File-Sharing for Personal Use Declared Legal

Godmachine said:
Tell that to :

http://www.alternet.org/story/15048...ana,_while_sex_offenders_may_get_5_years_tops



And :

http://www.sswpa.com/distribution.asp (NJ law)



While not decades in prison , 5 years for 3 ounces is INSANE.

And here is how CT treats anyone caught with 4 ounces and repeat offends :



5 years for a first offense then 10 years and a further fine for any repeated offense? How is that not insane?

Alaska :



That's first offense right there. So basically as an example I've linked some information on how strict the laws are for having even a small amount of weed on you or at your home. It may not be as dramatic as 30 years (except it seems for Montana possibly) but sending non-violent criminal to a high security violent prison for 5 years where they will face gang violence , brutal fights , possibly being stabbed to death and horribly brutal rape for having 3-5 ounces of weed of them is not what I would call a "sensible" sentence for such a crime.

And if the judges in this instance don't sentence you to prison time (which is rare , judges like to set an example and some are straight up power drunk assholes) then you face months of rehab for fucking Marijuana , clinically proven to NOT be addictive and medically proven to treat many ill effects of cancer (even so far as to shrink lung , breast tumors in recently released studies) is also equally insane.

If it can't be decriminalized at least then a small fine should due (unless the person in question was selling to other users without some kind of official sanction such as a medically approved cause in a state that has decriminalized it for medical usage) but jail time is a waste of life and tax payer money.
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3-5 ounces is not a small amount of weed. do you even know how much that is? no one keeps over an ounce for "personal use."
 
Drugs are illegal in Portugal.

But if you are caught using drugs, you are not made a criminal.

A judge makes you get treatment.

You sell drugs, you are a criminal.

Makes sense to me.

PS I've never been more proud of being portuguese.
 
I'm okay with this ruling because the alternatives are outrageous. Honestly, if they would just change penalties to match the downloaded material, I would never have a complaint against the MPAA/RIAA. For example, set the the maximum fine to 2x the price of the media. So someone found guilty of downloading a $20 movie can be fined up to $40. Non of this $1000+ per song BS. We don't need to be "setting examples", just make sure that the content owners get what is due to them...
 
farscapesg1 said:
I'm okay with this ruling because the alternatives are outrageous. Honestly, if they would just change penalties to match the downloaded material, I would never have a complaint against the MPAA/RIAA. For example, set the the maximum fine to 2x the price of the media. So someone found guilty of downloading a $20 movie can be fined up to $40. Non of this $1000+ per song BS. We don't need to be "setting examples", just make sure that the content owners get what is due to them...
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I agree with this ... I think a court ordered fine equal to a small multiple of the value of the materials illegally obtained would be best ... only for those who are willfully distributing the illegal materials or those who have engaged in excessive usage (1000 downloads for example) might qualify for special punishments
 
Eagle156 said:
3-5 ounces is not a small amount of weed. do you even know how much that is? no one keeps over an ounce for "personal use."
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It is not the business of the state to dictate that you cannot sell or possess a plant that occurs naturally.
 
SpeedyVV said:
Drugs are illegal in Portugal.

But if you are caught using drugs, you are not made a criminal.

A judge makes you get treatment.

You sell drugs, you are a criminal.

Makes sense to me.

PS I've never been more proud of being portuguese.
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Wow, common sense! Imagine that.

I think the states (and Canada alike) should learn from Portugal and other countries that have similar discipline systems. Pure punishment and revenge is not always the answer. I hear sweeden has a pretty decent system too. You look at the justice system here and it's all about revenge and punishment. You do nnn crime, they will do nnn to you. It's not always the best approach, especially when it concerns victimless crimes like using drugs or piracy.
 
Individual acts of piracy may be victimless, but consumers trending towards piracy is not. I have zero problem with people who back up their media etc., but if it is OK to pirate, why would most people pay for anything digital?
 
Red Squirrel said:
Wow, common sense! Imagine that.

I think the states (and Canada alike) should learn from Portugal and other countries that have similar discipline systems. Pure punishment and revenge is not always the answer. I hear sweeden has a pretty decent system too. You look at the justice system here and it's all about revenge and punishment. You do nnn crime, they will do nnn to you. It's not always the best approach, especially when it concerns victimless crimes like using drugs or piracy.
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I think one can make a valid argument for piracy being a victimless crime (since the primary victims, if any, would be the publisher or creator of the infringed material)

drugs are not necessarily so cut and dry ... they are like alcohol and cigarettes at best (where they gradually kill the user, no loss there) ... but they are also like alcohol (people abuse them and engage in high risk behaviors while impaired - driving for instance - where they become a threat to others) ... many drugs (cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, Heroin, Methamphetamine, etc) have very dramatic health risks and can create an underclass that becomes a threat to others (theft, murder, prostitution, etc that supports their drug habits)

It might be much much safer to keep file sharing discussions and drug discussions separate ... I think many would support some type of protection for file sharing but drug legalization would be a much more contentious issue ;)
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Individual acts of piracy may be victimless, but consumers trending towards piracy is not. I have zero problem with people who back up their media etc., but if it is OK to pirate, why would most people pay for anything digital?
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Quality, convenience, peace of mind, it's how Steam got popular, their product made it convenient to buy games and keep them up to date - and DRM-free in the case of indie games and such, a major selling point for myself.

