SWAMPED UNDER THOUSANDS of file-sharing violation investigations, the General Prosecutor’s Office of the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia has set the bar to separate commercial file-sharing and misdemeanor file-sharing.

According to an interview on Jetzt.de, Axel Steel (real name), spokesman for said office says the rule of thumb for prosecution to deem someone as a " commercial file-sharer" is: songs are worth a €urobuck, movies are worth €15. If you don’t share over €3,000 of material then you won’t be prosecuted.

You are still violating the law if you share; it’s just that the Prosecutor’s office is too under-manned to follow-up on the 25,000 violations that have been reported in the first half of 2008 alone.

The official carries on to compare file-sharing with cannabis consumption – "both very popular among youths" he says – it is illegal to consume it, but people do it anyway, and the authorities can’t be bothered in frying smaller fish as it’s a waste of time and resources. Going after the big distributors is the way to go.

We reckon there is an evveeerrr so slight difference between cannabis and file-sharing. With file-sharing you get to share a single file multiple times (and it never loses its buzz), so does the official they mean the value of a single song/movie or the value of the number of times it’s been shared with others? We’re waiting on an answer, on that one…

So according to Mr. Steel, as long as you share under the €3,000 bar, the advanced legal radar of the state prosecutors office won’t pick you up. You’re still committing a crime, though, but it isn’t big enough for the State to pursue. There are situations where they will prosecute under this level of sharing, however, but those warrant more direct inspection.

We can hear the brouhaha from the record companies right now… Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. This is going to be a fun trip. µ