The price of music on the Net
The price of music on the Net
"My son tells me that downloading music for free is not punishable by law. Personally, I had read that even private individuals were liable to prosecution. Who's right?"
Jackie, Geneva
There are various ways of using music found on the internet: the main ones are downloading musical works for private use and uploading them to the web. Downloading is not punishable under Swiss law. On the other hand, making music available on the internet is punishable if copyright has not been paid.
Under Swiss copyright law, users have the right to download any type of music, as it would be inconceivable for them to have to know whether what they find on the internet is legal or illegal. Article 19 of the Federal Copyright Act (LDA) states that private use of a work such as a piece of music is authorised. Private use includes any use for personal purposes or within a circle of closely related persons, such as relatives or friends.
On the contrary, uploading is only authorised with the agreement of the authors, their management society or the producers. In practice, once a song has been uploaded, a "peer to peer" (or "P2P") exchange system comes into play. This system is perfectly legal in itself, as it allows Internet users to send each other files via the network, but the problem is that it also allows music files to be exchanged without regard to copyright. The millions of users of these "P2P" sites no longer form a circle of closely related persons within the meaning of art. 19 of the LDA. Users of P2P networks who do not comply with the obligation to obtain authorisation to post works online are therefore acting illegally.
It should also be noted that most sites that allow users to download tracks require them to make their own music files available to other Internet users. This is where even those who restrict themselves to downloading can fall foul of the law, because anyone who uses a P2P system to download automatically uploads the music stored on their hard drive.
