French movie 'pirate' acquitted

[method77]

p2pnet.net News :- In yet another bitter defeat for the Big Seven movie studio cartel, two French courts have confirmed that downloading a movie file for personal use is acceptable.

A man accused of downloading 500 film and music files has been acquitted by the Montpellier Court of Appeals in the south of France, confirming an earlier ruling by a bankruptcy court in Rodez in October last year, says Belgium's Le Vie du Net.

The court said once a work has been made public, it can be copied for personal use.

The plaintiff admitted lending CDs made from his copies to friends. But this still fell within the concept of ‘personal use,’ the court ruled.

The man’s lawyers argued the CDs had already been bought and paid for before they appeared online.

Unhappy with the bankruptcy court’s decision and siding with the entertainment industry, the French government, , had demanded that the man be fined e5.000, more than $6,730.

The studios' MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is currently trying to stop movies from appearing online by shutting down BitTorrent sites.

(Thanks, Estelle – and thanks Liz ; )

UPDATE: 9:22 AM Pacific - "This does not mean that the Court has judged that movie downloading is now legal in France on a general basis." says a post on Corante, going on:

"Though I have not (yet) seen the judgment, it (probably) gives the indication that private use may be a defense against a claim of copyright infringement for downloading. While this might be called a recognition of the private copying clause in the digital environment, it is not clear if this will hold up.

"There are currently about 50 comparable criminal cases pending, and in the past users have been sentenced for these acts."

[KiwiCoromandel]

they`ll do their bloody best to change that ruling!!....good one while it lasts..i wouldn`t have thought that the french govt would have had that much interest in defending the rights of foreign movie makers/distributors/artists...but that`s politicians (in any country) for you....... <_>