Finns Take New Tack On Punishing Pirates

from the i-think-it's-the-cold dept

In the same week that France considered a law that would send file-sharers to jail — then ultimately passed a law in its lower house of parliament legalizing non-commercial file-sharing — a new law has been enacted in Finland that gives the music industry there some bizarre recourse against convicted file-sharers. Not content with other criminal or civil action, record labels can now take out newspaper ads naming file-sharers, then send them the bill (via Broadband Reports). What’s next, forcing them to walk around downtown Helsinki wearing sandwich boards that say “I download music illegally?” This seems like a petty way to make people pay for the record labels’ inability to adapt their business models to a changing environment.


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Comments on “Finns Take New Tack On Punishing Pirates”

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8 Comments
The Other Mike says:

No Subject Given

I’m no fan of illegal downloading and have never had anyone tell me a good reason we shouldn’t allow the industry to do what they want with their music (a la the Rootkit fiasco or some proprietary piece of crap iPod rip off nobody will buy), but I have to say…

A couple newspaper ads and a $10,000 fine for a couple years of unlimited access to any music you want at any time of the day and able to put it in any format you want. I still think you could come out cheaper and with less hassle and less computer problems via file sharing. The difference is that you pay in one lump sum instead of feeling raped everytime you get another CD. The music industry has a lot to learn still.

Christopher TruLove (user link) says:

Oh for a few thousand dollars...

…the industry seems confused about this… as usual. It occurs to me that for the price, that’s a bit of notoriety I would LOVE to have… I would give away signed copies of the ad to friends… hell… I’d send a copy to my favorite Record Execs and lawyers too.

And I’m guessing I’m not the only one.

fuck you record labels says:

fuck you and your asshole support of record labels. file sharing will never stop. it’s like physically handing over your cd to a friend to borrow for a few days. same shit. fuck you. it’s been paid for. and why pay for the same cd over and over again. you bought it once, the media decayed(ie. cassette tape) you are entitled to have it and own and wash your ass with it ass many times as you want.

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