Swiss Gov't: Downloading Movies and Music Will Stay Legal 463
wasimkadak writes "One in three people in Switzerland download unauthorized music, movies and games from the Internet, and — since last year — the government has been wondering what to do about it. This week their response was published, and it was crystal clear. Not only will downloading for personal use stay completely legal, but the copyright holders won't suffer because of it, since people eventually spend the money saved on entertainment products."
Swiss do not criminalize their own population (Score:5, Informative)
Also they pay 'copyright tax' on every blank media, hdd and ssd sold that get redistributed to registered artists.
Re:Holy smoke (Score:5, Informative)
A government that makes a common sense. Time to move to Swiss
"Swiss" is an adjective. "Switzerland" is the country.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
I only have 1 anecdote, but for sure I would not spend money on buying TV series on DVD if I didn't download some of the series first.
I have spent hundreds on TV series in the past 4 years that was only spent because I could preview the show via download.
I had never spent a dime on a DVD and didn't intend to until I started downloading.
So for some people at least, the industry don't lose one red cent of money from downloading, but instead makes money it would have never made if downloading didn't exist.
Score one for reality (Score:3, Informative)
Sony, Apple and all their minions can go to hell. After all in Switzerland there is still open internet radio like this http://glb-stream11.streamserver.ch/1/rsc_de/mp3_128
Whereas here in backward north america us classical music folks are mostly screwed over by either itunes, silverlight crap, or locked out flash based shit stations. Of course I can always go back to Europe and get real music from great stations like http://lyd.nrk.no/nrk_radio_klassisk_mp3_h or better still, http://amp.cesnet.cz:8000/cro-d-dur.flac
So what if I record some or the content with vlc so I can listen later...who gives a shit. I do not redistribute or profit from my action.
Sony, Apple, Microsoft and all the RIAA assholes everywhere can go fuck themselves. What you have done to classical music world wide is inexcusable and I hope you suffer the consequences of your short sighted pop centric view of the listening public and music!
Comment removed (Score:2, Informative)
Downloading, not uploading (Score:2, Informative)
As far as I know, this only applies to _downloading_; their view is that when an infringing copy is performed (and it works the same for counterfeit goods) the producer is to blame, not the consumer. Uploading, on the other hand, is still reprehensible.
So, Usenet or Rapidshare: safe. P2P, you are still screwed.
Re:Highly compelling, however... (Score:3, Informative)
Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, etc. all have more socialism and more general social trust (as I understand it) than most countries.
Switzerland does have some socialism, but it's local, as in communal heating systems for a town. As for "general social trust", a typical Swiss railroad ticket booth has armor glass, banks go much further than that, and the country has bomb shelters for the entire population. There are hidden underground military facilities throughout the country, everyone in the military reserves has an assault rifle and a combat load of ammo at home, and they all have to requalify on the range every year. Social trust in Switzerland exists but is not given lightly.
Re:Downloading, not uploading: Yes, but... (Score:5, Informative)
I'm a Swiss citizen and I can confirm that while downloading is legal, uploading is technically illegal. On the other hand, mass-discovery methods to detect uploaders ARE illegal here as well, and there are no political intentions to criminalize copyright laws. Switzerland is a direct democracy, meaning that any new law that is passed may be challenged by the people by collecting at least 100K signatures (that's about 1.5% of the population) against it.
About two years ago, one of the three judges of our Supreme Court made it clear in an interview that he was personally against going after people for "personal copyright infringement", stating that when the majority of the people is found to be infringing some law, that law was likely to be biased against the general interest.
Re:Really? (Score:0, Informative)
Hi you made a mistake when you started the above paragraph.
Stealing is taking something that does not belong to you.
Depriving someone the right to a possession is a symptom. You could for instance tie up someone with rope, deprive them from being able to listen to their favourite music cd. That would not be stealing would it?
Taking something that is not yours without permission or consent is stealing.
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
How do they reach that conclusion?
Maybe if you read the fucking article you wouldn't have to guess.
In summary "The report states that around a third of Swiss citizens over 15 years old download pirated music, movies and games from the Internet. However, these people don't spend less money as a result because the budgets they reserve for entertainment are fairly constant. This means that downloading is mostly complementary."
They actually did surveys and have figures to back that up. But don't let facts get in the way when they go against your preconceptions.
Note: Swiss pay a copying levy (Score:5, Informative)
Do note that Swiss pay a hefty copying levy [wikipedia.org]. In particular, we pay a fee on the amount of memory in smart phones, iPods, MP3 players, and the like. This fee is supposed to be compensation for the copying that goes on. Since we've paid for it, it is really only fair that we are allowed to copy.
Also note: while downloading is legal, uploading is not.
Re:Highly compelling, however... (Score:4, Informative)