Portuguese government rules file sharing for personal use is legal

Last year, a Portuguese anti-piracy organization called ACAPOR reported the IP addresses of 2000 alleged file sharers to the Attorney General of Portugal.  This week, the Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DIAP) released a statement saying that there would be no action taken against those accused.

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The prosecutor even expanded upon this saying:  “From a legal point of view, while taking into account that users are both uploaders and downloaders in these file-sharing networks, we see this conduct as lawful, even when it’s considered that the users continue to share once the download is finished.”

One other important piece of information was given out by DIAP, in that they do not consider an IP address sufficient evidence to accuse individuals.  An IP address “is not necessarily the user at the moment the infringement takes place, or the user that makes available the copyrighted work, but rather the individual who has the service registered in his name, independent of whether this person using it or not”

This is a major blow to ACAPOR in their efforts to stem piracy in Portugal.  Their response is that the prosecutors simply wanted to avoid the work of going after the file sharers.

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