Netherlands must outlaw (pirate) downloading because of the EU ruling - Polidicks

[quote]Downloading pirated content such as copyrighted movies or music is now illegal in the Netherlands, the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice announced on Thursday. reports. Until now, downloading copyrighted material in the Netherlands was permitted for personal use, effectively allowing Dutch citizens to download pirated content freely. The announcement comes after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that a Dutch law that makes no distinction between personal copies made from legal sources and copies made from illegal ones "cannot be tolerated."[/quote] Read more @ [url]http://mashable.com/2014/04/10/downloading-pirated-content-is-now-illegal-in-the-netherlands/[/url]

Guess that EU have its bad sides too

Good tbh

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;44515406]Good tbh[/QUOTE] Expect that often we can't watch or buy the content people get in for example the United States for months or years. We can't pay for them or watch them legally so we download them. So this is stupid. Edited: Also, sorry for the extra thread that popped up, had some internet problems when I posted this and it double posted.

For what it's worth, Brein (that cesspit of an organisation) has said that they still won't prosecute downloaders, only large-scale distributors like websites and people who sell pirated software and such. So the common man can still yarhar as much as he/she likes.

[QUOTE=Valiantttt;44515430]Expect that often we can't watch or buy the content people get in for example the United States for months or years. We can't pay for them or watch them legally so we download them. So this is stupid.[/QUOTE] Okay, that is a different perspective. So neither side of the situation is ideal.

[QUOTE=Elecbullet;44515442]Okay, that is a different perspective. So neither side of the situation is ideal.[/QUOTE] Download "was" legal but distributing copyrighted content is/was illegal. So nothing will change. Also the law does not state any actual punishment (the stated punishment is so vague that it won't hold up) for breaking it and it's a civil law so the state won't be monitoring your traffic to see if you're pirating. So in the end nothing will change. If you are wondering how the Dutch could ever allow people to download copyrighted software; We have a tax called the home copy tax. It was introduced because of the home copy law that allowed for downloading copyrighted content but not distributing it (even though noone cared if you did). Artists etc got compensated for piracy through this tax. The tax is a very small fee that is included in the price of Disks, HDD's, Laptops, Tablets, SSD's, Computers, USB drives, TV's etc. Just pretty much anything that can display or store media. The prices for consumer goods like those are not any higher over here even with that tax. this is because the tax is really small (10 eur for a laptop and 2 eur for disks or something) and the price is just corrected to look the same as in other countries.

Why don't you just tell the EU to piss off then? UK does it.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;44515490]Why don't you just tell the EU to piss off then? UK does it.[/QUOTE] [url]http://HowDoIGetOutOfThe.eu/[/url]

snip

[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;44515440]For what it's worth, Brein (that cesspit of an organisation) has said that they still won't prosecute downloaders, only large-scale distributors like websites and people who sell pirated software and such. So the common man can still yarhar as much as he/she likes.[/QUOTE] Yeah they said that, but to be honest I wouldn't call Brein the most trustworthy organisation. The thing I'm most curious about is how they will get the data. The only ones that should have access to it are the ISPs and government agencies. If a foundation like Brein would get access to it wouldn't that break privacy laws? If they get exempt from it then who knows who else could.

[QUOTE=Dakarun;44515596]Yeah they said that, but to be honest I wouldn't call Brein the most trustworthy organisation. The thing I'm most curious about is how they will get the data. The only ones that should have access to it are the ISPs and government agencies. If a foundation like Brein would get access to it wouldn't that break privacy laws? If they get exempt from it then who knows who else could.[/QUOTE] They won't go after people since the only data collection they can do, which is connecting to trackers and keep a list of IP addresses of who downloaded what, doesn't hold up in dutch court. They go after distributors like The Pirate Bay because the evidence is right there.

Was bound to happen at some point. Not that a lot will change for the average downloader. If they crack down on individuals, they'll just drive it underground.

[QUOTE=FalconKrunch;44515631]They won't go after people since the only data collection they can do, which is connecting to trackers and keep a list of IP addresses of who downloaded what, doesn't hold up in dutch court. They go after distributors like The Pirate Bay because the evidence is right there.[/QUOTE] Good point. I guess we'll see as time goes on how/if this will anything.

The Dutch pay a download-tax on media devices such as CDs, DVD players, hard-drives, etc. Corporations like Sony sued the Netherlands because they feel the tax is too high. The EU looked at the download-tax and said that downloading should be made illegal, and the the tax needs to be lowered to compensate. The Netherlands (and many other non-US countries) doesn't have access to legal alternatives to download a lot of this content. DVD stores and online services like Netflix and iTunes don't offer these movies/shows, so people take to torrent sites to get what they want to watch. BREIN, the company in the Netherlands that represents copyright holders, said they won't target downloaders and will focus on the sites that illegally distribute content, such as Pirate Bay. BREIN is full of shit, though. They're a company driven by greed and not the interest of the people they represent. Since the Dutch court recently ordered the block imposed on Pirate Bay by BREIN be removed, because it was ineffective, it's looking very likely that they'll start going after downloaders instead. We will probably see them trying to push some kind of 'three strikes' program. Fortunately the Dutch internet providers have a zero tolerance policy on this kind of bullshit, and the government is very reluctant to limit the rights of the people like that. So it'll probably turn into a back and forth bitching contest until either the government caves in, or they tell BREIN and the EU to go fuck themselves.

