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Removal of piracy communities (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by lwadmin@lemmy.world to c/lemmyworld@lemmy.world

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Earlier, after review, we blocked and removed several communities that were providing assistance to access copyrighted/pirated material, which is currently not allowed per Rule #1 of our Code of Conduct. The communities that were removed due to this decision were:

We took this action to protect lemmy.world, lemmy.world's users, and lemmy.world staff as the material posted in those communities could be problematic for us, because of potential legal issues around copyrighted material and services that provide access to or assistance in obtaining it.

This decision is about liability and does not mean we are otherwise hostile to any of these communities or their users. As the Lemmyverse grows and instances get big, precautions may happen. We will keep monitoring the situation closely, and if in the future we deem it safe, we would gladly reallow these communities.

The discussions that have happened in various threads on Lemmy make it very clear that removing the communites before we announced our intent to remove them is not the level of transparency the community expects, and that as stewards of this community we need to be extremely transparent before we do this again in the future as well as make sure that we get feedback around what the planned changes are, because lemmy.world is yours as much as it is ours.

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[-] WaltJRimmer@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago

Look at what happened to Gary Bowser. Dude basically ran PR on a website, but because he was the guy who they were actually able to find and get a hold of easily, he's now on the hook for millions of dollars of damages that he didn't cause to Nintendo.

I am disappointed in this because I think that there is such a thing as ethical piracy and protest piracy and that they're important. But I also know that those things aren't going to be stopped or even significantly hindered by one instance deciding not to host their content. And I understand the fear that comes with stories about how rights holders have gone after whoever the fuck they can when they've got a burr up their ass about something.

Should the admins of Lemmy.World be held liable for a community simply discussing piracy and not actively practicing it on the site? No. Would they be? We don't know. It's possible. And that's what makes it scary. People who commit digital crimes often get hit with disproportionately harsh punishments. They're sometimes treated like terrorists. It's insane. And yes, it's frightening.

[-] SCB@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Ethical piracy lmao

The internet never ceases to amaze

[-] GreenMario@lemm.ee 28 points 1 year ago

Abandonware is ethical piracy since there's no feasible way to purchase it from the rights holders directly.

[-] SCB@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

You know what I hadn't considered abandonware, and I will def gladly concede both that point and supplying to "blacklist" countries that ban media.

[-] ttmrichter@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

I pirate like a son-of-a-bitch.^1^ The stuff I pirate is not available where I live. There is literally zero avenues for me to purchase it.

In what meaningful (←this word is important and doing a lot of heavy lifting, so pay close attention to it!) way are the people I'm pirating from getting harmed? As such, in what meaningful (←c.f. above for the importance of this word) way, then, is it unethical?

And if it isn't unethical it is ... ?

The Internet truly does never cease to amaze. Just not in the way that some of its louder, brasher, more uninformed, thoughtless portions think it does.

^1^ I still support lemmy.world's decision to block those communities. Yes, you can be pro-piracy, an active pirate, and still support an action that is contrary to piracy. Welcome to "nuance". It's not a native of the Internet so you don't see it very often.

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Piracy bad! Won't somebody think of the multibillion dollar corporations?? T_T

[-] SCB@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I'm pirate shit too, and support this decision. One can pirate shit and still realize most people pirating shit are just people stealing.

[-] JonVonBasslake@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Piracy creates a copy, it does not remove the original like theft does. Also, people have a variety of reasons to pirate. Content not available in their country, wanting to test something before buying it, already having the thing in some form,but piracy being easier...

[-] SCB@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

One can steal Intellectual Property, so physicality of something isn't exactly a real argument.

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

No, they're violating copyright law.

[-] WaltJRimmer@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

I mean, it is a thing. I'm not saying that you'll agree that it's a right thing or that it's justifiable. I understand arguments against it. But it's more along the lines of Peter Sunde's stuff. Piracy which fights for freedom of information, against things like corporate secrets and abuses, things like that. One of the examples of ethical piracy has been using piracy to share news and media with blackout countries, nations that are banned from getting any media that isn't state approved. I would call that kind of piracy ethical piracy.

Protest piracy is where you pirate something in protest of the people who would otherwise be making a profit off of it. There's a reason why that's not under the same umbrella. People can call pirating Adobe products what they want, but it's not at the same level of trying to effect social change as ethical piracy reaches for.