Germans risk two years in prison if they illegally download films and music for private use under a new law agreed yesterday. Anybody who downloads films for commercial use could be jailed for up to five years. The measures, some of the toughest in Europe, were announced after an aggressive campaign by the film industry in Germany, the largest market in the EU and one of the most computer-literate populations. According to film industry estimates, Germans download more than 20 million films a year. Many expect the next James Bond film, Casino Royale, to be widely available in Germany weeks before its official release in November (eh, people outside USA are used to this, aren’t they :)). The law, which comes into effect on January 1, 2007, has infuriated consumer groups. They claim that it will turn consumers into criminals and harm the Government’s efforts to create a knowledge-based economy. Patrick von Braunmühl, of the Federation of German Consumer Organisations, said: “It can’t be that everyone has to be worried now about the police knocking on the door and impounding the family computer because their 16-year-old son has downloaded a few songs.â€? German branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimates that the equivalent of 439 million music CDs were copied illegally in Germany last year. Finally, similar law came into effect in Sweden before few months, and as fair as I know, it really had some effect on the people downloading warez off the internet. German users are known to prefer eMule and BitTorrent, which are quite easy-to-track, anyway, there’re still some relativelly secure ways to get new stuff…
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