If you're trying to decide which European country to share music via P2P in, may I suggest not Germany? Certainly not after next year anyway.
Those wacky Germans have passed a new law that the country's music industry hopes will help in their crackdown on the illegal sharing of copyright music online. The new law, which takes effect from the start of next year, categorises the illegal sharing of copyrighted music or films as a felony, meaning anyone convicted of the crime could face two years in jail, five years if the courts deem that the file sharer had commercial motives.
Justifying the law, German MP Günther Krings told the Times: "There should be no legal distinction between stealing chewing gum from a shop and performing an illegal download".
How strictly the German authorities apply the new law once it is adopted, and whether German politicians push for similar regulations to be adopted across the European Union, remains to be seen.