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View Full Version : It's official: File sharing becomes a crime without punishment in Germany



Hairbautt
09-10-2008, 12:50 PM
http://filesharingtalk.com/vb3/picture.php?albumid=25&pictureid=207"Law enforcement officials from several German states have told local press in recent days that they won't pursue the vast majority of file sharing lawsuits anymore. A spokesperson of the state prosecutor of Nort-Rhine Westphalia told the online magazine jetzt.de earlier this week that P2P users won't have to fear any lawsuits if they don't share files on a "substantial, commercial" level.

The criteria to determine whether P2P users reach this level are both the number of files shared and the specific value of the shared files. From the interview:

The economic value of a music file is about one Euro, whereas a movie is valued at about 15 Euro. Based on that we define a commercial level as damages greater than 3000 Euro.

Does that mean that you can now share up to 3000 MP3s without getting sued in Germany? Well, not exactly. Another indicator for so-called commercial infringement is the specific nature of the files shared. Sharing a movie that has not been released theatrically in Germany could get you in trouble even if you don't share to many other files, according to the prosecutor's spokesperson."

:source: Source: http://www.p2p-blog.com/item-813.html

nowshining
09-11-2008, 01:29 AM
if this is true - ur lucky there in Germany 'cause it won't happen here in the ol' USA or it's a trick :/.

Anyway I don't really share anything but demo's and freeware apps, etc..

Bionic
09-11-2008, 01:45 AM
Come Dubai, yea. No Sue. Legal pro.

Broken
09-12-2008, 05:19 AM
It's very rarely handled as a criminal matter in the States either, it's mainly handled as a civil crime.

I would assume this is the direction that Germany is moving.

strjms72
10-07-2008, 10:34 AM
and it's how it should be... they need to loosen up