Legal Victory for P2P in France 237
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."
Private? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd like to see a clear definition of... (Score:3, Interesting)
At what point does retrieving a file from someone else's computer stop being private? I completely understand someone making copies of all kinds of things within their home. When someone I don't know is making copies of my files - this is when it seems to be anything but private. I'm not advocating a particular POV about copyrighted materials here... I'm thinking in terms of the moment that a file ceases to be "my" file and becomes "someone else's file."
That's a pretty shaky defense (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't help but wonder if that's just going to give legitimate fair-use copying a bad name.
Uh. Not quite. (Score:5, Interesting)
France uses the "civil law" system (as opposed to the "common law" system used in the U.S., the U.K., and the Commonwealth, past and present). It's based on the Roman corpus iuris civilis, and it doesn't have any such thing as "precedent." Each and every case is decided purely on the facts of the case, the law as written, and the judge's... erm... well... judgment.
This doesn't mean P2P is legal in France. It means someone got away with it.
Social Networks + P2P? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:who knew? (Score:3, Interesting)
And it makes for a saner society because otherwise you'd have to put 50% of the population (we do have real broadband here so the phenomenom is quite widespread) into jail because they're using a technology that happens to be here, and has no legal equivalent (no, ITMS is not equivalent to itunes until it allows to find as much content. Right now there is 1% of what you can find on emule...maybe). Besides, nobody was ever put in jail for copying records, or cds. Why should it happen for mp3s or divx, only because some smart guys found a way for peers to get together easily ?
Re:That's a pretty shaky defense (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:who knew? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Not Sure If I Agree (Score:2, Interesting)
Calling the current state of P2P apps "sharing" is still one of the most intelligence insulting stances I think a person could argue from. How is making an exact bit for bit copy of a song/program/whatever file on a strangers computer considered sharing. If I share an XBOX game with a friend, we either both sit down and play it together, or I physically give him the DVD therefore precluding me from using it at the same time. How would me burning the game to another disk, a disk from which he could make an exact bit for bit copy, and give to another friend, and so on and so on... be considered "sharing"? It's wrong, and the fact that so many people choose to defend P2P and burning bit-for-bit copies of CD's as sharing, is an insult to content distributors everywhere, from Adobe, to the RIAA, even Shareman Networks put a stop to DietKazza/KazzaLight.
Both sides are guilty of putting forward faulty logic in an effort win the argument. Both the RIAA, and the P2P community. I hate DRM just as much as the next guy, and I think it's something that shouldn't be necessary, but in this pro P2P era, where forgery is considered correct, and defensible by so many people. How could you blame content distributors for trying to protect their products. Do I feel that they're going about this the wrong way? Absolutely. However I can see why the P2P communities actions as a whole, encourages such drastic responses. The worst part is P2P's actions are giving them incentive, and desperately needed fodder to further advance the idea of DRM into the commercial, and legislative arena.
it only takes one (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Uh. Not quite. (Score:3, Interesting)
Jurisprudence is not the same as our precedent. Under a common law system, if a higher court decides a rule of law, all others must not only respect it but also follow it. No contradiction is allowed. The only exception is the Supreme Court, which bears no obligation. The French jurisprudence is more similar to the principle of "stare decisis" (is that latin? NDT)
In France, a judge cannot make or repel a law.
Re:who knew? (Score:2, Interesting)
Just so long as you did not live in the country whose freedom the world actually went to war to defend in the first place:
Poland.
America as the "Bringer of Freedom" who stood up to tyranny and kicked its ass in WWII is the biggest fucking con job in history. The older I get, the smarter Patton looks.
KFG
Re:Not Sure If I Agree (Score:3, Interesting)