Consumer P2P use legal in France

Filed in archive International on February 11, 2006

A Paris district court ruled P2P downloading and sharing to be legal as long as its for personal use. France has compulsory licensing in the form of a levy on blank CDs and tapes to pay copyright holders and is considering a similar fee for P2P users.

The ruling aligns France with Canada, and opposite countries like the U.S., U.K. and Australia where consumer P2P use in conjunction with copyrighted content is illegal.