AfterDawn: News

French appeals court rules in favour of downloader

A French Appeals court has ruled in favour of a person who downloaded about 500 copies of movies off the Internet. This ruling was reached because the movies were seen as private copies which were not re-distributed and also this person had paid a tax on blank DVD media that would be shared with the entertainment industry. The source article is in French so using a rough translator its hard to find further details but from what I can see, nothing was said about how he actually downloaded the movies.

If he downloaded them through P2P then it would more than likely that the movies were re-distributed, or parts of the movies, which would be illegal. Also not much was said about the type of downloads they were, whether they were copied from theatres before official release date, or DVDRip copies. Nevertheless, it’s a good decision for a court to come to when you consider he had already paid extra tax on the blank media.



Obviously it would be more profitable for the entertainment industry to receive full price for someone acquiring a movie, which is why they are trying to close down all the resources online that allow people to share movies and other copyrighted material with each other. However, while doing this, they still also try to get blank media and portable music player's taxed to get even more money, just in case you decided to copy something copyrighted onto them.

Sources:
La vie du net (French Source)
Slashdot

Written by: James Delahunty @ 16 Mar 2005 0:29

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• 3 comments

• WhatUp

  Well it said downloading and copying directly from dvd rip and have accumulated 488 copies and has landed some to his friend admitted he has on some occasions viewed this with one or two friends,
  
  They don't rely care about P2P as you are saying for them in the article the way it is presented it mean it came kind of half and half internet/dvd rip done by him personaly.
  
  He got away with the mention that it was private copy and as such was protected (kind of fair use).
  
  English law was the same before they had introduce in US the Digital millenium act if I am correct were they prohibit you of 'cracking' the encription and by this make in fact the fair use act irrevelant anymore, well until French Legislator pass same law it won't be applicable in France but the distribution at large remain illegal but now will probably mean way much harder to enforce.
  
  Son in one word consumer are more protected in France then in US or even other anglo saxon country sorry for spelling.

  19.3.2005 10:10 #1

• richieb69

  Well, i can only say one thing "Vive Le Justice au Francais". That was probably something about loving onions and horse meat with my level of French!
  The whole protected DVD thing really gets up my nose. Unfortunately people still buy the damn things. Also it shows all too clearly that Politics, The American legal system and Corporate America are all too blurred together. Then god bless English law for following suit and showing its own corrupt nature.

  21.3.2005 00:17 #2

• WhatUp

  No no it was well said and had meaning to me.
  
  You just said Houray if spelling ok for The Justice with a French Touch so Houray or Houra in French so finaly together it is Houray for Justice with a French touch.
  
  I live in Quebec and we don't have corporation calling us about you might with a draw well I might not win personaly but if you organise a draw a winner it must be hehe. See the point and in case of gray zone judge will have the general tendency to side with the common mortal :) Of course that make us miss many draw and other suspicious offer hehe.
  
  Well have a nice day.

  22.3.2005 16:03 #3