Legality of using this site in Germany

[Sarah C.]

So I'm studying abroad in Germany right now and the program I'm with warned us of downloading anything illegally because the German government is much more strict on its copyright laws. Some people (alumni of the program I'm with) were fined more than 1000 euros for downloading things illegally (although I think it's mostly music). So I was wondering if anyone's familiar with the copyright law in Germany to know whether downloading fanfiction/fiction is illegal or not...? I really don't think it is, since the sites(fanfiction.net/fictionpress, etc) are free to use and it's not like we have to pay to read the stories, but I rather be safe than sorry (don't want to get fined).

Thanks in advance (I tried to search the copyright law up but I'm still not very sure whether or not it's legal, but I want to use the site since there's no wifi if you leave the house...)

[hgile...@gmail.com]

Downloading fanfiction is just as legal as reading fanfiction.  Fanfic is something with centuries of history but current copyright law isn't quite updated for current technology.  It's a gray area of copyright law that depends heavily on how your local laws interpret transformative works, fair use and public domain.  If you're really interested, try following the EFF and other non-profits that are trying to modernize copyright law.   I wouldn't worry about downloading it, because it's the same as just reading it - people who pirate things use bittorrent and can be tracked that way, but there's neither a good way to track nor reason for anyone to care about downloading fanfics.