File-Sharing For Personal Use Declared Legal In Portugal 179
New submitter M0j0_j0j0 writes "After receiving 2000 complaints regarding 'illegal file sharing' from ACAPOR regarding P2P networks, the Portuguese prosecutor refused to take the case into court on the premise that file sharing is not illegal in the territory if files are for personal and not commercial use. The court also stated that the complaints had, as sole evidence, the IP address of users, and that it is a wrong statement to assume an IP address is directly related to one individual. TorrentFreak has a piece in English with more details (original source in Portuguese)."
Bailout (Score:3, Insightful)
And this is how it will remain until the bribe I mean the interest free financial bailout monies are forwarded. At which point the subject will be revisited.
Why Portugal May Be the Next Greece [time.com]
LOL @ ACAPOR (Score:4, Insightful)
âoeWe are doing anything we can to alert the government to the very serious situation in the entertainment industryâ
I can't quite put my finger on it exactly, but for some reason that sentence made me LOL bigtime. Luckily no coffee was in my mouth at that moment, or I'd have ejected it explosively through several facial orifices.
Re:In English (Score:5, Insightful)
No, I'm pretty sure that assaulting ships at sea and robbery in general is still punishable, even if you don't charge for your services.
Re:U.S. law still applies (Score:5, Insightful)
Portuguese citizens need to be reminded that they're still under the jurisdiction of U.S. law, and WILL be extradited to the U.S. for breaking any IP laws!
This post contains dangerous levels of sarcasm and thus required by Poe's Law to have at least a single emoticon (smiley). The poster may be considered himself warned.
Re:Common sense and reason (Score:5, Insightful)
And drug abuse has not gone up as a result. Just think of the money the country saves on not prosecuting these cases. A small island of sanity.
Re:U.S. law still applies (Score:5, Insightful)
It's sarcasm, people. Whooosh!
You just wait for craziness to ensue... (Score:4, Insightful)
You just wait until various acronymous industry groups start blaming Portugal's "lax" IP laws on their financial problems. With entertainment revenue's bottom dropping out, as it does to an extent when people have little or no disposable income, we're bound to hear industry groups blaming it all on legalized file sharing. Sigh.
Re:U.S. law still applies (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, then you fall back to drones, I guess.
Re:U.S. law still applies (Score:2, Insightful)
Cut him some slack ... it's very difficult to tell the difference between a stupid American who has no idea where other countries are, and an asshole American who thinks their laws apply everywhere else.
Drive it home (Score:5, Insightful)
The result has been a decrease in drug use and all associated problems
I don't think you really drove the point home. What this literally means is that decriminalization of drugs results in:
- LESS crime
- LESS violence
- LESS injustice
- LESS corruption in government
In other words, decriminalization has the exact opposite result of what the government propaganda teaches us. That should immediately raise a red flag and cause a citizen to lose trust in government. The fact that drug use itself also goes down, rather than up, is just the icing on the cake. The reason drugs need to be decriminalized is not simply to lower drug use; it is for the much more critical reasons stated above.
Re:A little bit of sanity... (Score:5, Insightful)
They proved it with the drug policy enough that the world AIDS organization (forgive me for forgetting the real name of that organization) decided to declare to the world that everyone needs to follow in suit, which they've only done prior to that in declaring AIDS is caused by HIV (because Russia was denying it). Of course, most countries have said fuck you to that.
The question is if they're going to be able to prove that it's actually effective with file sharing, though. And then if anyone is going to give a shit that they proved it (I have a feeling the US in particular, unless a revolution happens, is going to deny any proof Portugal gives here).
Exactly (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a closely-guarded secret held under wraps by the US government, corporate-owned media, Big Pharma, and most especially the sickening for-profit prison corporations. You as a US citizen will NEVER hear about this on the news. Bill Maher should open every show talking about Portugal and compare it US prison statistics.
Re:A little bit of sanity... (Score:5, Insightful)
your point (or, *a* point) is taken: since the country, there, is not a big producer of entertainment goods (at least not for export) - they could only be representing their people and not any one local industry. ie, this is what society is/was always meant to be about! the government sticking up for the peoples' rights and interests. even if some corp interests lose out, the people are what matters.
USA: learn from this!
(sigh. who am I kidding!? we'll never change. never. dammit.)
Re:U.S. law still applies (Score:5, Insightful)
Portuguese citizens need to be reminded that they're still under the jurisdiction of U.S. law, and WILL be extradited to the U.S. for breaking any IP laws!
there's no extradition agreement between the U.S. and Portugal
Didn't stop then from going after Noriega in Panama and it's not stopping them from going after Assange in Sweden and Dotcom in New Zealand. Does the term 'extraordinary rendition' ring a bell?
Re:Drive it home (Score:2, Insightful)
If you only decriminalise posession of small amounts it won't make any difference.
There is two types of crime that are caused by the "war on drugs"
1. Organised crime in supply.
2. Petty Crime used by addicts to get the stuff they need.
First could be solved by government selling anything you want (Taxed at a level that means large amounts of profit for the government but still far cheaper than organised crime can supply it for and at a regulated quality). You can wipe organised crime out really easily (People still sell smuggled cigs and booze especially in low income areas but those people don't have money / guns / power).
Second could be solved by giving addicts access to pure and affordable stuff. (Perhaps for less than sold on the open market so as to reduce crime for the rest of the population).
Taking in extra taxes by getting rid of the black market would be a good way to solve the current financial crisis. (At least in the UK).
I don't quite understand why governments are so against this sort of logic but would rather make things harder for the sort of people who are votiing for them (and probably don't do drugs and wouldn't anyway) by cutting spending on essential services. People who take drugs will take them no matter what a responsible government would stear people towards the safer ones as well.
Re:A little bit of sanity... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think it is important whether or not it is good for business. What important is, if it *fair* and good for society.
Sharing some hardware tools with your neighbor may be bad for hardware maker's business, but if somebody says it should be illegal, I'd say fuck you.
Re:U.S. law still applies (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not sure the CIA will give a shit - they'll come in anyway, kidnap the people, and drop them off at the torture camps.
That's preposterous. That's not at all how it works. The US government will make a diplomatic call to the local government, who will conveniently lose the prisoners or forget what the local law says, and THEN CIA will kidnap them and drop them off at torture camps.
That's exactly what happened to two asylum seekers in Sweden, who were illegally handed over to the CIA by Swedish authorities and fell off the map.