Movie downloading in France judged legal for private use
Last Thursday, a French appeal court made a an epic ruling which could set a predecent the file-sharing that neither the file-sharing or Anti file-sharing lobbyists could have foreseen. The French Court of Appeal of Montpellier ruled in favour of a 22 year old man who had downloaded almost 500 movies online. He didn’t stop at this. He burned them onto CD’s and shared them with his friends.
The court’s decision was based on the French Law “article L-122-5″ which states:
“Authors can’t forbid copies or reproductions that are only intented for the private use of the copyist.”
The French Association of Audionautes has been helping various defedants win their cases, this being the second, and with more than 50 criminal procedures pending in France, could this be the start of the landslide victory the file-sharing community has been waiting for?
If it is, it looks like an easy road for downloaders in France, because unless the are actually seen accepting money from someone in return for a dvd, who’s to say they didn’t just give it to someone.