COLOGNE, Germany (THR) -- Germany is cracking down on copyright infringement with a new law that will punish film and music pirates with up to five years in prison.
The legislation also will target consumers who illegally download films or music for private use, introducing a maximum two-year sentence.
The law, which passed Thursday and will go into effect Jan. 1, is one of the toughest in Europe and a major coup for Germany's film industry, which has been lobbying for such legislation for several years.
"This (new law) sends a decisive cultural and economic signal for the theater and film business," said Thomas Negele, chairman of movie exhibitors association HDF Kino. "The cooperation between various branches in the industry and the united front we presented in our discussions convinced politicians of the seriousness of the issue (of film piracy)."
Downloading films from the Internet has become a popular pastime in Germany, with industry groups estimating that Germans download more than 20 million films a year. Many Hollywood blockbusters are available on German peer-to-peer Internet sites before they are released in local theaters.
Until now, downloading pirated films for private use was not a punishable offense here. That fact, plus a computer-literate population, has been disastrous for the German film market, the local industry argues. The German boxoffice last year fell a startling 17% — to its lowest level in a decade — and many say Internet piracy largely is to blame.
Music sales in Germany have declined for seven years running. Overall profit, at €1.7 billion ($2 billion) last year, is nearly 45% off from 1998. Last year, Germans illegally copied the equivalent of 439 million music CDs, according to estimates by the local branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
But German consumer groups have criticized the new law, saying it unfairly turns consumers into criminals.
"This sends a completely wrong signal to society. It criminalizes consumers and will deeply disturb Internet users," said Patrick von Braunmuehl, head of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations. "It can't be that everyone now has to be worried about the police knocking on their door and impounding the family computer because their 16-year-old son has downloaded a few songs."
The German Justice Ministry has defended the new legislation, arguing it is a long-overdue correction, making film piracy illegal regardless of who commits it and for what reason.
"The main focus of investigation and prosecution will still be the notorious pirates that are profiting from violating copyright," said Jan Scharringhausen, head of the German Federation Against Copyright Theft's legal department. "And it will still be legal for consumers to make private copies of material they have obtained legally."
Scott Roxborough writes for The Hollywood Reporter.
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