Protections for file-sharers

Not in the US, but lawmakers and courts in two countries – France and South Korea – are making clear distinctions between file-sharing for personal use and doing so for money. The former activity is now seeing some legal protection in those countries. In Korea, personal file-sharers "will not be accused" under guidelines issued by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, the Korea Times reports, while "Internet users who share music files for commercial purposes will be subject to criminal charges." Net users who encourage illegal file-sharing "will also be punished," the Times adds. In France, a new digital copyright-protection bill is being reworked "to notably enshrine the right of consumers to make private copies of music and film disks and mete out smaller penalties to small-time downloaders," Agence France Presse reports. The changes came on the orders of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and follow a surprise effort last month, on the part of a small group of both ruling-party and opposition members of Parliament, "to legalise peer-to-peer file-sharing." [Thanks to BNA Internet Law for pointing these stories out.]