Portugal Minister of Culture is in favour of movies/music downloads

**ElGatonPirata** · 05-13-2009, 06:11 PM

Hi there.

I've just read this small news in a radio site and i smilled throughout the reading and i felt that i've had to translate this to my fellow FST users. It's quiet astonishing considering the ongoing stuff currently happening in Sweden, France, UK, Italy and other European Countries.

But i get the feeling that this minister isn't gonna last too much time in the job...

Here it goes the report about the portuguese minister of culture concerning illegal downloads (of movies and music):

12-05-2009 15:17

The portuguese minister of Culture (arts) doesn't admit restrictions or punishments to whoever downloads movies of music from the net, although it's material protected by author rights.

José António Pinto considers that the proposal being debated in France - by cutting the internet connection of who makes illegal downloads - doesn't make sense in Portugal. According to the minister, such attitude isn't a act of a State of Law.

"We are a country with an specific history and an State of Law Regime. The history is that we lived 48 years under an dictatorship and therefore we don't compreend easilly solutions that can have an possible censorship reading - that someone is watching what're doing", explains.

If some specific content is available in the internet it should be used by any person that has acess to the web, considers the minister, for whom any attempt of imposing sactions will always have censhorship aspects. "We ate dealing in an area (movies and music) in wich, in fact, the people have the feeling that someone put it out there and they are only using what's available: like someone who founds money on the street."

It's with this critic view that the minister comments the discussion on the way at the French Parlament about a law wich allows - without having to wait for an juditial decition - cutting the web access to whoever makes illegal downloads, but forcing the client to keep paying the service.

The minister considers that the net use for the practic of crimes such as paedophilie or human beings traffic should be investigated and punished but that movies and musics available on the net - main targets of the french law - "are of whoever catches it".

Pinto Ribeiro is in the European Union Counsil of Culture ministers, in Bruxels, where it was today decided that the city of Guimarães will be in 2012, European Capital of Culture.

The Portuguese Sociaty of Authors reacted with outrage to the position assumed by the minister towards web piracy. The maester Pedro Osório feels "offended" and says that the minister has an "anti-cultural vision".

It's good to be a pirate in Portugal.

original link: http://www.rr.pt/InformacaoDetalhe.a...aId=39&ZoneId=

**VinX** · 05-13-2009, 06:12 PM

sweet man .. i hope sweden learns something from this ..

**Cabalo** · 05-13-2009, 06:14 PM

so good to see we are still an haven for piracy.
gotta love our small and fantastic country. (though not too rich

)

**Villalltheway** · 05-13-2009, 07:11 PM

Originally Posted by Cabalo

so good to see we are still an haven for piracy.
gotta love our small and fantastic country. (though not too rich

)

I wouldnt exactly call it a 3rd world country.

**The Flying Cow** · 05-13-2009, 07:13 PM

The only difference is Pinto Ribeiro isn't a hypocrite. He assumes it; everyone in Portugal is downloading pirated shit off the net, that's why movies hit theatres so late. Any honest minister would admit he grabs stuff from the web.

Kudos to him.