>piracy is de facto legal in many EU countries, at least as far as individuals downloading
It's not legal, just the police in most countries have bigger fish to fry than people downloading mp3s and blu-ray rips.
But, try pirating content in Germany and you're guarantee to receive an angry letter with a fine from some crooked law office, threatening to sue you on behalf of the IP holder if you don't pay the fine. It's basically a legal mob shakedown.
Granted, this is more of German thing, as German laws makes it the European stronghold of copyright/IP trolls, while most of Europe doesn't bring out the jackboots for small-time internet piracy the way Germany does.
It's not legal, just the police in most countries have bigger fish to fry than people downloading mp3s and blu-ray rips.
But, try pirating content in Germany and you're guarantee to receive an angry letter with a fine from some crooked law office, threatening to sue you on behalf of the IP holder if you don't pay the fine. It's basically a legal mob shakedown.
Granted, this is more of German thing, as German laws makes it the European stronghold of copyright/IP trolls, while most of Europe doesn't bring out the jackboots for small-time internet piracy the way Germany does.