this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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In one of the AI lawsuits faced by Meta, the company stands accused of distributing pirated books. The authors who filed the class-action lawsuit allege that Meta shared books from the shadow library LibGen with third parties via BitTorrent. Meta, however, says that it took precautions to prevent 'seeding' content. In addition, the company clarifies that there is nothing 'independently illegal' about torrenting.

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[–] [email protected] 223 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Somehow that makes it even worse in my opinion

[–] [email protected] 109 points 1 month ago (1 children)

dirty hit and run behavior, motherf****ers

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 157 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I was actually hoping to see that as a defense. The principal thing that copy enforcement corps always cite is 'we downloaded a copy from their IP, thus they made a copy and distributed the work'.

If this works as a defense here then in effect they make direct download portals legal for the users at least.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago

You’re forgetting that they’re a rich corporation, and you’re not. They’ll get away with the defense, but even if it set a precedent, copyright groups can still sue you until you’re broke to make an example of you, even if you didn’t legally do anything “wrong”.

As long as you can sue someone for any reason without repercussions, then it’s always going to be the people with more money who come out on top. Always. Wining a lawsuit doesn’t mean you’re not still financially destroyed and driven into poverty for the rest of your life.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

this is actually the way it works in australia: downloading content is not illegal; sharing content is illegal

thus as a consumer, usenet is fine

obligatory ianal

[–] [email protected] 150 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So they're inconsiderate assholes and leeches.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Now now, they're not just inconsiderate assholes and leeches.

They're inconsiderate nazi oligarch assholes and leeches.

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[–] [email protected] 76 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Where now are the copyright trolls that sued regular students for millions of dollars for downloading 30 songs?

Under federal law, the recording companies were entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement. But the law allows as much as $150,000 per track if the jury finds the infringements were willful.

Let me see:

  • At least 100 million of books pirated
  • infringements were willful

So, a 15k billion dollars fine seem appropriate to give to Meta AND criminal sentences to all the c suite.

Or: apply the same rules to regular people and allow unlimited copyright violations without consequences

[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yes your honor I lit up but didn't inhale.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

More like "Yes your honor I lit up and inhaled, just got a huge ass lungful, but I didn't pass"

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 month ago

thats like the only thing that would've made this better bro

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 month ago

Death penalty for leechers.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 month ago

Bastard leachers.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 month ago (2 children)

ah so they only downloaded them illigally, and then used them illegally, but didn't share them illegally. got it

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

There is no legal prohibition against asking someone for a copy of a work, nor is there a prohibition against receiving a copy, even if that copy was illegally produced and/or illegally distributed.

They didn't download them illegally, nor did they "use" them illegally. If you want to say they did something illegal, you have to argue that they were somehow in collusion with the uploader, which would make them uploaders themselves.

Edit: Downvotes? In a piracy community?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (3 children)

It’s very illegal in Fance to download without paying, and I guess it’s the same in a lot of other countries.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Best I can tell, this lawsuit was filed in a US federal court in California. French law doesn't seem to be applicable.

French pirates should probably use a VPN endpoint in a more enlightened society.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Receiving a copy of a copyrighted work (from anywhere) and using it for commercial purposes when the license doesn't cover that usage (or simply doesn't exist) is, in fact, illegal. This is why Anthropic was sued last year.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (25 children)

downvotes are because you are saying provably factually incorrect things.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (17 children)

There is no legal prohibition against asking someone for a copy of a work

No one asked for a copy, they just took it.

nor is there a prohibition against receiving a copy, even if that copy was illegally produced and/or illegally distributed.

They didn't "receive" a copy. No one dropped a hard drive off on their doorstep. They actively pursued the content and made a copy without permission for profit.

If you want to say they did something illegal, you have to argue that they were somehow in collusion with the uploader

Making a copy of copyrighted content without permission is illegal.

Edit: Downvotes? In a piracy community?

Piracy community can't be interested in facts?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

~~Sharing is caring~~

Sharing is crime(͡•_ ͡• )

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 month ago (1 children)

the company clarifies that there is nothing 'independently illegal' about torrenting.

Ah yes, I'm sure this strawman defense will hold up well for them in court.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It will probably work. Because, you know, money.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If it does work, does that then mean they've effectively declared torrenting to be legal? Or at least as long as you claim not to have seeded?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

You hope! Laws will still apply to us peasants

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is there a way to change the torrent client's name\version so you appear in a list of seeds as Mark Zuckerberg?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Certainly, but it's not like that'll get him in trouble or anything

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

It'd certainly encourage me to up my torrenting game so this shit appears 24\7 at rather weird uploads around the globe.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago

We didn't inhale, so it's not illegal for us. ~ZuckFuck

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago

not really what we upset about but okay

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

I doubt anything legal would come from this, but it does progress the conversation about piracy:

“You wouldn’t download a car would you? Cause zuck would without sharing”

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Haha, what a bunch of scumbags. They can"t even seed back when pirating.

We really need to round up all of Meta's executive directors, seize all their assets (every last cent) and require them to do mandatory two decade live-in community service as junior custodians (the lowest level custodians in the whole institution) at hospice centres or infectious disease hospitals. De-mining work and resource extraction junior support would also be good options for community service work.

Not for this of course, more like knowingly enabling genocide in Myanmar and so on.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Overthrow democratic nations 👍 Theoretically the owning class loosing out on a few bucks 😱

Thanks Meta.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I know it’s their legal defense and all, but it’s not like any of us thought they would seed in the first place. Their business is only about taking for profit, not sharing or giving anything back.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

I don't think anyone expected them to seed on purpose but its not inconceivable that they'd accidentally let some seeding through, or not consider it in the first place.

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