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Hi,<br>
<br>
Sorry for my late reply on this. Took some time until I could find time
to read the report.<br>
<br>
This report is what you get when you let a group of people who work
with enforcement of IP work behind closed doors. It is completely
unbalanced, and only gives arguments for harsher punishments while it
ignores (doesn't even mention) all arguments against a harsher
enforcement.<br>
<br>
The main objective of the report is to treat all violations of
copyright, patents, design- and utility-patents and trademarks as
pirate copying. Then the report looks at some other countries, and
recommends that punishments for violation of these laws are
"harmonized" to the highest punishment in any of the laws.<br>
<br>
Some years ago we had a case with for-profit pirate copying of
software. Some guys put together a DVD with a lot of very expensive
software, and had a few thousand copies produced in a plant in Germany.
The copyright holders summed up the full price for each piece of
software on the DVD, multiplied the sum by the number of DVDs, and then
multiplied by two (because in Denmark a pirate has to pay double the
new price to the copyright holder, if caught). This ended up being
billions of kroner, and the amount made headlines in our mainstream
media. Because of the extremely high amount (reported as a loss to the
copyright holders), our politicians felt they had to do something. So
they added a new article 299b to our penal code. Article 299b makes it
possible to give up to 6 years of prison for the worst cases of
copyright infringement. Our politicians thought article 299b was
justified because of the very high reported loss, but unfortunately the
article was stated so it isn't limited to commercial copyright
infringement. It can also be used for personal non-profit filesharing,
and it probably will at some time. I have warned about this for some
time, but almost nobody believed me. Now this new report talks about
article 299b as if there is no doubt it applies to non-commercial
filesharing.<br>
<br>
The report suggests that article 299b is changed so it also applies to
infringement of patents, design- and utility-patents and trademarks,
thus making it possible to punish infringement of these laws with up to
6 years of prison. One of the arguments for this high punishment is
that this makes it easier for the police to investigate these cases of
infringement, as the high punishment makes it possible for the police
to snoop on private communication.<br>
<br>
But this is only for the worst cases of infringement. For more normal
cases of infringement our copyright law makes it possible to give 1.5
years of prison. The report suggests that the punishment for
infringement of patents, design- and utility-patents and trademarks in
these normal cases is raised to also be up to 1.5 years of prison.<br>
<br>
The report also suggests a "harmonization" in who can start a legal
case. For infringement of infringement of patents, design- and
utility-patents and trademarks, our police cannot start a case unless
they are asked by the rights holder. But for copyright infringement the
police can start a case by themselves if needed ("hvis der er almene
hensyn til stede"). I fear this can lead to cases (similar to in the
proposed IPRED2 directive) where prosecution starts even if there is no
victim (ie. a rights holder cannot be located).<br>
<br>
Unfortunately the relevant minister for this is Bendt Bendtsen. The
very same Bendt Bendtsen who voted in favour of the software patent
directive in the council, although he had a direct order from our
parliament to vote "no". He is an ignorant that knows absolutely
nothing about this, and only listens to lobbyists and his own spin
doctors. He has already announced that he will propose changes to the
relevant laws to implement all the recommendations in the report.<br>
<br>
I only see one small opportunity here: Our local FOSS movement has
substantial political influence, and they are aware about the problem
with software patents. When I tell them that they can risk up to 6
years of prison for publicly distributing their software, I might get
them to propose that article 299b in our penal code is changed so it is
limited to commercial infringement.<br>
<br>
Best Regards,<br>
<br>
Ole Husgaard.<br>
<br>
Rick Falkvinge (Piratpartiet) wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:00a201c88437$28acf370$15866057@internal.falconwing.net"
type="cite">
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<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font color="#000080" face="Georgia"
size="2"><span class="567304811-12032008">hold your horses a bit
before going ballistic on this one, I'm trying to figure out exactly
what is new here. Apparently, Denmark <em>already</em> has a six-year
prison term for copyright infringement, but seeks to expand it to
patent infringements (?!?).</span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font color="#000080" face="Georgia"
size="2"><span class="567304811-12032008"></span></font> </div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font color="#000080" face="Georgia"
size="2"><span class="567304811-12032008">Ole, perhaps you can help
out?</span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr" align="left"><font color="#000080" face="Georgia"
size="2"><span class="567304811-12032008"></span></font> </div>
<br>
<blockquote dir="ltr"
style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 128); padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;">
<div class="OutlookMessageHeader" dir="ltr" align="left"
lang="en-us">
<hr tabindex="-1"> <font face="Tahoma" size="2"><b>From:</b>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pp.international.general-bounces@lists.pirateweb.net">pp.international.general-bounces@lists.pirateweb.net</a>
[<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:pp.international.general-bounces@lists.pirateweb.net">mailto:pp.international.general-bounces@lists.pirateweb.net</a>] <b>On
Behalf Of </b>Rick Falkvinge (Piratpartiet)<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, March 12, 2008 12:11<br>
<b>To:</b> 'Pirate Parties International -- General Talk'<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [pp.int.general] Denmark announces new penalties
for file sharing<br>
</font><br>
</div>
<div><font color="#000080" face="Georgia" size="2"><a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.oem.dk/sw21117.asp">http://www.oem.dk/sw21117.asp</a></font></div>
<div><strong></strong> </div>
<div><span class="509090911-12032008"><font color="#000080"
face="Georgia" size="2">In short: the penalty for copyright
infringement is raised to 1-6 years in prison. That means a minimum
prison term of one year for copyright infringement.</font></span></div>
<div><span class="509090911-12032008"></span> </div>
<div><span class="509090911-12032008"><font color="#000080"
face="Georgia" size="2">This is the same penalty as armed robbery, and
considerably higher than assault or rape. (I have compared to the
Swedish penalties, so it's not entirely red-apples-to-red-apples, but
they are always strikingly similar, so green-apples-to-red-apples.)</font></span></div>
<div><span class="509090911-12032008"></span> </div>
</blockquote>
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____________________________________________________
Pirate Parties International - General Talk
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net">pp.international.general@lists.pirateweb.net</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general">http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
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