Spanish Judges Liken File Sharing to Lending Books

[Bellvedere]

That's actually an interesting take on the situation. I suppose it is a bit like a library or a video shop... but not really.

I can't see piracy as something that's going to just go away anytime in the near future. Reaching a middle ground between peer to peer sites, their users and the folks that are getting ripped off by it would be somewhat beneficial for all. This sort of thinking seems like it's nearly a step in that direction.

I feel like pointing out since reading some comments that the judges didn't say piracy was legal just what the site was doing was. Since none of the content being hosted was theirs and they were just acting as a means to facilitate sharing files in the same way a library would facilitate sharing books. They made their money off the sites advertising not by stealing themselves. It's a bit of a stretch. I bet Spanish 'pirates' still receive warning from their ISPs.

 

[ArmorArmadillo]

It's not really like lending a book at all...but whatever.

I'm sure this news will send shockwaves through the filesharing communities, who would have kept filesharing regardless of what the judges said.

 

[unacomn]

But... but piracy kills babies, makes handheld console devs and Epic sad.

 

[shadow skill]

Their example is quite apt, especially for books. It is not impossible to commit an entire book to memory, not just what happened but the actual words on the page. If people want to say that borrowing a book is not in essence equal to file sharing, they should be made to explain why a company or individual is not committing a crime by memorizing data. If some new technology came out that aided our memory so that more people, could readily commit entire books to memory would memorization of copyrighted material (Keep in mind that the copy would exist in your brain which is as much a physical medium as the silicone in a hard drive.) suddenly become a crime?

 

[Abedeus]

Right, I forgot you can lend ONE book to few thousands of people at the same time, everyone able to use it as if he had bought it, and he can keep it forever.

 

[daftalchemist]

I don't entirely agree that file sharing is like lending books. There's not really much lending going on, after all. But I can appreciate that they wouldn't shut the website down just because file sharing goes on there. If the website itself isn't the one hosting and handing out files, then they shouldn't be attacked.

 

[shadow skill]

Right, I forgot you can lend ONE book to few thousands of people at the same time, everyone able to use it as if he had bought it, and he can keep it forever.

Any of the people could simply memorize the books contents and then pass it off. What is the difference again? Or do you think we should be locking up the occasional mutant who can't forget anything because the fact that they are alive infringes upon copyright?

 

[AngryMongoose]

huzzah for sense!! Over herer in sunny England, you can get arrested without trial over here if suspected of downloading anything deemed illegal...

You think you'd get away that easily?
EMbedding disabled http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZZx1xmAzg
Though they might just be jealous of her download speed.

 

[SinisterGehe]

I'm torn, really.
On the one hand, awesome for freedom and all, on the other hand, artists can't make money off of things only a few people buy and the rest lend... or can they?

Maybe I'm looking at this all wrong.

The money when you buy Music doesn't go to the artist... Well ~5% does, but artist mainly live with touring...
Films, they usually get their asses covered in ticket sales. Games are the only product that suffer greatly of pirating, but you know what would help them... LOWER THE BLOODY PRICES! 70? New release! WTF! Ill gladly wait 2 years then buy it from Sale for 15-20? if it still is interesting. /rant over.

 

[pirateninj4]

Finally, common sense prevails. God bless Spain.

 

[DTWolfwood]

has anyone checked if hell has frozen over? is the apocalypse on its way? omg im totally shocked and awed by this. the Government siding with the interest of the internet. Just freaking radical man seriously. At the least the Future of the internet in spain is looking bright. It just too bad its the exact opposite everywhere else >.<

 

[Nbasa Whiteye]

Wow, I really don't know what to say. Who new the judges in Spain were so logical? I guess they've come a long way from the Spanish Inquisition.

nobody ever expects the Spanish Inquisition!!!

sorry everyone it had to be said

OT:
finally a sensible and fresh look on things.

 

[Retardinator]

Sure, file sharing is nice, but if you like it then buy it. Someone out there is financially going belly-up and won't make good games/movies any longer because everybody in the world has an internet connection and a seriously distorted sense of ownership.

sorry everyone it had to be said

It was said and corrected on the first page already. Enough with the Spanish inquisition, they're becoming quite expectable in some threads.

 

[Abedeus]

Right, I forgot you can lend ONE book to few thousands of people at the same time, everyone able to use it as if he had bought it, and he can keep it forever.

Any of the people could simply memorize the books contents and then pass it off. What is the difference again? Or do you think we should be locking up the occasional mutant who can't forget anything because the fact that they are alive infringes upon copyright?

