(OT) Legal position of file-sharing (mp3) in the UK?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hans Bartels
  • Start date Start date
H

Hans Bartels

Hi,

What is the current legal position of using programs like Kazaalite to
download mp3 files in the UK?

Are many people still doing it?

Has anyone been prosecuted?

Hans Bartels
 
(e-mail address removed) (Hans Bartels) stated:
Hi,

What is the current legal position of using programs like
Kazaalite to download mp3 files in the UK?

Are many people still doing it?

Has anyone been prosecuted?

Hans Bartels
Click to expand...

check uk.legal
 
What is the current legal position of using programs like Kazaalite to
download mp3 files in the UK?

Are many people still doing it?
Has anyone been prosecuted?
Click to expand...

Using a P2P client is very risky, because the copyright
protection authorities are registering everything that happens on those
networks. Sooner or later you will get a warning, or asked to pay a
compensation sum, or get kicked out by your ISP.

Practically everything available through P2P networks is illegal stuff.
 
Why don't you just download Nullsoft Waste and set up a file sharing
network between you and your trusted friends. Seems to be the only way
to go today.
 
Hi,

What is the current legal position of using programs like Kazaalite to
download mp3 files in the UK?

Are many people still doing it?

Has anyone been prosecuted?

Hans Bartels
Click to expand...

Very risky. Authorities around the world are starting to bring in legislation which makes the
file provider, not the file-sharing network, liable for breaches of copyright. This means that
anyone who has mp3's on their PC available for downloading via Kazaa etc can be sued.
 
Very risky. Authorities around the world are starting to bring in
legislation which makes the file provider, not the file-sharing
network, liable for breaches of copyright. This means that anyone who
has mp3's on their PC available for downloading via Kazaa etc can be
sued.
Click to expand...

IIRC the whole point is that sharing files is illegal, but downloading
files isn't. But with only people downloading, and nobody sharing, in the
end the 'system' will not work anymore.
In some countries, including the one I'm living in, the ISP's have so far
refused to give out personal information about their clients to the
authorities.
 
IIRC the whole point is that sharing files is illegal, but downloading
files isn't. But with only people downloading, and nobody sharing, in the
end the 'system' will not work anymore.
In some countries, including the one I'm living in, the ISP's have so far
refused to give out personal information about their clients to the
authorities.
Click to expand...

Anyone know what the situation is in England regarding ISPs giving out
personal information?

--

John Latter

Model of an Internal Evolutionary Mechanism (based on an extension to homeostasis) linking Stationary-Phase Mutations to the Baldwin Effect.
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/TEM.html

'Where Darwin meets Lamarck?' Discussion Egroup
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evomech
 
Anyone know what the situation is in England regarding ISPs giving out
personal information?
Click to expand...

In the UK (rather than just that southern bit called England) ISPs
don't have a single, unified approach. There are those who would give
up their grandmothers at the slightest hint of litigation and others
who have a little more moral fibre.

Makes little difference, really. If you're doing something criminal
and your ISP is ordered by a court to give up your information, it
will, of course. If the offended party pursues you through civil
action, the route might be a little different but the destination will
be the same. The courts have primacy and no ISP has any good reason
to attempt to resist them, in a business sense.
 
In the UK (rather than just that southern bit called England)
Click to expand...

oops - hope you weren't offended :)
ISPs
don't have a single, unified approach. There are those who would give
up their grandmothers at the slightest hint of litigation and others
who have a little more moral fibre.

Makes little difference, really. If you're doing something criminal
and your ISP is ordered by a court to give up your information, it
will, of course. If the offended party pursues you through civil
action, the route might be a little different but the destination will
be the same. The courts have primacy and no ISP has any good reason
to attempt to resist them, in a business sense.
Click to expand...

Naturally, if someone is doing somethig criminal then there may be
repercussions. On the other hand, I am intrigued by what other posters
in this thread appear to be saying - you can download mp3 files ok but
you can't make mp3 files available for upload. Have I understood this
correctly?

--

John Latter

Model of an Internal Evolutionary Mechanism (based on an extension to homeostasis) linking Stationary-Phase Mutations to the Baldwin Effect.
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/TEM.html

'Where Darwin meets Lamarck?' Discussion Egroup
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evomech
 
John Latter said:
Naturally, if someone is doing somethig criminal then there may be
repercussions. On the other hand, I am intrigued by what other posters
in this thread appear to be saying - you can download mp3 files ok but
you can't make mp3 files available for upload. Have I understood this
correctly?
Click to expand...

There are no sure facts here, this field is changing and different in
different countries The little I know may be old knowledge today.

I know only a few people who have gotten into trouble. They have
downloaded commercial programs over P2P networks and got a warning from
their ISP who told them that this software protection organisation had
taken contact with the ISP. This happened earlier this year.

They were personal friends with the ISP boss, so he did not cut them off,
just told them that they had to stop.

5 years ago a friend received a letter, telling him that the person he
had downloaded from via a warez site and sent for CD:s from had been busted, and they had
his address list and they demanded that he packed up all the CD:s he had
sent for and sent them to them. He also must pay a fine, 100 dollars or
so. He paid the money but very few of the CD:s, telling them he had lost
them. He heard nothing more from them.

Let me remind you that there is a lot of music, mp3:s, which you can
download legally from many places on internet. I have never heard about
anybody getting trouble for downloading mp3:s, but most mp3:s available
through P2P networks are of course illegal.

It looks like the music industry has not yet started attacking illegal
downloaders on a big scale like the software industry has. But if and
when they do they will of course jump on the people who make them
available on a big scale before they jump on small scale downloaders.
 
On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 18:47:44 +0100, Semolina Pilchard


oops - hope you weren't offended :)
Click to expand...

Not in the least :-D
Naturally, if someone is doing somethig criminal then there may be
repercussions. On the other hand, I am intrigued by what other posters
in this thread appear to be saying - you can download mp3 files ok but
you can't make mp3 files available for upload. Have I understood this
correctly?
Click to expand...

I'm no expert on the legal technicalities of mp3 sharing, though I
have paid a little attention to how ISPs act under pressure. Seems to
me, though, that uploading or downloading, you're breaching the
artist's rights and that's going to be actionable in the UK like many
other places.

IMHO, the game's no longer worth the candle.
 
Semolina said:
Seems to
me, though, that uploading or downloading, you're breaching the
artist's rights and that's going to be actionable in the UK like many
other places.

IMHO, the game's no longer worth the candle.
Click to expand...

I no longer post copyright material to usenet on my Clara account
after a formal warning by the abuse dept (a copyright holder
complained about a few posts of mine). I now have a disposable
'posting' acc. :-)

God knows why binary usenet has not been properly targetted by the
music industry; I assume it can only be a matter of time.
 
Semolina said:
It's all a matter of perspective. England will be the south-eastern
non-Celtic corner filled with Sassenachs, then.
Click to expand...

Lager drinking girlies, the lot of them.
 
Hans said:
What is the current legal position of using programs like Kazaalite to
download mp3 files in the UK?
Click to expand...

Totally legal to share files that aren't copyrighted, or that you
personally have the legal right to share.
 
Roger Johansson said:
It looks like the music industry has not yet started attacking illegal
downloaders on a big scale like the software industry has.
Click to expand...

a divx looks pretty worse than a dvd.
but a sw is a sw is a sw :)

ciao, j.
 
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