Convenient enough to make the pirated copies not worth getting.

If your product is worse than the pirated version then you're not doing it right in the digital age.
 
or it can be like adobe.

2000 dollars for a software.

of course there will be pirates.


what adobe should do is free to play method.



every feature set might have some small cost and it adds up.
 
Wierdo said:
Quality, convenience, peace of mind, it's how Steam got popular, their product made it convenient to buy games and keep them up to date - and DRM-free in the case of indie games and such, a major selling point for myself.

Convenient enough to make the pirated copies not worth getting.

If your product is worse than the pirated version then you're not doing it right in the digital age.
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Yep TBH if there was a service where I can download a movie or show series for say, 5-10 bucks and it keeps track of it in my account so I can download it again, I'd totally pay for it. But I don't care for streaming where I have to depend on my net being stable the whole time, and I don't care for paying 60 bucks for a movie with all the packaging that comes with it. They need to actually make it convenient to buy digitally.... and make it available. With lot of TV shows the only way to get them is to pirate because they wont even air them here. And yes DRM-free is a big one too. I want a file that I can put on any device I want. It's one of the reasons I don't use netflix because it has DRM, so it wont work on my Linux HTPC.
 
So i wonder if this will open up a Steam like program over there but it all being free pirated software? All in one place convenience, chat and social along with game tracking and such, everything Steam has but all the games and media for free, lol.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Yep TBH if there was a service where I can download a movie or show series for say, 5-10 bucks and it keeps track of it in my account so I can download it again, I'd totally pay for it. But I don't care for streaming where I have to depend on my net being stable the whole time, and I don't care for paying 60 bucks for a movie with all the packaging that comes with it. They need to actually make it convenient to buy digitally.... and make it available. With lot of TV shows the only way to get them is to pirate because they wont even air them here. And yes DRM-free is a big one too. I want a file that I can put on any device I want. It's one of the reasons I don't use netflix because it has DRM, so it wont work on my Linux HTPC.
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Maybe the studios will wise up and do a service like Audible for movies ... I actually love the audio book service (you pay a monthly fee and receive a fixed number of credits each month) ... you use the credits to download any product they offer (usually 1 credit for 1 audiobook) ... you can roll a certain number of credits over each month ... you are allowed to download your purchase multiple (but a limited number) of times (3-4, I think) and once downloaded you can play your download indefititely

The studios could definitely make a service like that work or they could enable it through Amazon (the owner of Audible) or Apple (iTunes) or create a brand new competing service of their own ... it could definitely work for markets with high speed internet (since video downloads would likely be HUGE)
 
03grandam said:
So i wonder if this will open up a Steam like program over there but it all being free pirated software? All in one place convenience, chat and social along with game tracking and such, everything Steam has but all the games and media for free, lol.
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TheBuzzer can program it, too! :)
 
damicatz said:
It is not the business of the state to dictate that you cannot sell or possess a plant that occurs naturally.
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I know. I agree with you 100%. But you were making a point that they were sending people to jail for a long time for small amounts of weed, which is not true most of the time.
 
03grandam said:
So i wonder if this will open up a Steam like program over there but it all being free pirated software? All in one place convenience, chat and social along with game tracking and such, everything Steam has but all the games and media for free, lol.
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there are programs like that already that people tried, however it tend to only last a week because it uses up too much bandwidth.
 
TheBuzzer said:
there are programs like that already that people tried, however it tend to only last a week because it uses up too much bandwidth.
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I have a feeling that with countries making file "sharing" OK we might start seeing someone try this again but with something like a $10-20 a month subscription for unlimited access to offset the cost of bandwidth. Hell if it worked so well for a site like Mega-upload then with the right marketing this could rake in tons of money as well. As long as it's all located in one of these countries that thinks "sharing" is OK ,as long as you have a disclaimer stating that it's for personal use only, lol.
 
Good to know I can share my stuff with my self. Relieved that my documents, my pictures, my videos, my music, and my favorites are legally mine.

Sarcasm aside, where are all the Socialism fear-mongerers now? Not that this ruling will change the face of digital content or anything, but just saying.
 
westrock2000 said:
So who's fault is this? The consumer for using a device who entire historical purpose is to duplicate "data" (a computer) or the "content owner" for choosing to use a convenient delivery method that offers minimal security versus investing in a proprietary format? Was there ever a wide scal problem with consumers duplicating records or laserdisc? Would there be today even with all the "technology" we have?
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The person that takes without paying for the content of course. I would think that is obvious, unless you do not believe anyone is responsible for what they themselves do.

That breaking the law is easy, is hardly an excuse for it.

I believe the law as it is currently written, and being applied is not the ideal way. I also believe deadbeats can go without luxury items like movies and games. It is not a loaf of bread, it is a luxury item.
 
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