Removal of piracy communities
Removal of piracy communities
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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What part is illegal? Are they sharing files on that instance and your instance re-hosts it?
From my understanding, discussions are legal, guides are legal, tips are legal, but actual files (aka "copyrighted content") is illegal. There are no files shared there, links at maximum, but institutions should be after those content-sharing websites, not forums.
I am against this decision and I am happy that I am not part of admins team.
Keep in mind, The Pirate Bay is "technically" not breaking any laws... how has that been going for them? You don't have to break laws to get in trouble if you are pissing off rich people. They'll find something, anything, to nail you on. It's totally ok for random normal people to not want to be "heroes" to a bunch of other random people they don't know. Heroes attract villains, and instability. And while it's just starting to get off the ground, lemmy doesn't need villains or instability.
Let the smaller, less visible servers do the shady but "totally technically legal" stuff. Big servers with big targets on their forehead need to be stable and drama-free.
The Pirate Bay is "technically" not breaking any laws
It does, it holds torrent files which usually "holds and shares" a copy right infringing content. While mentioning that website isn't gonna bring any problems, linking the actual torrent file or link to that might bring problems.
It doesn't hold any torrent files for over a decade now. It's all magnet links which know nothing about the content.
The Pirate Bay is "technically" not breaking any laws
As another user mentioned, TPB hosting magnet links and torrent files. Bring down TPB site down = no access to torrent files/magnet links = you can't download the torrent (teoretically). Sharing link to TPB site does not break any laws and is totally legal.
You don't have to break laws to get in trouble if you are pissing off rich people. They'll find something, anything, to nail you on. It's totally ok for random normal people to not want to be "heroes" to a bunch of other random people they don't know. Heroes attract villains, and instability. And while it's just starting to get off the ground, lemmy doesn't need villains or instability.
Basically "Lorem ipsum"
Let the smaller, less visible servers do the shady but "totally technically legal" stuff.
So you do support piracy? Or not?
Big servers with big targets on their forehead need to be stable and drama-free.
"drama-free" lol. This is drama. This is drama that should not have happened in the first place.
The right and wrong doesn't matter, what matters is the cost of defending oneself against a multi million/billion dollar organization armed with a boatload of lawyers.
Well, blocklisting certain communities does not make you un-sue-able. 🤷🤦
I don't think this is a boolean Y/N, so much as an odds thing.
People are terrified of the possibility of litigation to the point that they won't even host conversations about piracy on fringe community subs for fear of reprisal.
Its just the state of play for everyone on the Internet. Terrorized by the spectre of a frivolous lawsuit.
Linking is enough to be illegal in places. A torrent file or magnet link is just a link and contain no pirated content itself yet here we are.
But again, they’re not even linking to any pirated content, torrents or otherwise.
People all over this thread trying to say they linked to content clearly haven't been there, they absolutely do not link to content directly and it's even against their rules, so if you make an argument about "lemmy.world can't host illegal content" or "links are illegal content" these are Moot points because they neither host content on that server, nor directly link to it.
I think there are other things here worth considering about your comment. One of the biggest things I see Lemmy talk about is security and privacy. You can be against the action but in reality imagine the feds are tracking down those institutions. They can supeona Lemmy or request data from Lemmy servers and now regular people are exposed.
Even if it is just hosting a link the other concern an admin might need to have is how long before those links the problem legally is that Lemmy can be potentially charged.
https://kellywarnerlaw.com/linking-to-pirated-content-law
There are plenty of ways you are legally at fault if not handled correctly. In theory, Lemmy could be charged for allowing the adverisement of pirated content. I understand how Lemmy users feel about fucking over big companies because they don't want to pay to some big corporation that has fucked them over and doesn't care about the end user. However, I find those same Lemmy users to be a bit hypocritical. We already have writers and film makers on strike for being paid inadequately. While the idea is to change the viewpoint of big companies and stealing money from them is a win to some people. This also impacts those same writers and producers and this is true throughout any industry. If you steal from it even if you think you are doing damage to the big company you aren't helping the good folk. Even if you don't give a shit about those people and think they are a part of the problem.
I don't think they're worried about the logic of it. Logic doesn't really matter when you're getting sued, and the media industry are a litigious bunch. Being in the right doesn't matter if you go bankrupt defending yourself.
Replace the context of this about art thievery, and guides about how to steal art from museums, then think about how it sounds. You're right, discussing those things would technically be legal, but c'mon now. I don't care or judge if you do these things, but discussing how to commit crimes in a public forum, no matter what it is, shouldn't be much of a debate among administrators to decide to ban or not. It's safer to just do that even if it's technically legal. If the cops come knocking, why would they bother lawyering up for these communities when they can just hand them off to another instance that would rather advocate for them?
If you're against the decision, the entire point of the fediverse is to have the freedom to hop to a different instance if you disagree with its administration, so why not find one you are better aligned with? Keeping the fediverse happy as a whole with less user conflict is more important than user retention per instance; no one should feel locked in.
Whose laws?
"From your understanding" is meaningless if your understanding isn't based on the same laws as where the server operates.