This is not specific to The Netherlands, it holds for all EU member states that did not already have laws declaring downloading of copyrighted material illegal.
The case for Germany is kind of weird, though: downloading is illegal, but streaming is not (or, to be more precise, it's the streaming service's job to make sure they don't host illegal content[1]).
So essentially I'm not allowed to download a movie, but I'm allowed to load it in my browser and watch it later.
However! If I copy the file from the browser's cache to another directory, then that's again illegal. I find this puzzling, but then again, I won't be the one who complains for having a loophole (or is it?) that allows me to download any movie without fear of retribution.
Comments
This is not specific to The Netherlands, it holds for all EU member states that did not already have laws declaring downloading of copyrighted material illegal.
The case for Germany is kind of weird, though: downloading is illegal, but streaming is not (or, to be more precise, it's the streaming service's job to make sure they don't host illegal content[1]).
So essentially I'm not allowed to download a movie, but I'm allowed to load it in my browser and watch it later.
However! If I copy the file from the browser's cache to another directory, then that's again illegal. I find this puzzling, but then again, I won't be the one who complains for having a loophole (or is it?) that allows me to download any movie without fear of retribution.
[1] https://torrentfreak.com/viewing-pirated-streams-is-not-ille...
Just keeps all your movies in the cache folder :D
even better; name your mountpoint /cache! Problem solved.
The Netherlands up to now saw the issue the same as copying levy thus allowing his citizens to download movies, music and books from illegal sources.