Switzerlands lenient Piracy laws

www.reghardware.com...

I found this rather interesting since most other countries seem to be heavily cracking down on piracy in general. The Swiss government made a halfway decent argument of saying that the money saved from piracy by the costumers is spent somewhere else, the money is still being spent just not in the same way.

What do you guys think?

Edit: I've not found much more on this from propper "news" sites but there are similar articles all over the place in the respective industry magazines/websites!

reply to post by Swizzy


It is a very good point although most nations do not promote a free market merely by the way their financial system is backed and ran.

It makes sense,
I don't waste my money on things i can get for no charge, and realistically, they still make a load of money from the initial product anyways.

What is the argument, the people who get paid millions to do a movie now are still making millions through advertising and such, and are complaining that piracy is destroying their industry?
Same with music i think, Along the same lines. Most of the money that you would pay for a CD goes to other things, i think its like 9% that goes to the band.

And the way i see it, i make 31k a year, and they make hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per year.

They can afford for me not to pay to see this movie or buy this movie, or this series or CD. I don't have the money for that, and i love music. and all of these things, i think we should all consider doing what switzerland is doing..

Wasn't a mother of 4 sued by the riaa for millions of dollars for songs on her ipod, and thus, ruining her and her childrens lives forever?
Its all to make money. Music didnt cost a thing back when it was performed for the love of music, not the love of money.

reply to post by Swizzy


Well, I always get flamed for my opinion on this topic but I'll say it again anyways: I don't mind the record companies or movie makers for going after piracy. Digital or not, they created a product that is being pilfered.

HOWEVER, what I don't agree with is someone getting sued for MILLIONS of dollars because they downloaded a movie or a few songs. That is abuse, IMHO.

reply to post by Swizzy


A few more years ago than i care to remember, when radios had cassettes built on them and were just becomingportable, alot ofpeople used to listen to the radio and then press record and play when a song came on they liked. You did not see hoards of people being taken to court for such a silly thing, artists were paid the fee for the music being played on the station.

Also, how often do we see these wellknown musicians living in tiny houses with no money?. The popular artists that people i believe download more than others, are often depicted with a big pad and multiple cars etc etc, Does it really hurt them that much?.

Greedy corporations want their pound of flesh as usual, that is all.

As to switzerland, good on them, iceland the same i believe.

reply to post by Swizzy


I think software piracy is not a big problem, but should be considered a marketing strategy..
Example: in 1990 we all had autocad on our computers, just to play with it.
In 1990 we all had word prefect on our computer just to play with it.
The list goes on and on.
What were the effects for autodesk and word perfect? More sales and a bigger market penetration, and they knew it.
Why? Because if a firm wanted to have software it asked its personnel what to buy. They already knew those programs and could work with them, so the answer was easy.
Piracy was a word already known at that time and no one took it serious for reason just mentioned.
I think company's , even very small ones , should pay for their software. because this is a necessary tool for them. Use by private users should be considered a marketing strategy, and a successful one.
This , of course , only applies for large and expensive software that private persons would have NEVER bought anyway.
There is a lot of software I do buy, like operating system , anti virus and even some utilities.