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Meta defends using pirated material, claims it's legal if you don't seed content (www.tomshardware.com)

submitted 10 months ago by alessandro@lemmy.ca to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca

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[-] saigot@lemmy.ca 124 points 10 months ago

Piracy I can forgive, but leeching... that's unforgivable.

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 106 points 10 months ago

If this defense is accepted by the courts it will make downloading pirated content legal for everyone.

[+] TheImpressiveX@lemm.ee -12 points 10 months ago

Technically, it's already legal(?).

You don't get in trouble for downloading. You get in trouble for uploading, since you would be distributing copyrighted material.

The way the BitTorrent protocol works, you're always uploading and downloading, which is why people often get nasty letters from their ISPs.

But downloading from Usenet or something? They don't care, as long as you're not uploading.

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 39 points 10 months ago

Technically, it's ~~already legal(?)~~ rarely prosecuted.

Please do not spread disinformation.

https://www.garfinkelcriminallaw.com/chicagocriminalblog/can-i-get-jail-time-if-i-download-a-movie-illegally

[-] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 10 months ago

Well it depends where you live...

[-] radix@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

The copyright industry has pushed the "making available" narrative for so long, that's sort of become the dominant talking point. IANAL, but as an internet user, I have opinions*:

a. That seems entirely backwards from what the law intends. "Making a copy" is done by the downloader, which is explicitly what the law is about.

b. The industry only went the other way because it was more convenient from a litigation perspective. It's far easier to sue one person for seeding to 100 peers than to go after the 100 individuals who downloaded from that seeder. They got a few courts to go along with the more loose interpretation to get precedent for the next and the next suit.

* always be aware of your local copyright laws before listening to some rando online.

[-] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 50 points 10 months ago

Oh not only are you caught torrenting everything on the internet, but you're also a leech? Talk about a piece of shit.

Also if this holds, piracy is legal. We'll just all switch to Usenet where you don't need to seed!

[-] Th4tGuyII@fedia.io 32 points 10 months ago

So not only was this multi-billion dollar, fortune 100 company too stingy to pay for training data, it was too stingy to reseed the data it pirated!

Either seed or don't torrent. Don't be a leech.

[-] mp3@lemmy.ca 29 points 10 months ago

God damn leech

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 26 points 10 months ago

Our legal system just cares how much money you have for lawyers.

[-] Sturgist@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago

It's probably a cost-benefit calculation. Go after a mega-corp and they'll drag it through the courts for decades and do their best to waste every penny you have. Nail the person who's crippled, on disability, cannot afford to pay for subscriptions to view or use something, it'll be way cheaper, and now you're the Law and Justice people.

Thinking about it, that's literally just a long winded way of saying exactly the same thing, but I feel that context matters a bit.

[-] jerkface@lemmy.ca 19 points 10 months ago

It IS legal to download stuff if you don't seed where I live. But it's still not legal to create derived works and then claim copyright on those works.

[-] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Nothing's illegal if you don't get caught, LOL!

Meta, probably

[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 9 points 10 months ago

Lmao wouldn’t it have been great if they made this argument 20 or so years ago?

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago

In Canada that is the law but making it publicly available through a chat bot would still be illegal

[-] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Meta has a chatbot that makes pirated books available?

[-] hmmm@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

Meta AI

[-] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

It can't even reproduce the opening paragraph of Moby Dick

this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2025

167 points (98.8% liked)

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