[pp.int.general] belgian court ruling on filesharing

[Rick Falkvinge (Piratpartiet)]

Scary shit. But nevertheless.

First, this is from the IFPI site, and therefore, can be assumed to be
heavily biased.

Second, this confirms what we've been saying all along: the record industry
wants to abolish postal secrets and freedom of the press in order to
maintain their crumbling monopolies. They are actually celebrating the fact
that a third unaccountable party gets to inspect everything sent between two
private individuals, and gets to destroy any undesired communication.
Besides from being horrible from a civil liberties and business standpoint,
it is also a direct violation of the UN Declaration of Rights and the
European Convention on Human Rights. This is way worse than what happened in
the Soviet Union: there, the letters that were opened were at least - in
theory - opened by an accountable government.

The common carrier principle, that the messenger is never responsible, is
central to our potential to evolve and develop as a society. The record
industry just claims they canceled that principle, and they're celebrating
it. That goes to show the moral level of the enemy we're fighting.

If it is as IFPI claims, I don't see this ruling standing for long. On the
other hand, IFPI have been phenomenal about lying and twisting legal facts
to benefit them. Either way - the ruling falls, or IFPI lied from the start
- they've shown their colors; they want to kill the common carrier.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: pp.international.general-bounces at lists.pirateweb.net 
> [mailto:pp.international.general-bounces at lists.pirateweb.net] 
> On Behalf Of Andrew Norton
> Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2007 21:31
> To: pp.international.general at lists.pirateweb.net
> Subject: [pp.int.general] belgian court ruling on filesharing
> 
> don't know how many of you have seen this - 
> http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/20070704b.html
> 
> Thought i'd bring it up, and to say i'm looking for some 
> comments/responses for an article.
> can send it to this addy, or preferably to 
> dmcawanted at gmail.com (my writing address) 
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Andrew
> US Pirate Party
> 
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