Meta’s copyright defense may hinge on court ignorance of torrenting terminology.
  • bean@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    1 month 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.caEnglish
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    1 month ago

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

  • daikiki@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    1 month 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.

  • distortwave@lemmy.mlEnglish
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    1 month 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

    • ulterno@programming.devEnglish
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      1 month 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.

      • latenightnoir@lemmy.worldEnglish
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        1 month ago

        Eh. Makes sense from the perspective of protecting profits, I guess, because the actual thing which bothers them is the volume of lost potential customers…

      • umami_wasabi@lemmy.mlEnglish
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        1 month 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.

        • ulterno@programming.devEnglish
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          1 month 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?

        • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.worldEnglish
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          1 month 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.

        • gon [he]@lemm.eeEnglish
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          1 month 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.

  • Jack@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
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    1 month ago

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

    • FireTower@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      1 month 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.

  • Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.comEnglish
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    1 month 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.

    • Wren@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      1 month ago

      Ahh, but you’re forgetting the Rules for Thee clause that protects any and all wealthy, white, corporate gremlins from facing the same or similar consequences that any of the poors might face for the same infraction.

  • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
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    1 month ago

    This is why I try to find legitimate sites offering direct downloads instead of illegally uploading during torrenting. There are many sites offering direct downloads, but I often have trouble finding them.

  • Mohamed@lemmy.caEnglish
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    1 month 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.

    • Geodad@lemm.eeEnglish
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      1 month ago

      AI has already stolen everyone’s work. The internet is officially a free for all.

        • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
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          1 month ago

          Except in the good ol’ days just about everything on the 'net benefited most of us in some way … and it was free. Now it sure as hell ain’t free and it’s been co-opted to benefit billionaires only.

          I started torrenting 23 years ago and it was easy. Just a client, no VPN required. Now I need not only a VPN, but a good router that I can flash with firmware, hours of working out how best to set up the router with wireguard etc, then scroll through dozens of links to try and find a stable stream to watch hockey.

          It’s fucking exhausting.