While file sharing and downloading movies isn’t a big deal in India, in the west, people go to jail or land up in courts for illegally downloading content. Therefore, it was surprising when a security audit in South Australia police stations yielded movies in computers belonging to hundreds of officers. It has been speculated that all these movies were illegally downloaded using P2P software, either at these computers or transferred from other computers. What tickles the bones of oppressed file sharers and dismayed the anti piracy industry bodies is that authorities have flatly refused to prosecute the officers involved for copyright infringement.

On paper, this “crime” in Australia carries a stiff penalty of A$ 60,500 (about Rs 22,72,440) per file and also a jail sentence of 5 years. This means that if the bosses in the South Australian police force heed the anti-piracy body’s pleas, then the whole state would face a problem enforcing the law, because hundreds of officers would be broke and behind bars. And come to think of it, when you have problems like drugs and terrorism, file sharing is just a harmless schoolboy prank. People don’t get hurt, nobody loses money, artists get free advertisements and the only ones getting pinched are the record labels.

With this decision, it has become harder to make money off selling music and movies in South Australia. People down under complain that they download files because latest movies and TV shows beamed in Australia are about 4 years old! A single DVD also costs an arm and a leg, swelling the ranks of those using Bit Torrent and other P2P applications. Here is a bit of free advice to the suits—lower the prices and give the Aussies an updated dose of the daily feed of movies and soaps. That would keep them busy. Meanwhile the constabulary can always be offered some complimentary copies so that everybody is happy.