[QUOTE=LuaChobo;44515500]If you really think any country within the EU can do that without getting anally raped then you have no idea what the EU actually does to improve the countries.[/QUOTE] What, you can't ignore one ruling or they'll boot you out? No wonder there's so much anti-EU sentiment in the UK.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;44515715]What, you can't ignore one ruling or they'll boot you out? No wonder there's so much anti-EU sentiment in the UK.[/QUOTE] How the fuck do you ignore a court ruling. Do Americans just tell the Supreme Court to go fuck itself? Ignoring a ruling by the European Court of Justice means the Commission gets the right to impose fines on your country until you fall in line.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;44515490]Why don't you just tell the EU to piss off then? UK does it.[/QUOTE] yeah that is why BT was forced to block numerous torrent indexing sites

[quote=LuaChobo]If you really think any country within the EU can do that without getting anally raped then you have no idea what the EU actually does to improve the country[/quote] I agree the whole idea of a unified Europe is a great thing, but I believe they're trying to move too fast, do too much at once. Like introducing a unified coin, before all the EU members have unified laws and regulations. Seriously though, what does the EU do to help the Netherlands again? As far as I know our economy has been halted to a grinding stop, because we're trying to fix the budgetary deficit according to the rules of the EU. And even THAT, isn't a bad thing. But you know, maybe, just maybe, after a economical crisis, try to get the job-market up again, try to get the economy flowing properly before taking away subsidies, and raising taxes, while the job-market is on its butt. You can't squeeze blood out of water. Slightly off topic rant, I think in the end, Dutch politicians should just stop being EU's prancing example of a lil bitch, and care for the national wealth/health first, and THEN the EU's.

[QUOTE=Teddybeer;44515936]Or the alternatives are the wonderfull DVD quality with stereo sound, while you can get full HD with surround sound from your local pirate site.[/QUOTE] Torrent is described as full HD Blu-Ray Rip. Is actually only 1920x960.

[QUOTE=Teddybeer;44515984]Still better than you would get in any legal way.[/QUOTE] price and availability definitely. quality sometimes? not so much. but credit to those who get 3am uploads of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead up.

[QUOTE=Hamsteronfire;44515977]Torrent is described as full HD Blu-Ray Rip. Is actually only 1920x960.[/QUOTE] They've probably removed the black bars from the video, it will be put back on when you actually start playing it.

[QUOTE=Genericenemy;44516011]They've probably removed the black bars from the video, it will be put back on when you actually start playing it.[/QUOTE] I like letterboxing :/

[QUOTE=Hamsteronfire;44516014]I like letterboxing :/[/QUOTE] Yeah but there's no reason to actually encode the black bars in the file when they can be rendered by the video player They can probably get 2 to 4% more compression out of the file by removing the empty black data I think?

[QUOTE=WhyNott;44515391]Guess that EU have its bad sides too[/QUOTE] Clearly Poland is the expert on such a subject.

[QUOTE=MaxOfS2D;44516023]Yeah but there's no reason to actually encode the black bars in the file when they can be rendered by the video player They can probably get 2 to 4% more compression out of the file by removing the empty black data I think?[/QUOTE] I guess so

[quote]The announcement comes after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that a Dutch law that makes no distinction between personal copies made from legal sources and copies made from illegal ones "cannot be tolerated."[/quote] It has become common practise for our politicians to blame uncomfortable legislation on the EU while in reality what the EU rules may not at all translate to the specific laws they're passing. So I'd take that statement with a grain of salt.

This is no big deal. This exact point has been dealt with in the "Tweede kamer" which is the law-making part of government. They voted against it, so the industry pressured the EU to take the matter out of the Dutch governments hands. Now they're obliged to comply. However, the public prosecution department has already said they will not prioritize these types of 'crimes'. [B][U]So basically:[/U][/B] 1. Dutch government thinks it's bullshit to outlaw downloading. 2. EU forces Dutch goverment to make it illegal. 3. Dutch government goes "Yeah sure it's illegal now" 4. Dutch government doesn't do anything about people breaking the law. Yeah the Dutch government has it's awesome moments [img]http://www.facepunch.com/fp/ratings/winner.png[/img]

Good luck checking every individual downloader.

Making piracy legal would make no fucking sense. There's a long stretch between hollywood pirate hunts and the simple realisation that if enough people pirated it would not be feasible to create media content. This is basically a self contradiction because I'm not against piracy but I still know it's not for good.