Downloading media in Germany

(the current state of affairs - January 2022)

As in most countries, downloading and uploading material (e.g. TV series, movies…) not released for free by the copyright holder is illegal in Germany. Unlike in some other countries (where this behaviour is partially tolerated), such activities are actively prosecuted in Germany. The technical means by which you download illegal material is irrelevant - using BitTorrent, one-click hosting, streaming etc is all equally illegal - however, there are different probabilities of being caught and prosecuted. Additionally, downloading (through any means) media not commonly consumed in Germany (e.g. obscure Asian TV series) has a lower chance of being prosecuted than downloading e.g. a major Hollywood movie or a German movie.

BitTorrent

The most common way in which people are caught and prosecuted for downloading illegally obtained material is by using BitTorrent. BitTorrent makes is relatively easy to identify you, as BitTorrent users automatically upload (as well as download) data - and law firms working for the media rights holders (Waldorf Frommer are fairly notorious for this) can then legally obtain your address and send you warning letter (“Abmahnung”) with a fine.

If you use BitTorrent to download illegal copies of copyrighted media, the chances are very high that you will receive a letter fining you several hundred Euros. Alternatively, you could consider using a VPN (with a killswitch - ie a setting that cuts off your internet connection should your VPN stop working, to prevent you inadvertently using BitTorrent without a VPN) or a seedbox (a remote computer that handles all the BitTorrent traffic on your behalf) - this makes it more difficult (but by no means impossible) to track you down, and it’s likely that the rights-holders will go after easier targets instead.

Note that several media aggregators (e.g. Popcorn Time) use BitTorrent under the hood. Therefore, using them is just as risky as using BitTorrent directly.

An important note: using BitTorrent itself is completely legal. Indeed, various Linux distributions, some music artists, and computer games use the BitTorrent network to distribute software or media. Using BitTorrent to downloading/uploading illegally obtained material is what’s illegal, and what gets you into trouble.

Direct downloads and streaming

Various illegal copies of media are also available via direct download or streaming sites. These files are stored on remote servers (e.g. one-click hosters like uploaded.de), and are downloaded (or, more commonly, streamed) via a direct connection. As your PC is not uploading any data, it’s much more difficult for the rights-holders to identify and prosecute you - they would have to obtain your IP address from the logs of the server operator to do this.

At present, it doesn’t appear that people are being identified and fined for downloading/streaming illegal media this way (no cases have been reported so far) - although this doesn’t mean this can’t change in the future, should the rightsholders find a way to get platforms to cooperate.

For a while, downloading/streaming illegal media via direct downloads was a legal grey area in Germany. This changed in 2017 through a ruling by the European Court of Justice, which confirmed that it was definitely illegal.

As above, streaming per se is completely legal - it’s just streaming illegal materials that’s illegal.

Fines for illegal downloading

There are law firms in Germany that represent copyright holders and actively try and find people infringing their clients’ copyright. If they find someone (via their IP address, which they can trace back to an individual via their ISP), they then send the person an Abmahnung.

An Abmahnung isn’t a fine (the way you might be fined for exceeding the speed limit in a car) - it’s a proposal for an out-of-court settlement. The law firm is essentially saying “we have enough evidence to drag you to a civil court to sue for damages. If you agree to pay us (and promise not to pirate again), then we agree to drop the case against you.”

If you get an Abmahnung, you should get a lawyer. You will almost always have to pay at least part of the fine, but perhaps not all of it - unlike with a fine, there is always some room to negotiate. You need to contact a lawyer that specializes in cases like that, who will in turn send an answer refuting their claims and usually he should be able to settle for a significantly lower figure. Do not sign the form they send you with the letter (modifizierte Unterlassungserklärung) - signing that one is pretty much an admission of guilt. Do not reply to them; let your lawyer handle this. Here is a basic guide on how to react to such letters.

Don’t ignore an Abmahnung. If you do, the law firm will start piling on late fees, and eventually (provided they think they have a good case against you) start legal proceedings against you. At that point you will receive a court summons which you must answer, and settle the matter of your guilt in a court of law.

Next to all the illegal ways (detailed above), there are a number of legal ways of consuming media (e.g. films, TV series) in Germany.

  • There are several major paid streaming services, the biggest of which are Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Maxdome, and Sky Go. These services cost a monthly fee and give access to that streaming service’s library of TV shows, movies, etc. Many of the videos on these services are available with several language and subtitle options (e.g. German and English). These differ from the illegal streaming services (described above), as they pay money to the media rights-holders for the right to show you these films and TV series. The website WerStreamtEs maintains an extensive database of which movies/TV series are available on which (legal) streaming network, or where they can be purchased and downloaded.
  • The publicly-funded German television stations (ARD, ZDF, etc) maintain extensive libraries of content (Mediatheken), which are free to use for anyone in Germany. Additionally, if you have a subscription to a cable or satellite TV service, this often includes a DVR device which can record shows for you to watch at a later time.
  • Legal video platforms, like YouTube and Vimeo. These sites host videos which are free to watch, and they carefully monitor their sites and delete illegal media (e.g. if someone uploaded a Hollywood film to YouTube, it would get deleted within minutes) - therefore, you can be confident that anything you watch on these sites is legal. Additionally, German law allows you to make copies (audio and video) of the videos on these sites, and store them on your computer; however, you may not distribute these copies to others. While these sites usually prohibit you from making copies (via their terms of use), and watching local copies deprives the content creators of ad revenue, this is not something that people are typically prosecuted for.
  • The All About Berlin blog has an overview of the law, risks and workarounds for watching media in Germany.