Norway's Liberal Party backs file sharing

 

Gallery

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 17 Apr 2007 at 11:02

Norway's Liberal Party has become the first mainstream European political party to back p2p file sharing.

The party, which holds 10 seats in Norway's 169-seat parliament, adopted the policy at its annual congress, saying copyright laws are not adapted for a modern society and should permit file sharing for personal, but not commercial, use.

'Copyright law is outdated,' the resolution says. 'A society where culture and knowledge is free and accessible by everyone on equal terms is a common good. Large distributors and copyright owners systematically and widely misuse copyright, and thereby stall artistic development and innovation. Therefore, the Liberal Party wants to reinstate the balance in copyright law.'

Trine Skei Grande, the party's vice chairwoman, said that it is wrong to brand an entire generation as criminals, a reference to the music industry's in-part successful efforts to secure substantial legal damages from alleged file sharers.

'The law must adapt to the citizens and the impact of technological innovation,' she said.

The Liberal Party will be hoping that it has more success with its new policy than Sweden's Pirate Party, which recently contested elections in Sweden, but failed to get even close to the four per cent of the vote that would have given it a seat in parliament.

Nordic countries have taken a lead in trying to reduce restrictions on the digital dissemination of music and other content. Norway recently ruled that Apple's iTunes DRM is illegal; Sweden and Denmark may follow suit , though as members of the EU they may wait for the outcome of a European Commission investigation.