Larian Studios Forums General Chat Chat (Anything) GERMANS risk two years in prison for downloads.

Looks like Germany is worse than the USA.
full article

Yes, that's sad, but true. It was planned to let at least private users go, but the industry said "no, nothing, we want even them to be punished. EVERYBODY, no matter who it is." In this sense.



That was one of the big points in discussion : Illegally downloaded movies on DVDs circulating on school playgrounds. The idea was - as I tried to explain above - not to punish school children, too, but that was negated by the industry. Seemingly the industry even wants to punish children.

In Sweden you can't pusnish children under 15 years of age. Is it like that in Germany too? (I think you can get "dots" in the crime registry before that, but that's about it.)

Übereil

that's nothing In Belgium Police raided a lan Party. Confiscated the pc's.

The organisation that was handling the lan will be held accountable for any illegal files that were transported over the lan network.

Since this action 12 lan parties over the next month have been cancelled.

now I understand that intellectual property needs to be defended against pirates but shouldn't the people and not the organisation be held accountable.

2nd: you still lose a your pc for a year to prove that everything is legal when your lan gets raided. (no compensation)

No, children cannot be punished, tennagers only to some extend, until they are 18, from which they are in the laws regarded to be fully responsible of what they do.

@Morbo : There is currently a small scandal here in Germany going on : A group that was helping media publishing companies in finding out illegal downloads (and people who do this), have themselves put out movies illegally for download ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> German-language article about that here : http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/68760

tis a shame....... what if I download it for you....
...then "give" it to you by way of Canada...
....I'm sure that will be allright.......right?? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />
It's a gift......... Bwahahahahahaha..... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/stupid.gif" alt="" /> right.....wink, wink, nudge, nudge..... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

look, how can downloading be illegal? yes you have in your possession dvd's you didn't pay for, but so are gifts, prizes etc... shouldn't they be hunting those who make those dvd's avaible to download. There are far fewer who rip and upload than downloaders. Once again proof of the incompetence to understand. Not those leeching on LANS but those sharing should be puniched they are helping spread illegal copies of whatever.

Stop it at the source, not the leeches. That's like arresting all drug-users and ignoring the dealers...

i agree with you Draghermosran

you shouldn't punish someone for clicking on something thats available on the web
you didn't hack into some data base and steal anything
it was put out into the open where it is public, can be found by anyone


its like placing $1k euros or us dollars in the middle of the street during traffic, if anyone takes it, then they criminals, morally corrupt etc


does the money belong to someone sure, does the general public care no. In this case with piracy does anyone care no, also how the [nocando] does it get on the web in the first place

but then again how can you stop certain software, music or videos leaking online
and is this bad for the country's economy or the business, sure is

and since there is no real solution since those that leak these things can't be caught

its kinda retarded that an average computer user knows how to get things that the government doesn't even know how to find let alone catch the leaker

i mean there are waresites for game cracks and cd keys
people use person to person software that connect them to each other

and protect themselves with software like Peer Guardian as if it really was nessary

all to what end who knows
the thing is not that many people do it, i know cause i don't and im sure there are a large number that don't but yet know how and where to go

the government can't come up with a better solution then shoot and ask questions later

it will never stop just like you can't stop a teenager from downloading porn

@ Virgo -> i don't quite catch what u said mostly, but i agree with the above-mentioned. just ask Ube! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

AS a matter of fact, I've downloaded a lot of things, but never porn <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />.

Downloading is such a big problem mostlly because it's pretty much socially accepted. The view on downloading isn't that it's wrong (mostly). And even though you feel it's wrong, it's simple, free and riskfree. The day I get arrested for downloading, I'll try to buy a lotteryticket.

The sollution might be to start some serious propagandacampaigns saying downloading is wrong. Because scareing pepole doesn't work. They've allready tried that, and did it help? Not really.

And if they could lower the price of games it would really make not downloading a lot easier <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

hehe thats so stupid, specially if they think people will believe them, staying in prison for 2 years = about 100k tax money per year, Ok I have no idea how much XD, but I know sure as hell that is much more than a 12 dollar cd, honestly I see it verry disturbing how the goverment uses innocent people as an example for the masses, as for them loosing that money, I bet they are not loosing even a 8th of that, honestly most people that I talk about this topic said that if the only option they had was to buy it, thy wounldnt buy it, only 2 songs for 12 bucks is way to expensive, other than that I hate to drive to walmart or bestbuy to get a music cd, or enter credit card info on the net, so much easier just to download the 2 or 3 tracks and you're done

Actually, this is the longest sentence I remember on this board.

I'm surprised you dared to you commas at all ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />