The hypocrisy here is amusing. Interestingly also that piracy is de facto legal in many EU countries, at least as far as individuals downloading.
It's not legal, just the police in most countries have bigger fish to fry than people downloading mp3s and blu-ray rips.
But, try pirating content in Germany and you're guarantee to receive an angry letter with a fine from some crooked law office, threatening to sue you on behalf of the IP holder if you don't pay the fine. It's basically a legal mob shakedown.
Granted, this is more of German thing, as German laws makes it the European stronghold of copyright/IP trolls, while most of Europe doesn't bring out the jackboots for small-time internet piracy the way Germany does.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/intellectual-property_...
Sharing is not legal there though. But downloading for personal use is.
I said de facto legal. Emphasis on the de facto.
It differs in EU countries though, and I recall reading at least some explicitly won't take action against consumers downloading on a home internet connection.
"De facto, (Latin: "from the fact") a legal concept used to refer to what happens in reality or in practice, as opposed to de jure ("from the law"), which refers to what is actually notated in legal code. "
If something is de facto legal, it means it is practically legal. That's exactly how I used it. I didn't say de jure as to say something was de jure legal would be redundant, and simply saying the word legal does not mean I said, or even implied de jure, as you rather ridiculously asserted.
You're entirely and completely wrong here, and seem to have no concept of how these terms are actually used in practice.
But since you seem to be the type who likes to argue for the sake of it, have at it. I'm curious how long you'll keep this going to avoid admitting fault.
The lobby does try to twist the letter of the law to serve their interest, but it is legal