516
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] latenightnoir@lemmy.world 174 points 5 months ago

So, piracy is legal if you don't distribute? What the fuck is Zuck smoking?

[-] ulterno@programming.dev 95 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Well, that's how it tends to be in most places.
You don't get caught for downloading; you get caught for uploading.

Using a similar logic to distribution via DVDs. Only the seller gets into trouble. The buyer does not.


Another point, opening a web page means downloading it, so if someone wanted to frame someone for downloading something, it would be very easy to make such a trap. This, accompanied with CSAM and network monitoring could be used to easily get any person using the internet, in jail, just for opening the wrong link. So, the laws require much more information regarding intent and such.

[-] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 40 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

The buyers/downloaders don't get caught is just because there are too many of them and going after the distributor is an easy target.

[-] gon@lemm.ee 31 points 5 months ago

Not the case, necessarily.

In Portugal, for example, it's legal to download pirated content. It's not a matter of not pursuing it because it's hard or being difficult to catch or distributors are an easier target, it's just that, legally, you're not doing anything wrong.

[-] OwlPaste@lemmy.world 17 points 5 months ago

sooooo.... vpn should point to Portugal...

[-] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 months ago

Oh for real? Learn something new today.

[-] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago

In Canada it’s legal to download and watch content for personal use, so it’s when it’s shared that it becomes an issue.

Just like you could record anything with a vcr, you just couldn’t share it with your friends.

[-] ulterno@programming.dev 3 points 5 months ago

Is it not also because it was easier to feign ignorance for the time the laws were passed?
And that nobody thought of Tor, while at the same time, leechers who don't seed are actually being worse for the Torrent?

[-] FundMECFSResearch 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

This comment has been edited for privacy. The message was visible for the duration of activity on the post.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 20 points 5 months ago

Elitism. He is of the belief that he is better than you, and doesn't live in the same world as you.

[-] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 89 points 5 months ago

Another example of Republican principles. Corporations are protected by laws but not bound by them, while the average citizen is bound by laws but not protected by them.

[-] EmptySlime 18 points 5 months ago

In group and out group baybee!

[-] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 months ago

I want to know how to switch groups.

[-] dabaldeagul@feddit.nl 8 points 5 months ago

Too late, you should've been born with lots of money. Actually, you could marry someone who's rich I guess..

[-] aeternum 3 points 5 months ago

pull yourself up by your bootstraps and become rich. pretty simple, no?

[-] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 2 points 5 months ago

What does this have to do with the Republican party? The other party upholds the same copyright law.

[-] singletona@lemmy.world 56 points 5 months ago

So where's the MAFIAA? Here you go guys, literal industrial scale piracy.

Or are you afraid to go after someone that isn't a teenager in their parent's back room?

[-] Eezyville@sh.itjust.works 15 points 5 months ago

Fighting Meta will cost easy more money than fighting a teenager.

[-] singletona@lemmy.world 29 points 5 months ago

I am aware. I was simply demonstrating they were never about money, simply bullying people who couldn't fight back.

[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 22 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Especially since in the height of my pirating years during teenagerdom, no amount of cajoling or coercion could get me to pay for whatever it was because I didn't have any money. Which not at all coincidentally was why I was pirating it in the first place.

These dweebs always operate from the frankly invalid preconception that if the pirate had not pirated the media they would have paid for it and therefore they're "owed" a sale, but that's not how it works. I imagine that if the vast majority of people were unable to pirate their thing, they simply would not watch/listen/read/play/consume the thing at all.

[-] Omgpwnies@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

The real shit deal is if there was a ruling against Meta in this, it would still be worse for everyone because there would be precedent to litigate against people who only consume pirated content (which has been tried in several countries and found to be legal)

[-] singletona@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

....Oh god...

you described a situation where i want Meta to win.....

[-] Mohamed@lemmy.ca 48 points 5 months ago

This is irrelevant because Meta should not be tried for this the same as a private individual would be.

