Czech students slapped for filesharing

It seems that every week there are American students in trouble for filesharing, but it looks like European students may also be taking some of the rap. Czech police raided a student dorm in the Prague-Strahov area recently and confiscated hordes of pirate material. Seven students were arrested and detained by police for their filesharing crimes.

The students, who are believed to be from the Czech Technical University in Prague, could be jailed for up to five years for illegal filesharing. Here’s the problem: where do you draw the line between what is socially acceptable in terms of filesharing and what is crossing that line?

Filesharing isn’t as clear cut as we often think. A 22-year-old Czech man is facing a fine of $300,000 after recording The Simpsons movie at the Czech premiere. Most people would say that recording such a movie and distributing it through filesharing is wrong – but then those same people wouldn’t have a problem with downloading and sharing a music album using P2P software like Limewire.

It would appear that the social consciousness is more willing to accept filesharing of released material. When people stray into pre-release, the waters become murky, especially when people download for profit.

We are all for filesharing in moderation. The Czech students were serial filesharers and they were distributing millions of dollars worth of material. There is a difference between that kind of filesharing and downloading a Britney album for personal use.

Where do you stand on this?