http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110830/02305015735/does-punishment-fit-crime-is-manslaughter-equivalent-crime-to-copyright-infringement.shtmlFrom the manslaughter-is-about-the-same dept
Via ZeroPaid, we learn of a fun article in the French publication Numerama, which tries to compare the length of time in jail one could get for file sharing in France to a few other crimes (Google translation from the original French). The results are telling, in terms of just how extreme current copyright laws really are. The article includes two lists. The first is of crimes that can get you about the same amount of time in jail. This list includes:
Manslaughter
Sending death threats
Doing biomedical experiments on a person without consent
Provoking someone to commit suicide.
Theft
Escaping prison
Forgery
Clearly, sharing a few songs in an unauthorized manner fits with that list. As for the list of crimes that will get you less punishment, there are some surprises:
Exposing yourself in public
Sexual harassment
Domestic violence
Identity fraud
Abandoning a family
Getting a minor drunk
Making sexual advances on someone less than 15 years old
Abuse and cruelty to animals
Destruction of property
Somehow, it's difficult to see how infringement belongs in that first list. But, that's what you get in this day and age.
This article does raise a serious question.'Is justice for the user in copyright cases being well served'? If you use those comparisons the answer has to be a very big "NO".
