Citing thousands of file-sharing violation investigations that will take too much of its time, the General Prosecutor’s Office of the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia has said they will no longer prosecute misdemeanor file-sharing and will instead only prosecute "commercial-scale" file-sharing.
In an interview with Jetzt.de, Axel Steel of the office says a "commercial file-sharer is someone who shares over €3,000 of material". He feels that songs are worth one euro a piece and movies are worth €15. That is exactly the way it should be, not $10,000 USD a song, or whatever the RIAA feels like charging per song.
Of course you are steal breaking the law if you pirate music but the Prosecutor’s office does not have the man power to prosecute the expected 50,000 violations for 2008.
The official then went on to compare marijuana to file sharing saying "both are very popular among youths...it is illegal to consume it, but people do it anyway, and the authorities can’t be bothered in frying smaller fish as it’s a waste of time and resources. Going after the big distributors is the way to go."
Of course you are steal breaking the law if you pirate music but the Prosecutor’s office does not have the man power to prosecute the expected 50,000 violations for 2008.
The official then went on to compare marijuana to file sharing saying "both are very popular among youths...it is illegal to consume it, but people do it anyway, and the authorities can’t be bothered in frying smaller fish as it’s a waste of time and resources. Going after the big distributors is the way to go."