The case for torrenting being illegal for private individuals is one or both of:

  1. Downloading in of itself is stealing.
  2. Uploading is giving unauthorized access to someone else who otherwise might have had a harder time finding it. Anything else, such as watching, reading, listening, learning, etc. is not illegal (or does not make sense to make illegal). The exception might be publishing. This is rare for private individuals (e.g. using pirated FL studio to make a commercial song).

For corporations, a lot change. Firstly, a corporation downloading a torrent is necessarily making unauthorized material available for some people of the company. It's like a group of 20 friends all downloaded and uploaded to each other. Secondly, they used this copyrighted material commercially (like playing pirated music in a public night club). Both should be illegal.

However, all of this is still a distraction. The real issue is using copyrighted materials to train commercial AI. Does Meta require permission from copyright holders to make AI based on their work? The law is grey on this, and desperately needs regulations.

Just my thoughts.

[-] molten@lemmy.world 41 points 5 months ago

Of course that fuck isn't a good seeder. Leech.

[-] JustJack23@slrpnk.net 40 points 5 months ago

Also I love how they they don't say they didn't seed, just say there is no proof

[-] FireTower@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago

This is a motion to dismiss not an answer. That's how those work. It is linked to by the journalist in the article.

[-] daikiki@lemmy.world 32 points 5 months ago

It's not illegal to download books without yourself offering them for upload. What's illegal is when you feed those books into your reality devouring content monster and it outputs all that copyrighted content in a slightly different order and you profit off that content vomit.

[-] Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 30 points 5 months ago

This is honestly a win-win. Either the courts recognize that the LLM uses stolen copyrighted content, or they recognize that torrenting is legal by default.

Though with the way courts have been bending case law into knots recently, I wouldn’t be surprised if they somehow word the ruling in a way that favors Meta and makes torrenting outright illegal.

[-] sik0fewl@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 months ago

You think it's actually going to go to court and have a verdict?

[-] distortwave@lemmy.ml 25 points 5 months ago

Well, at least they released llama for free, But honestly, their hypocrisy is so pathetic.

Hey, who knows? Maybe now they're gonna like start funding legal defense funds for people torrenting. Part of their whole corporate social responsibility, If they feel so strongly about it... right? /s

[-] daytonah@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 months ago

Let's just make legal the evil we do...

[-] balder1991@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

At the very least they’ll create a legal precedent.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 months ago

They'll just settle if the case isn't going their way.

[-] TheFogan@programming.dev 17 points 5 months ago

I mean isn't that at least some extent technically true to a level.

I mean if we weren't talking a shitty corporation to begin with. If this were say, a 20 year old mcdonnalds worker pirating game of thrones.

IMO the bigger concept is still rather than if they got it... defining whether using that data after the fact is legal. I mean hypothetically speaking lets just say they bought 1 copy of each of the millions of books, or bought used copies, or say had a machine that could scan every book in a library. IMO the issue shouldn't be whether or not anyone managed to download the books in their pure form afterwards. The focus should be the AI trained on their books, is going to be distributing portions of their book to millions of people, and any potential profits of such will be going to meta and uncredited to the original authors. The idea that meta's involvement in torrenting may have let little timmy get a copy of his text book 15 seconds faster... shouldn't be the driving force here.

[-] Ulrich@feddit.org 13 points 5 months ago

I mean isn't that at least some extent technically true to a level.

It's completely true. That's why a lot of people don't seed. And why your ISP won't bother you if you don't.

[-] brightandshinyobject@lemmy.world 16 points 5 months ago

So it's okay if we download content from well known online repositories?

[-] kingblaaak@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago

You wouldn't download car....and then upload its stats to a centralised system

[-] phillycodehound@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

Double Standard!

[-] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 months ago

Facebook got FBI_README.txt at the root of their DC++ share.

[-] b3an@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

Rules for thee and not for me, plus we PROFIT off of it to boot. But none of you guys can do that. Only for Richys.

[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 months ago

According to the law (the thing that determines if something is or isn’t illegal) it’s illegal. Zuck is a criminal.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2025
516 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

73495 readers
3155 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS