Monday, January 14, 2008

German lawyer discusses state of p2p litigation in Germany, in interview with 'TorrentFreak'

In an interview with TorrentFreak, Christian Solmecke, a lawyer in Germany who defends people in Germany accused by Big 4 record companies of unauthorized file sharing, answers questions on the state of the law in Germany.

Among other things he points out that the record companies had been invoking the jurisdiction of Germany's criminal courts to find out the ISP subscribers' names and addresses, but some German courts have now forbidden that practice.

"TorrentFreak Interviews a Lawyer Defending 500 File-Sharers"





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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This comes across as a mixed basket of news at best.

The German record companies shouldn't be allowed to get away with what they're doing, but they are. They may be stopped in this soon (using criminal cases to gain identity information, then dismissing that case), but a civil law may open the door to information without the need file criminally. And the convictions seem common when fought, with higher penalties for both pre-litigation settlement, and losses in court.

Not a cheerful picture.

XK-E