Download Files for Personal Use is Legal in Switzerland

Switzerland's Government declared recently that its current copyright laws will remain unchanged, this follows that its present laws do allow users to download music and movies web files for personal use on their personal computers. The statement is a concluding outcome from their extensive research and consultation by the government.

The worldwide entertainment industry has been continuously alerting Switzerland that the unauthorized downloading of music and movies affects their industry solvability. However, the present situation in Switzerland has unique characteristics from a worldwide perspective where their current copyright laws do permit for the downloading of content to be used personally, as acceptable and within the legal remits.

Nevertheless, the creative industry insists that the downloading undermines their business model. On the contrary, the concluding outcome from this extensive research in Switzerland by its Government presents different results on the consequences of unauthorized downloading showing a negligible impact on their business models. One key finding of the study is that downloaders spend as much if not more to acquire content legally as those who do not download. Researchers found no change in amount of disposable income spent on music and movies, despite the fact that roughly one third of Swiss people engage in some form of downloading.

Switzerland’s findings are just the latest in a series of reports showing that the downloading of music and movies is far less harmful than the entertainment industry would have us believe. A PDF of the government study, which is in German, may be found here.