Press statement:
Legalize filesharing and stop incriminating families!
Following last week’s ruling by the European Court of Justice on the liability of internet users for alleged copyright infringements by family members[1], the German Pirate Party sharply criticizes EU copyright enforcement law and calls for the legalisation of file sharing.
“In the pure profit interest of the entertainment industry, innocent consumers are being forced either to snoop on family members and denounce them or to pay high costs,” criticises Patrick Breyer, lawyer and top candidate of the German Pirate Party in the 2019 European elections. “In order to put an end to this untenable situation, the EU must finally legalise private file sharing by compensating authors.”
MEP Julia Reda has revealed a study according to which private file sharing does not harm the industry.[2] Until 2017, German WiFi operators often had to pay warning costs and damages in file-sharing cases. Since the abolition of “Stoererhaftung” in 2017, the entertainment industry can still demand that the WiFi router be blocked (port blocking), encrypted (password protection) or switched off altogether after a copyright infringement has taken place in Germany.
“In order to protect yourself from warnings and reprimands, WiFi users should join wireless community networks,” advises Breyer. “Their technology ensures that data traffic can no longer be traced back to the subscriber. Anyone who receives a filesharing warning should seek legal advice.”
Sources:
[1] Press release on the ECJ ruling,
https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2018-10/cp180158en.pdf
[2] File sharing study,
https://juliareda.eu/2017/09/secret-copyright-infringement-study
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