@jimmy_russell said:
I agree with fines for copyright infringement, as long as it can be proven that the individual was not previewing the content on his personal computer, without an audience (alone), and there was no profit made by previewing said material. I'm from Canada, and that's the way the laws work up here with copyright infringement. It's only illegal if you sell copies or distribute it publicly.
Having read a short summary of the case on previewing...I don't think what you are saying is correct (I'm not a lawyer, etc.).
From the Wikipedia article, it's true that consumers researching what to buy may fall under the 'research' exception for the fair dealing defence. But that's only part of the analysis - you'd still have to prove that the dealing was 'fair'.
In that case, the dealings were fair because:
(1) there were safeguards to ensure that the copied material met that purpose - which wouldn't be the case with downloaded games;
(2) the music previews in that case were transient, and didn't exist after the user had used them - again, not the case with downloaded games;
(3) the music previews only covered a small fraction of each song's runtime - which wouldn't be the case for downloaded games;
(4) the music previews were the only way to hear what the songs were like - arguably unlike games, in which you could watch footage or potentially even play demos;
(5) the music previews facilitated buying - whereas courts might rule the opposite of the full versions of music/games were able to be freely legally downloaded;
(6) the music previews did not compete with the protected works, since they were shorter/lower quality/temporary streams - unlike downloaded games.
So...yeah, if this is the latest legal development in Canada, then I really highly doubt that anyone pirating games could defend their actions by saying they were merely previewing the content. The situation with games is too different for that case to apply, and I think you'd struggle to prove that videogame piracy constitutes a fair dealing.
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