On 25 Nov 2015, at 13:11, Alan Levin <alanlevin(a)gmail.com> wrote:
When MyBroadband starts admitting to consumers that according to SAFACT in
2007, it's been legal to leech but not to seed... rather than creating
panic and pandemonium and fear about this unexplained criminal thing called
'piracy', then I would feel more comfortable…
As far as I can remember, we’ve been very clear when reporting about what copyright
infringement is in South Africa.
Firstly, there is no case law, which means that anyone’s opinion on the matter is really
just that: an opinion.
All opinions are not created equal, though.
To give our readers as expert an opinion as possible, we’ve solicited comment from various
legal professionals, all of whom have said that downloading is illegal but not criminal,
and that distribution is criminal.
This is the same reason they also argue that streaming Netflix in South Africa is
technically illegal, even though you’ve paid for it.
These experts have further said that it is extremely unlikely that you would face a civil
case for just downloading in South Africa. (That doesn’t make it any less illegal,
though.)
SAFACT might have said that downloading copyrighted content without a license is legal in
2007 (I haven’t seen a record of this), but they don’t make or interpret the laws.
That said, we have actually asked SAFACT for feedback on piracy-related issues on numerous
occasions and have got nothing out of them. They were all too keen to talk about their
case against Majedien Norton, of course, but then Corné Guldenpfennig left and things got
quiet again.
When it comes to torrents, things are less simple because you seed by default. Some
lawyers have said that if you don’t turn off seeding, they could argue in a court that it
is a criminal offence.
There must be anything from 5 to 10 articles on MyBroadband that deal with this issue, all
of which provide comment from legal experts, and all of which lay things out pretty much
as I have above.
I don’t see “panic and pandemonium and fear”. I do, however, see discussion.
Regards
Jan