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French Magazine busted for writing about piracy

by on30 June 2015


Liberté de la presse

The French have surrendered any concept of a free press to silence a magazine that wrote about pirated film, television, and music.

French magazine Téléchargement was fined €10,000 for releasing an issue showing readers how and where to access pirated film, television, and music online.

The special issue was released last summer advertising the "the best software and websites to download for free" on its front cover. Inside, it gave an overview of torrent clients such as iTorrent and BitComent, and also explained to readers that you can often find pirated downloads through Google Search.

Needless to say the local music industry group called SCPP was furious and sued claiming that the magazine had violated French copyright law and had incited piracy.

For those who came in late in France, it is forbidden to "knowingly encourage" the use of software primarily used to share copyrighted content. However normally news outfits have a get out jail free card.

The magazine's defence was that it emphasised repeatedly throughout the issue that piracy was illegal. The French court gave that defence nil point and hit them with a fine.

Last modified on 01 July 2015
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