According to the film industry, German P2P'ers download more than 20 million movies a year. Often, before the films have even been officially released in Germany. Starting January 1, 2007, they can expect to spend up to 2 years in jail if they get caught.

Worse - up to 5 years of jail time - if you get caught downloading movies for commercial purposes.

Critics claim this criminalizes "consumer behavior" and claim that parents now have to worry whether or not the cops are going to kick in their doors to arrest them because their kid downloaded some movie from the internet. While defenders of the law claim that this is no different from shoplifting.

Of course, the German Music Industry is right there making their claims of loss to P2P stating that record sales have dropped almost 45 percent since 1998. This "translates" (and I use the term loosely) into 439 million CDs last year alone. The poor German record industry only made 1.7 Billion Euros (yes, with a "B") last year.

Guess record executives will have to stick to the cheap caviar this year. Times are hard.

Click here to read more at the Times UK Online.

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