pursued, with those sharing under 3,000 music tracks and 200 movies dropping under the prosecution radar.' And the money quote: 'It seems that the legal system in Germany has had enough of this "abuse" of the criminal law system for "civil" monetary gain.' If only an American politician would make this point. Why should taxpayers underwrite their government becoming enforcers for the entertainment industry? Then again, when you see how much politicians are being paid, an answer suggests itself."
In the former case, you deprive the owner use of said property. In the latter, the owner still has the property.
And whenever someone uses this stupid statement I always like to point out that if this was truly the case, why do the geeks get mad when someone takes the code to Linux and uses it in an appliance without posting modified source? Can't have it both ways.. sorry.
In both the case of the car being stolen and the 100 million dollar movie being pirated what is REALLY being stolen is the time and money of the people who made them/owned them. You don't get a free pass just because you can easily make a copy.
Do you people really believe the bullshit you are spouting? You think that semantic arguments are a good excuse to steal from people?
Yes, under the law it is technically copyright infringement but do you seriously think that what is being "stolen" is the digital copy? The whole reason copyright exists is to protect the work of people whose products at the end of their work is easily reproduced.
What is being "stolen" is the reimbursement that the owner wants for the time/investment/inspiration that it took to MAKE the product in the first place. ie. The WORK.
If you really do believe that line of crap slashdot propaganda you regurgitated, I hope that you spend tons of time/money on a project that you hope will financially benefit you and then someone takes your work and gives it to everyone for free. Semantics won't do you so well at that point.
PS: No, all these movies don't make millions in profit. It is a risky business with very high up front costs.
Did you know that in most places now you don't have to carry money around but you can still buy things using electronic funds?
I didn't realize all this time I was getting something for nothing and that things that aren't physical have no value.
Whoops...
Well, if it's on the web then it must be true.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
WTF are you talking about? "Appeasement" is a reference to the policys of England prior to WWII, where Chamberlain basically sacrificed part another country to Hitler in the hopes that he would then leave England alone. It didn't work out like he wanted.
Likewise, the French authorities decided to sacrifice other people's property to avoid a larger, bloodier conflict. Can you guess where I'm going with this?
For that matter, look at the "ceasefire" negotiated by the current French president between Russia and Georgia. The Russians agree to pull out in 6 months (!), and they can "increase security in that time? The French, and by extension Europe (France has the rotating presidency currently), is going to allow Russia to annex parts of Georgia to avoid having their gas supply cut off. Do you really believe that Putin will be satisfied? The Germans may have marched through Paris, but by the time this is over the European heads of state will be lining up to suck Putin's dick, and smiling all the way.
As for race, it seems to be foremost on *your* mind, not mine. The racial problems the French are having are totally home grown. The US has their own racial problems, but we've been dealing with ours for hundreds of years - wars, riots, political upheavals. Do you really believe that France is so culturally evolved that a few car burnings are the end of that?
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
What's really funny is my complaint about getting modded as offtopic got modded informative.
I'm not the one being thick. I understand the literal definition of the laws my point is that you are using semantics to skirt the moral issue. Despite what the law says in black in white anyone with a brain can see that it is stealing at the end of the day.
It is quite simple to see the end result of this..
Lets try:
You claim that taking your copy isn't stealing because it isn't depriving them of their copy that they can still sell to others.
So I should take a copy for free and the next person and the next.. and so should everyone else because why would you pay for it if you could get it for free and it hurts no one.. right?
Now the studio has no revenue and has no money to reinvest in new projects and everyone is out of work. The only new movies you get to watch are home made or under such crazy security it will make your head spin.
Darn.. I guess having progressively less money to reinvest really DOES affect people.
Music/software/film doesn't magically appear out of thin air despite your arguments to the contrary.