On April 28th, the U.S. Trade Representative released the 2018 Section 301 report "identifying trading partners that do not adequately or effectively protect and enforce intellectual property (IP) rights or otherwise deny market access to U.S. innovators and creators that rely on protection of their IP rights" (see link to press release) (see link to report).
Once again, Switzerland is on the Watch List because of its online copyright protection and enforcement rules (see prior blog post).
The current Swiss copyright law, the Federal Act on Copyright and Related Rights (CopA), exempts certain uses from infringement (see link to unofficial English translation). Article 19 states that "published works may be used for private use" and "any personal use of a work or use within a circle of persons closely connected to each other, such as relatives or friends" is considered a private use. Article 20 states that "use of the work within a circle of persons under Article 19 ... does not give rise to a right of remuneration ...."
As interpreted, this law means that anyone can download a movie and share it with his family or friends as a private use.
It appears that the proposed revisions to the Copyright Act to deter piracy will focus not on downloaders but on hosting providers (see link).