The Pirate Bay - Download / File Sharing site

[Rod Serling]

What is the law in the UK governing downloads/ file sharing from a site such as Pirate Bay, which is similar, i guess, to the Napster site which was closed down by Metallica then resurrected legally later.

They have a lot of legal testimonials on their site, and were shut down last year temporarily by Swedish Police, but they seem to be doing a roaring trade!

[johnny28]

Napster is technically different from piratebay (lets just call it a bit-torrent site, as pirate bay is just one of many). Firstly bit-torrents are a method of transferring files similar to a file sharing network but the important thing here is don't assume all bit-torrents are illegal.

However, because bit-torrents are a really good way to share files, it came to pass that a lot of illicit material is available via bit-torrents.

The law is a bit shady but in a nutshell, it's illegal to copy licensed 'items' (be it films, audio software etc) without either owning the original or getting express permission to do so. It's illegal to sell it but the possession laws are practically un-enforceable.

Now the shady bit lets say you downloaded a Sony PS2 game and burned it on a blank CD, then printed a Sony label on it with game title etc. if caught, which is highly unlikely unless you sold it, You would get charged for copying the label rather than the contents of the disc, simply because they can enforce a higher sentence (fine usually) for the label!

Now the torrent sites only list torrents they don't actually posses the data (it's on other peoples machines) so they aren't technically breaking the law despite the high powered business's that hit them with unwarrantable injunctions every week.

Bit-torrents are here to stay and a lot of country's don't even have any software / copyright laws so are free to host what ever the hell they like.

[Buenchico]

Downloading copyrighted material (whether it be music, videos or anything else) is generally a civil offence, for which you can be sued. However, it becomes a criminal offence (for which you can be fined or sent to prison) if it's done 'in the course of a business' or 'to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright' (i.e. on a large scale).

It should be noted, though, that most file-sharing software (e.g. Limewire, Bearshare and similar programs which use the Gnutella network) makes files on the user's PC available for uploading to other users. In the eyes of the law, this is 'distribution' which is a criminal offence, punishable by fines or imprisonment.

Chris

[casson57]

Well in UK government has made a move already asking internet service providers to block the url of pirate bay. So now people has been using proxy sites for pirate bay so that they can access it again. Check this link http://howtoaccesspiratebay.in/ it's one of those trusted proxies out there for TPB.