Those pesky Swiss, downloading pirated media is legal and will remain legal

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“Every time a new media technology has been made available, it has always been ‘abused’. This is the price we pay for progress. Winners will be those who are able to use the new technology to their advantages and losers those who missed this development and continue to follow old business models,” the report notes.

From - http://torrentfreak.com/swiss-govt-downloading-movies-and-music-will-stay-legal-111202/

That sounds awfully capitalistic in nature. Adopt to a changing business environment instead of buying favorable legislation (EPARASITE, DMCA, et al). +1 for the Swiss government telling whatever iteration of the RIAA and MPAA they have to suck it up and move on.

It's a said state of affairs in the US. At least if we adopt a 3 strikes law the UN will put pressure on us for violating a basic right. Anyone know of any good VPN services in Switzerland?

 

[Bronto]

No mention of surcharges for hardware that can reproduce CDs and DVDs. Know some European countries there is surcharges on replicating hardware like CD burners. Surcharges up to a hundred euros on a laptop or PC equipped with a burner.
They seem to give on one hand and take with the other. If they didn't have a little illegal activity, they can't justify their surcharges on the masses.

Heh Its my twisted take on it.

 

[sandyxb]

If you are still burning it to CDs and DVDs, then you are in the old camp.

 

[*Tina*]

If you are still burning it to CDs and DVDs, then you are in the old camp.

I have an mp3 player but i still burn to cd to save room on the old laboring hard drive and to just have a physical copy in case the player gets stolen or lost.

 

[greener]

I think they are relaxed about personal use, but more defensive of reselling for profit. It's still lame and ineffective to charge consumers for recording devices, but laws are stupid and self-conflicting quite often, everywhere.

 

[kevin 714]

I have an mp3 player but i still burn to cd to save room on the old laboring hard drive and to just have a physical copy in case the player gets stolen or lost.

flash drives are your friend

 

[sliverstorm]

flash drives are your friend

Not if this is "Hard drive can't fit it" storage. CD's and DVD's are still cheaper than flash.

Though, CD/DVD is so susceptible to damage and aging, you'd probably be best off just getting another hard drive. If you don't access it and you allow it to sleep-mode, it will last forever, and you can get hundreds of GB for very cheap now.

 

[greener]

1TB external drive for $99 at newegg. Thats roughly 143,000 cd's. Yeah.

 

[teg916]

25 gig blu-ray discs are just over a buck a piece.

 

[NorCalAthlete]

1TB external drive for $99 at newegg. Thats roughly 143,000 cd's. Yeah.

This. Hell, a 32gb flash drive for $24 on amazon holds more than a blu-ray disc easily. Also, keep in mind that when you buy a DVD, much of the data on it is multiple audio tracks for various languages, a bunch of "behind the scenes" extras and other crap that 90% of the viewers don't care about and will never watch. When you download a movie, it's JUST the movie file, your language of choice, and maybe some subtitles. That's it. No frills, no extras, which cuts down the file size considerably.

 

[sliverstorm]

This. Hell, a 32gb flash drive for $24 on amazon holds more than a blu-ray disc easily.

You do know that a blu-ray disc is 50GB, right?

Also, keep in mind that when you buy a DVD, much of the data on it is multiple audio tracks for various languages, a bunch of "behind the scenes" extras and other crap that 90% of the viewers don't care about and will never watch. When you download a movie, it's JUST the movie file, your language of choice, and maybe some subtitles. That's it. No frills, no extras, which cuts down the file size considerably.

Err... what does that have to do with storing data on blank DVD's?