Does any countries government care if someone pirates stuff?

[TheGamingLawNL]

Think about it like this. Does a 14 year old deserve to go  to prison with rapists and serial killers for downloading an mp3 or movie off thepiratebay? No.

 

Is that possible in your country?

 

Because here it isn't. We have degrees in age for felonies etc.

 

In the Netherlands it works the following:

 

<14 years - Parents responsible for 100% (usually will end in a chat unless there's violence involved)

14-16 years - Partial responsibility for parents, they will have to stand in for damage and most likely a part of the fine/punishment. The child can be lightly punished and usually will. We've got a special bureau for that up here.

16-18 years - depending on the crime, the child will be fully responsible. If he has done something that could be seen as an adult act he or she will be punished as an adult. 

 

Anyway, below 18 years old (apart fromt he last bit) you can only be sentenced to juvenile prison for a maximum of 2 years. So if you nuke my country and you're 10 then you can only get 2 years of prison. 

 

Not to forget that your criminal record will be wiped clean once you turn 18, thus an by law full adult. 

[NotCthulhu]

They only care if it is relevant.

[wrath]

i dont think the governm cares here in romania they said that they do but not really

[zacRupnow]

Its illegal in USA but any time they gov actually does something they lose to the sharing argument, and the gov never gives a shit.

[zacRupnow]

The US gov only cares when a company makes them care.

yup, US gov is kept on a leash by all the companies.

[13CA350]

USA you can get insane fines and 5-10 years jail

[LOST TALE]

I'm sure he cares.

[MattGameDev]

I'm in Canada, so nope. As far as the government here is concerned, sharing is caring

I'm in Canada as well. God.. do i love how they do not care about this sort of stuff.

P.s- i totally don't have a hard drive filled with pirated softwarezz

[SlayerOfHellWyrm]

I'm in Canada as well. God.. do i love how they do not care about this sort of stuff.

P.s- i totally don't have a hard drive filled with pirated softwarezz

As I said before, Canada does, it's just a super grey area. Upload enough, and you'll find yourself in trouble soon enough. I'm with you though... I totally don't have a 3TB drive of stuff I didn't pay for...

[bmxtricky5]

That's severely wrong... pirating, is still illegal here. Torrenting, is a grey area. The reason they don't pursue, is because we also have laws in place to protect people who want to do things like, rip a DVD they own, and put it onto a hard drive for personal use. However, our laws also allow us to upload them to things like dropbox for TEMPORARY storage, but we have no law in place limiting how long that storage period can be, and there's no way to enforce it. As for downloading, this is also legal, assuming you own the material, AND you plan on burning it to a physical medium at some point, storing it indefinitely is technically illegal, but again, there is no way to enforce it. As for uploading, it is illegal to upload pirated content anywhere, however it's not enforced a whole lot. Usually, if you're caught, you ISP will send you a cease and desist, and if you don't comply, they can cut your service, and report you to authorities. That latter part is a lot, and I mean a lot of paperwork on there end, since they have to then explain why they allowed you continued service when they knew you were infringing and so on...

This was a long series of lectures in my university Law and Ethics of IT course 2 years ago in university. It's complicated, and technically illegal, but due to our loopholes, they can't really do anything about downloading, only uploading.

when the isp gets mad, all you do is comply by using a vpn

[KemoKa]

I confess I pull music off of Youtube regularly, but here's the thing: Some governments care (like the US), but those that do also have this weird fantasy that in a fairy tale, they would have the power to do anything about it in the first place. If things like piracy were enforcably illegal, literally 2/3 of the internet would cease to exist and with it hundreds of thousands of people would have to be imprisoned. You can't just punish that many people for the same thing, and because of that you can't punish anyone for it.

A good analogy, I think, would be on a motorway. Most motorways have speed limits of around 60-70mph. The ones where I live have 65. However, I've been on motorways when everyone on there is doing 75-80 mph, and then 90 to overtake someone, dozens of times. In situations like this, everyone is essentially breaking the law, but because normal cars outnumber police cars by about 40,000 to one (or something) they can't arrest everyone when they're all passing the speed limit, and so it would be injustice to arrest just one person for doing something that everyone else is doing.

Probably not the best analogy, I know, but you see my point. Other than totalitarian regimes like China, Russia or North Korea, no government has the power to enforce any internet-based anti-piracy laws, and to be honest, from what I've seen here in the US, none of them have the competence to do it effectively even if they did have power over it. That's what the internet was built for. It was made to be an indestructible network of hundreds of millions of computers that cannot be taken down by a single event or organization. Even if governments could take it down, we would come up with ways to bypass them because the nerds that we are are the ones who built the internet, not sixty-year-old congressmen or statesmen.