The chance of a person with perfect memory writing someone a 1000 page book, in 50000 copies FOR FREE, even to Australia and Antarctica, within 10 hours each is so minimal, I think us being killed by a gamma radiation blast from a star 9000 light years away from us in the next day is more likely.

Besides, "passing on" usually means using computers to copy things or writing with your hands. I think if you re-write a book... it's still illegal. Quoting, paraphrasing is not, but xeroxing is illegal. At least in my country.

Again, file sharing works like this - one person uploads, 100 people download, then those 100 people can upload to... 100000 people? And so on, so on. So my example should be "one person giving a book to 50000 people, who all have perfect memory, and they can give the book to more people".

 

[sessions]

news like this make me proud to be spanish.
however this are changing in spain, they want iligalize p2p networks anf fcuk us up like in the rest of europe.
fortunatly we have good lawyers.

 

[Scabadus]

Get it out of your god damn head right now that piracy = loss of sale, cause that's a lie, most pirates either A)don't have the money to buy the game, or the game is a known piece of shite they intend to give to their child (any of those 20 dollar princess type games for the DS) or B) only intend to test teh game for a time before deciding if it is crap or good enough to buy. I'm a pirate, and I only pirate DS games, but I also talk about the games I play on forums and stuff so as to advertise the games I felt were good enough to talk about, shit will be left in the dust and good games will be spoken of, I talked to several people about the game Dementium 2 and at least five people I mentioned it to shown a real interest in playing it, they not being pirates themselves would have to buy the game, therefore I generated a potential 5 sales to people who had never eve heard of it. Piracy could be a really good thing. Also pokemon platinum has been downloaded at least 400,000 times on this one site I go to, but it has sold millions world wide, do you really think that the 400,000 really affected the total outcome? How many kids probably bought the game release day anyways even though they could have gotten it for free hours later? Fact, gaming industries are lying assholes who want you to think that piracy is going to ruin them, also fact, they are trying to pay their own incredibly huge wages while producing products that are normally sub par at best.
Also what if I miss one of those shows on like fox that they only play once and then you have to wait for reruns in about two years, is piracy so bad then?

you just read the first sentence i wrote, didnt you?

if you actually read what i wrote, you see im not against piracy. im against the place piracy is heading.

im gonna restate exactly what i wrote in a simpler manner: if things become easier to download than actually go and collect for FREE at a store downtown, and the quality is on par with the product at the store, society will enter a depression over time.

piracy is all well and good as long as either (or both):
a) its lesser quality than the product you pay for.
b) its inconvenient to get a hold of (11 hour download which eats all your download speed, or gotta spend 1-3 hours searching for a file which isnt recorded on a cell phone)

if both of these doesnt apply to the pirated software, we WILL have a problem when the whole modern world gets a slight understanding of pirating (something we will, especially if we follow the progression weve had till now)

please read all before you hit "rage"-button.

I read it all and guess what, games have this thing called anti piracy that will stall you from playing the game for anywhere between two days to a month (pokemon soul silver/heart gold still isn't fixed and they just did a text swap) so there are things in place that make piracy seem like a pain, but what people need to stop and think about is all the time that these pirates spend cracking this AP and translating some games from japanese to english (the Tales Of Innocence translation has taken almost 2 years) and they don't get SHIT other than some thanks and a bunch of whiners. also I'm ALWAYS in rage mode, just different settings, and if you've seen even half the shit I have about how piracy is "ruining the industry" and million other things you'd be perma-pissed too.

You mean that people in the industry want to protect the products they put (a lot of) time and effort into making? They want to actually eat and have a roof over their heads? The greedy bastards! How dare they...

Yet furthermore, the people who spend time and effort to, instead of create games themselves, shameless rip open other people's work and facilitate thousands of other people stealing it are not PAID FOR THIS TIME?!?! What is the world coming to?

You don't walk through a supermarket taking a bite out of every product in there before deciding which one to buy, if you didn't do your homework and don't have the qualifications for a job that's nobody's fault but your own. If you don't have a job and don't have the money to buy a car you don't just go and steal one because society didn't provide one for you, and anybody can tell that the person who broke the car's window and hotwired it for you doesn't deserve the same pay as the car company.

You say you're raging because you see people saying that pirates are ruining the industry, well how about all the self-entitled self-labled 'consumers' (thieves) stop stealing from the industry and see if it suddenly gets better overnight? Don't rage at people for saying that thieves are ruining the industry without showing them the alternative.

 

[addeB]

This is great news! Viva la Spain!
Now, let's hope that all other countries follow....