How legal are torrents in SA?

Safest answer is - if it's used for linux distros :D

Kudos goes to Buys :

Buys has also offered to defend local torrent websites free of charge in any legal battle and has recently announced that he is how acting on behalf of the affected local websites and has completed a detailed response to the South African record industry and ISPA.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Great article!

How about one like this with reference to users of NSs. That article mentions that those using torrents are liable for prosecution but my understanding has always been that this is because they are also distributing by sharing files they are downloading. If one is only downloading as with NSs what is your liability?
 
Piracy in SA at present - in comparison to the rest of the world, is a non event

1 - If you have the broadband speed, the cap will restrict you
2 - If you have a uncap connection , the speed will restrict you

a 3 Gig cap a month don't leave much for downloading movies, games or music

But, HOPEFULLY the anti piracy gods can bust us towards the end of next year ;-)
 
Buys has also offered to defend local torrent websites free of charge in any legal battle and has recently announced that he is how acting on behalf of the affected local websites and has completed a detailed response to the South African record industry and ISPA.
Click to expand...
MyBroadband Awesomeness Award anyone? Nice one Buys!
 
Nice Article.... Kudos to the Laywers...

Hope you take to RISA and tell them to try poking their fingers elsewhere!
 
The real problem is that p2p is delivering content, faster, more conveniently, more cheaply and much larger varieties than the ancient non-electronic mediums.

The reason why there is such a fuss about it, is in this model, there is no room for a publishing company to take 80% of the profits.
 
LancelotSA said:
Great article!

How about one like this with reference to users of NSs. That article mentions that those using torrents are liable for prosecution but my understanding has always been that this is because they are also distributing by sharing files they are downloading. If one is only downloading as with NSs what is your liability?
Click to expand...
You are downloading simple text files and the decoding is done on your side, so the servers are not hosting the actual files (only the text files that you download). Remember that these text files are absolutely useless without a decoder, which resides on the client side. As a result, no action can ever be taken against a news server provider. And the NZB file basically only tells the client where to go and locate these text files.

Apart from that, it is still unclear under SA law whether downloading an actual file for personal use is illegal or not. Not that downloading an actual file is ever an issue with news servers anyway, as explained above. RiSA and ISPA are just acting like retards who have absolutely no clue on how these technologies work. I would have expected this from RiSA, but not ISPA (who have now lost credibility in the eyes of many people).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
LancelotSA said:
Great article!

How about one like this with reference to users of NSs. That article mentions that those using torrents are liable for prosecution but my understanding has always been that this is because they are also distributing by sharing files they are downloading. If one is only downloading as with NSs what is your liability?
Click to expand...

There are effectively two parts to it as I understand it. If you distribute, you are taking part in a CRIMINAL activity - "guilty of an offence". If you just download and do not distribute, you *might* be committing copyright infringement, in which case the owner ( or his agent ) of the copyright IN SA may institute a CIVIL case against you ( ie: no cops, arrests, weekend in "Sun City", etc ). Only the holder of the rights may do this, obviously. For the most part, downloading software and movies is copyright infringement - "musical works" have another out in that the principle of fair use, for personal and private use probably applies.

AFAIK there are no precedents in the local courts for downloading the latter, civil, stuff.

The Copyright Act is worth a read, even though it does seem to be a bugger's muddle.

EDIT: In case anyone gets confused, I am NOT referring to .nzb or such like, but to the files "behind" them - the movies, programs, etc. Seeding torrents is distributing, and thus criminal.
 
Last edited:
haha.. big ups for a smart article. Torrents and online piracy dont have even one 10th of the piracy market in South Africa compared to these fake DVD vendors trying to squeeze their counterfeit goods through your cars window.. those are the real "criminals"..not that I think t0o many of the myBB people will buy those inferior quality products..but its very cheap compared to the real deal, and thats why people will continue to buy it..even if the quality is dog
 
Sapphiron said:
The real problem is that p2p is delivering content, faster, more conveniently, more cheaply and much larger varieties than the ancient non-electronic mediums.

The reason why there is such a fuss about it, is in this model, there is no room for a publishing company to take 80% of the profits.
Click to expand...

well there's no room for anyone who made the work to see profit don't you think
 
uh....

I torrent, but have never downloaded a movie (waste of time), music (not likely a south africa artist, I've got all the sokkie jol treffers I'll ever need)

I wasn't a member of with of these SA sites though... What were they trading most of the time out of interest? games? anime?

Also, don't these lawyers have to give specific example of media being pirated?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X