Piracy not a crime in European Union

MaHe · Apr 17, 2007

From now on, piracy is legal in European Union, if you're not making any profit with it (and I think most of us here don't).

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/.../default_en.htm

Hooray for Europe!

aj421 · Apr 17, 2007

Yay Scurvy

Jax · Apr 17, 2007

YEAH!

This is awesome news!

MaHe · Apr 17, 2007

Actually, after a more throurough reading, it's not a criminal act anymore (and therefore legal).

Maybe a lawyer can explain things better.

aj421 · Apr 17, 2007

must put on digg

hanman · Apr 17, 2007

maybe i misunderstood the article, but i think it was just saying that piracy and other non-profit crime was exclude from this particular directive; not that it was now legal. wouldn't each country still have their own laws against piracy?

pottageb · Apr 17, 2007

Yeah all those words in there mean nothing to me :S

Can someone translate lol?

Harsky · Apr 17, 2007

Whoo... the idea of police bursting in through my door because I burned and played an ISO or played a ROM on my DS is less likely. Even though I have a massive CD wallet full of pirate stuff, I have never sold any for profit. Just loaned them to friends in return for their legit DVDs which I then copy...

aj421 · Apr 17, 2007

lol sounds like me

MaHe · Apr 17, 2007

I'm not much of a lawyer to understand this stuff. However, somebody more experienced told me, that piracy won't be prosecuted anymore and since it's a directive of European Union, it automatically makes each country's invidual laws against piracy obsolete.

Don't ask me.

Hadrian · Apr 17, 2007

Well at first I didnt think it mattered to me as I pay for most of the stuff I like (if its worth the money that is) but I do have a absolute ton of MP3's on my PC so looks like I wont be fined if I ever got caught

It does say non-profit, but wouldnt NOT buying something give you profit if you've would've bought it if you couldnt download something?

Sorry if that sense dont make.

aj421 · Apr 17, 2007

Podted it on digg http://digg.com/business_finance/Non_Profi..._European_Union everyone digg away

Veho · Apr 17, 2007

According to this new directive, piracy with no personal profit (like downloading ROMs or ripping DVDs for your own use) will be decriminalized; it will still be illegal, but prosecuting kids for having a few ROMs is more trouble than it's worth. Anti-piracy efforts will be turned towards counterfeit CDs/DVDs, which are a greater loss for the industry, and towards people making profit (and I'm talking major profit) off bootleg software.

Bah, I don't care either way; I have to pay a piracy fee on any mass storage device I buy, which means I can use bootleg all I want. I'm still pissed at that. There are ads in the yellow pages advertising pirate games and software, yet I (well, everyone) have to pay a piracy fee.

MaHe · Apr 17, 2007

Huh. Can a mod change the topic title to something more appropriate?
In the heat of excitement, I wrote legal in it, which may not be correct, according to veho.

Tank5890 · Apr 17, 2007

Um...I'm no lawyer, but from what I make it, all this does is make for-profit piracy criminal in all EU countries. It just says that non-profit piracy isn't included in the directive, EU countries CAN still carry out their own criminal laws on this.

Am I wrong?

Also, this is a month old. If it did decriminalise piracy, methinks we'd have all heard of it by now in non-legalese

OrR · Apr 17, 2007

That piracy is not a criminal offence doesn't mean that they can't sue you for compensation through civil law, though, does it?
Well, at least it sounds like sane legislation.

Da-Huntha · Apr 17, 2007

Wait, piracy was ever enforced here?

MaHe · Apr 17, 2007

QUOTE(Cyberdude93 @ Apr 17 2007 said:
It just says that non-profit piracy isn't included in the directive, EU countries CAN still carry out their own criminal laws on this.

No, it's say only profit-based piracy should be prosecuted ... read the fine print (I know that this last sentence carries a certain weight of hipocrisy...

)
QUOTEand decided that criminal sanctions should only apply to those infringements deliberately carried out to obtain a commercial advantage.

Veho · Apr 17, 2007

QUOTE(Da-Huntha @ Apr 17 2007 said:
Wait, piracy was ever enforced here?

Enforcing piracy?

GBATEMP: "Hey, you! What's that in your GBA?"
Kid: "Um, um, a... a... flashcard?"
GBATEMP: "No it isn't!"
Kid: "It's a flashcard, I swear!"
GBATEMP: "Let's see that. Hmmm, this isn't a flashcard, now is it?"
Kid: "Um..."
GBATEMP: "In fact, this is a legitimate, legal copy of Pokemon Ruby, isn't it?"
Kid: "No, no, I just put my M3 Lite in that so I could play it in my GBA SP..."
GBATEMP: "Don't give me that crap, kid. This is a legally bought cartrige. Don't you know we enforce piracy around here?"
Kid: "No, it's not even mine! I borrowed it! I got it for Christmas! From my Grandma!"
GBATEMP: "I'm not buying that! Let's go, sonny!"
Kid: "Noooo! I have a flashcard! I have ROMs at home! Tons of them!"
GBATEMP: "Save it for the rabbit spider monkey."
Kid: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

REMEMBER, KIDS

WE ENFORCE PIRACY HERE

(We'll allow software Ninjitsu, though

)

Da-Huntha · Apr 17, 2007

Here = europe.
Context. Context.

And with enforce, I mean the force acting properly to it.

The force = Police.

Piracy not a crime in European Union

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