 

And to be honest, the internet is a place of sharing. What you put on the internet stays on the internet. 4chan and reddit will always deliver in reposting the hell out of anything remotely interesting. If these song artists or animators don't want their stuff pirated, they shouldn't be putting it on the internet. Given how much people pay these celebrities to write one song or act one part anyway, I don't see how this does them any abhorrent injury. Think of the computers we could build with the money they pay them to twerk off, which they spend on more jewelery or whatever. I could (and most certainly would) become an Intel fanboy.

That's my take on it, anyway. Sorry if it seems a little rant-ish.

[MeFakeScientist]

I don't think the governments really care about the pirating, they care more about the big companies who turn up whining that they are losing money, and then feel obliged to do something to help them. You know, to make sure they fund campaigns, keep paying local taxes etc.

Call me a cynic....

[DigitalHermit]

-Epic speech of KemoKa-

 

*manly tears*

That was beautiful!

[DIV1D3]

From what I know it's legal to download, illegal to distribute. 

So I just use all the downloaded stuff personally. 

[bbqsauce]

in singapore, they recently tried to make a new law to force our ISPs to police the internet traffic.

in short, they give corporations/ IP holders the right to sue our ISPs for people torrenting their copyright material.

 

I don't think it was successful tho..

[KemoKa]

*manly tears*

That was beautiful!

*chuffed look*

Why thank you :3

[KemoKa]

in singapore, they recently tried to make a new law to force our ISPs to police the internet traffic.

in short, they give corporations/ IP holders the right to sue our ISPs for people torrenting their copyright material.

 

I don't think it was successful tho..

That sounds like the most hilarious thing ever. I kind of wish that would happen here, so that Samsung and Apple can refocus their constant lawsuit-ing and kick Comcast and Verizon's asses for a change, see how they like it.

[bbqsauce]

That sounds like the most hilarious thing ever. I kind of wish that would happen here, so that Samsung and Apple can refocus their constant lawsuit-ing and kick Comcast and Verizon's asses for a change, see how they like it.

the law makes zero sense since it makes it such that the ISP is liable for what it's users do.

now i don't like my ISPs but still, it's pretty stupid

[ShogunZ]

The Netherlands have some new regulations on illegal downloading but the government has stated that they won't be going after people who do. Holland has one institute that tries to end illegal downloading by going after the source, aka sharing applications. You used to be able to download music and games etc at your leisure as long as you didn't share, but people still don't care.

[MattGameDev]

As I said before, Canada does, it's just a super grey area. Upload enough, and you'll find yourself in trouble soon enough. I'm with you though... I totally don't have a 3TB drive of stuff I didn't pay for...

Honestly, if the music, tv/film and whatever other industries wanted to control pirating, they would loose out on fans majorly. I have come across great songs that have led me to buy t-shirts and posters and whatever else merchandise to support those bands because i pirated an album of random music and managed to find their song quiet enjoyable amongst the rest. Canada has it right though. We shouldn't be "forced" to stop downloading, but people who abuse the system and try and make money off of it, should be punished with a hefty fine.

[SlayerOfHellWyrm]

Honestly, if the music, tv/film and whatever other industries wanted to control pirating, they would loose out on fans majorly. I have come across great songs that have led me to buy t-shirts and posters and whatever else merchandise to support those bands because i pirated an album of random music and managed to find their song quiet enjoyable amongst the rest. Canada has it right though. We shouldn't be "forced" to stop downloading, but people who abuse the system and try and make money off of it, should be punished with a hefty fine.

There's quite a few albums I've bought off iTunes after torrenting them, because I spent too much money as a kid buying albums I only liked 1 or 2 songs off of. If I like the torrent enough, they get my money. Video is something I rarely buy though, I watch too much to afford buying things legitimately, I'll admit. Makes me a bit of a douche in my mind, but yeah. Software, I've never torrented, I won't risk it, and honestly, I don't mind paying for great software like Stardock Fences 2.0

[Chaldanas]

If you run a server that torrent in a different country and it is legal there then you're fine, but they have been trying to crack down on it so be careful with it.

[vlado88]

In my country almost everyone uses torrent sites. The government tried few times to do something about it, it was kinda funny to watch it actually... they had the special ops team that fights organized crime arrest 4 geeky looking dudes that run the servers. Few days latter the sites were back on.

I don't think in any country they can arrest you for simply downloading a file, worst that can happen is that your internet provider cuts you off. However if you upload a torrent, you might get in trouble depending on your location.

[skljom]

Nope, we even don't have internet rules. We pirate everything and internet attacks aren't really punishable. But we don't hack and ddos eachothers. I used to ddos one gaming website all the time and nothing happened even if I was reported to police

[Persona]

Not going too deep into details, but in almost all countries pirating stuff is very illegal. Most governments don't really give a shit though. Mostly it's just the TV/movie industries that'll crack down on you. Honestly you shouldn't be too worried about it if you don't do it too much.