Germany Outlaws Burning CDs Made From Illegally Obtained Music

[Jorge]

New copyright law criminalizes the use of music obtained from illegal file-sharing.

Last Friday Germany's upper house of parliament approved a controversial new copyright law that makes it illegal for individuals to make copies of music and movies if they were obtained illegally.

Pushing aside criticism from consumer protection groups, the Bundesrat passed the law which now outlaws private copies of content gotten from sources like illegal P2P and file-sharing networks.

Set to take effect in 2008, consumer groups and the Green Party alike tried to include an exemption

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[enter8]

I keep racking my brain as to why the German gub'ment is being such nitwits when it comes to it's menacing stance on filesharing.

It's not like Germany has a massive amount of copyrighted material to protect. How many films do they put out a year? Who's your favorite German pop star? You know what I'm saying?

My best guess is that it's some roundabout way of kissing U.S. behind.

Whatever the reason, we're seeing a very sharp political divide between Germany and it's neighbors to the North (Belgium and the Netherlands) and to the East (Romania and Russia). A VERY sharp political divide.