French Judge Warns Over Illegal P2P IP Harvesting

[GhostShip]

I missed this interesting snippet I think, a month ago 

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8159/French+Judge+to+RIAA%3A

In another blow to the overly aggressive, no-holds-barred tactics of the RIAA, the IFPI, and others of similar ilk, a French court has ruled that music companies and other copyright holders "...cannot conduct unrestrained internet monitoring to find pirates."

This is a rare win for privacy-rights advocates who regularly monitor the extensive lengths that copyright holders will go to in order to weed out piracy on the internet.

The verdict could now leave music companies and other copyright holders vulnerable to lawsuits for invasion of privacy by other individuals who may know or suspect that their IP has been illegally traced as well. Invasion of privacy carries fines of up to $300,000€, or $395,000USD, and five years in prison.

The verdict also sends an unusually stark warning that the invasion of privacy on the internet will not be tolerated, and that it is the authorities who should be tracking down the "criminals" and not rogue individuals or firms.

"The rights-holders should now understand that they cannot set up a system to identify down loaders on the Internet without proper authorization from us," said Matthias Moulin, a legal adviser at the French government watchdog that defends privacy on the Internet, the National Commission for Information Technology and Liberty.

This sounds like something that should be used against those illegally gathering IP's,  5 years of imprisonment for BayTSP employee's is something I want to see and I hope France has an extradition treaty that covers this 

[KM]

"The rights-holders should now understand that they cannot set up a system to identify down loaders on the Internet without proper authorization from us," said Matthias Moulin, a legal adviser at the French government watchdog that defends privacy on the Internet, the National Commission for Information Technology and Liberty.

erm, so are they actually planning on stopping them then, or do they just want in on the action in the form of license fees? (and of course the "donations" that convince them to sell the licenses in the first place)