anon
12.09.08, 19:44
All the media reports about cracking down on file-sharers in the UK are starting to annoy me. I’m sick of hearing about Topware, their 2nd rate pinball game and their hired-gun lawyers. This needs sorting out, once and for all. Is it time to make file-sharing a police issue in future, one for the criminal courts?
Is it Time To Make File-Sharing a Criminal Offense? | TorrentFreak (http://torrentfreak.com/is-it-time-to-make-file-sharing-a-criminal-offense-080912/)
I’ll let you into a little secret. When people say file-sharing is “as bad as shoplifting”, in the UK that comparison is pretty ridiculous. Many shoplifters are let off with a simple caution and even the most persistent would have to be uniquely unlucky to get fined ?6,000 (plus ?10,000 costs) for a ?10 game. If Miss Barwinska had been caught physically stealing it, a police caution would be likely, or perhaps a very small fine. In the ‘real-world’ she’d need to smash through the storefront with a truck to end up with a fine the size of the one she got.
Maybe the example is a bit funny but they're completely right.
Anti-piracy groups say it's stealing and that companies lose money. But in reality it isn't theft (otherwise there would be just 1 copy of the game in all the world :rolleyes2:), and companies don't lose money, they just don't make more of it.
Is it Time To Make File-Sharing a Criminal Offense? | TorrentFreak (http://torrentfreak.com/is-it-time-to-make-file-sharing-a-criminal-offense-080912/)
I’ll let you into a little secret. When people say file-sharing is “as bad as shoplifting”, in the UK that comparison is pretty ridiculous. Many shoplifters are let off with a simple caution and even the most persistent would have to be uniquely unlucky to get fined ?6,000 (plus ?10,000 costs) for a ?10 game. If Miss Barwinska had been caught physically stealing it, a police caution would be likely, or perhaps a very small fine. In the ‘real-world’ she’d need to smash through the storefront with a truck to end up with a fine the size of the one she got.
Maybe the example is a bit funny but they're completely right.
Anti-piracy groups say it's stealing and that companies lose money. But in reality it isn't theft (otherwise there would be just 1 copy of the game in all the world :rolleyes2:), and companies don't lose money, they just don't make more of it.