Quote:
Originally Posted by Robotech_Master
It doesn't matter where the file comes from. The law doesn't care. It only matters that it is made to appear in Germany, on the computer of a German citizen, through the action of Project Gutenberg's server making it available for that person to download.
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That doesn't become true simply because you repeat it over and over again.
It's like saying the bookshop in Minsk is making a book appear on a German's bookshelf in Berlin.
The PG servers aren't in Germany. They can't make things appear on a German citizen's computer. That requires the action of a German citizen initiating a download, which causes a German network to reach out to an external one, then some other series of hops to transport that book into Germany and eventually onto the German's computer.
Police your network by requiring the German ISP not to import contraband. Police your citizens for violating your copyright laws. That's how it's always worked in other media. You don't make the bookstore in Minsk require a passport and knowledge of other country's laws; you stop the import of things at the border, or hold the person liable for bringing illegal goods into the country.
I understand that the German courts find it expedient to try to shift enforcement outside their jurisdiction, but it's a pretty major shift in international sovereignty that shouldn't happen lightly.