Question about file sharing in Austria

Johnz

Hello everyone,

I have just arrived in Vienna, as I will start my studies here this next Semester. Being new around here (Austria), there's a specific subject I would like to ask your input, which is file sharing. Back in my country there is no fuss about this, but what about Austria? Can one get in trouble by downloading, for instance, a few episodes from american tv shows? Are there any known (public) cases of trials against users that have download or shared such files through p2p/torrents/rapidshare/etc ?

PS - I hope it's ok to write in English here in this forum

fuersti

Downloading videos is not directly prohibited by Austrian law. The relevant parts of the copyright law state that making copies and selling/providing other people with the copies is illegal and can led to a conviction, but for private use it is legal (§42 UrhG). But the current legal opinion is not very well defined and does not reflect the changes in the past decade. E.g. it does not address the question "is streaming illegal". In general you can watch/download videos for your private use (§42 UrhG) - uploading is definitely against law, but since the data retention act became law in April 2012 I would not do it.

Kampi

from a practical point of view: I know lots of people using bittorrent (with uploading) and nothing ever happened, but as fuersti said, uploading is definitely against the law. If you want to avoid the upload, hack your own bittorrent client or modify an existing one, it's fun. if you are really paranoid use ssl encrypted nntp.

themoep

fun fact: you are not liable for what happens on your open wireless network, you just have to comply with orders to make it unlikely in the future. that could be as simple as blocking a specific mac-address on your network, but I haven't heard of any such order and how to exactely comply. anyway, if you have questions about this special topic I recommend the freewave people, as they are doing just that: installing public open free wireless networks for contractors.

pernhard

Zitat von themoep

fun fact: you are not liable for what happens on your open wireless network, you just have to comply with orders to make it unlikely in the future.

This sounds highly interessting to me. Can you quote me some details on that (e.g. Source, or the specific legal regulation?)

Cheers, Bernhard

emptyvi

Zitat von pernhard

This sounds highly interessting to me. Can you quote me some details on that (e.g. Source, or the specific legal regulation?)

Cheers, Bernhard

Even though it's not really on topic..
http://www.internet4jurists.at/provider/recht1a.htm (German)

themoep

Zitat von pernhard

This sounds highly interessting to me. Can you quote me some details on that (e.g. Source, or the specific legal regulation?) Cheers, Bernhard

I've heard about this at a raum/d event - http://quintessenz.at/d/000100017646 Unfortunately I have no recorded document containing the information, but I am sure quintessenz or the participants will help you with that. For me it's good enough, but if you happen to find a quoteable law I'd be happy if you share it all lthe best

Johnz

Zitat von fuersti

Downloading videos is not directly prohibited by Austrian law. The relevant parts of the copyright law state that making copies and selling/providing other people with the copies is illegal and can led to a conviction, but for private use it is legal (§42 UrhG). But the current legal opinion is not very well defined and does not reflect the changes in the past decade. E.g. it does not address the question "is streaming illegal". In general you can watch/download videos for your private use (§42 UrhG) - uploading is definitely against law, but since the data retention act became law in April 2012 I would not do it.

Zitat von Kampi

from a practical point of view: I know lots of people using bittorrent (with uploading) and nothing ever happened, but as fuersti said, uploading is definitely against the law. If you want to avoid the upload, hack your own bittorrent client or modify an existing one, it's fun. if you are really paranoid use ssl encrypted nntp.

[finally have internet access again...]

Thank you for your input. Kampi I never heard about that, nntp servers would be something like Usenet servers ?

As a sidenote, and considering tv series is mostly what I look for to download, it's a shame that we can't get them through legal and practical ways (like Netflix, Hulu) here in Europe (or anywhere outside North America I think), even if one wants to - not at least without some months delay (for those who have cable channels) or through some troublesome solutions like streaming, itunes, etc. [kinda reminds me of oatmeal: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones]

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