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Court blocks $1 billion copyright ruling that punished ISP for its users’ piracy (arstechnica.com)

submitted 9 months ago by Yglorba@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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One thing that leaps out at me about this ruling is that courts understand the internet a lot better nowadays. A decade or so ago Sony would have probably gotten away with the argument that Cox profited from the users' piracy; nowadays judges themselves use the internet and are going to go "lolno, they probably would have been Cox customers anyway. It's not like anyone pays for internet connection solely to pirate. And in most areas people don't even have a choice of provider, so how is Cox profiting from this?"

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[-] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 183 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Don't believe that you're always gonna be protected by some judge somewhere.

Get a proper VPN, dammit!

[-] sub_ubi@lemmy.ml 77 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

In the end, you can't out-tech the law. You need rights.

[-] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 19 points 9 months ago

Your so-called "rights" won't hold to the pressure of massive media capital alone. It will erode away.

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[-] Alpha71@lemmy.world 34 points 9 months ago

I just wish they would advertise the truth. VPN's are basically useless nowadays for everything except torrenting. Most websites once they detect a VPN address will just shut down. Go ahead and give Imgur a try with it turned on to see what I mean.

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[+] gnuplusmatt@reddthat.com 10 points 9 months ago

[deleted]

[-] Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works 88 points 9 months ago

I’ve never been able to find a private tracker to join in like 20 years of this shit. Everything is closed off to registration and you basically have to find some guy in a dingy alley to suck off for the chance they might give you an invite.

[-] LazerDickMcCheese@sh.itjust.works 19 points 9 months ago

Fuck em, don't need em. Never have, probably never will

[-] Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

If you're into audiobooks, Myanonymouse is essential but easy to get into. Other than that, I'm the same. 20 years of torrenting and I've never needed a private tracker

It's mostly just an elitist thing

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[-] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 18 points 9 months ago

TorrentLeech has open registration several times per year. Keep an eye on Opentrackers.org for any of these. Note that some are open, while others are open application. The latter means you must meet certain criteria to be accepted. Typically this is proof of your stats on other trackers, but sometimes it's exclusively for refugees from one that failed.

Keep in mind that you will not ever find open registrations on an established, reputable tracker. They don't need more users. They only recruit from lesser, more accessible trackers. You will need to start on these to establish yourself. There are plenty of guides on this, with most starting on RED or MAM.

If you aren't on any of these, it's not because they're too hard to get into- it's because you don't want to put in the effort. Which is exactly what private trackers want to avoid.

Also, smaller doesn't always mean bad. TorrentDB was a rising star, with regular open invites, right up until its collapse. Even the giants like PTP started from nothing. Getting in early is a perfectly viable strategy, especially if you help grow it.

[-] taaz@biglemmowski.win 7 points 9 months ago

Getting into MAM is easy tho and you can branch from there, there are people sharing invites to others.

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[-] improbablypoopingrn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 9 months ago

Hmu with that invite then please

[-] aStonedSanta@lemm.ee 13 points 9 months ago

Right? People make it seem really easy lol

[-] Diurnambule@jlai.lu 16 points 9 months ago

They are on private trackers too. Just use a VPN.

[-] linearchaos@lemmy.world 16 points 9 months ago

Private trackers just lessen the surface area. When the companies decide to lobby enough to change the laws you'll need to hide with private as well.

[-] Lemonparty@lemm.ee 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Yo! What exactly is different about private trackers? Like how does that help? Im lucky enough to have one but due to the seed ratio rules, I find myself downloading from my usual sites more frequently because I worry about seeding indefinitely.

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[-] doc@kbin.social 118 points 9 months ago

Ain't nobody going to talk about that guy in the thumbnail eating a CD while wearing that hat? Stock photos are weird.

[-] hperrin@lemmy.world 41 points 9 months ago

That’s how true hackers read the data without a cd-rom drive.

[-] tryptaminev@feddit.de 13 points 9 months ago

i thought he was munching it into shape so it would fit the floppy drive.

[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 9 months ago

I miss r/WTFstockPhotos

[-] Agrivar@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago

Create a Lemmy version! Be the change you want to see.

[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 9 months ago

Stop copying my comments ;D

But actually: I don't want to mod it :/

[-] nintendiator@feddit.cl 7 points 9 months ago

That's okay, you can create subs and not mod them. Lemmy has a sort-of-mechanism to transfer modship already.

[-] XTornado@lemmy.ml 8 points 9 months ago

And now with AI they can get even weirder, specially if they trained it on already weird stock photos.

[-] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 9 months ago

What do you mean, how do you pirate stuff online? Surely you got the hat on? I mean, I can see biting a hard drive might be more appropriate but the hat, come on, the hat!

[-] Sensitivezombie@lemmy.zip 112 points 9 months ago

When will Sony be sued for stealing their customer's legally purchased digital media

[-] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 17 points 9 months ago

February 31st.

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[-] meiti@lemmy.world 109 points 9 months ago

Internet is a utility and should be treated as such.

[-] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 49 points 9 months ago

Up next Sony sues Pacific Gas & Electric for profiting off of piracy. All those torrents were powered by Pacific Gas & Electric.

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[-] Deello@lemm.ee 11 points 9 months ago

I agree but the average person doesn't even know what that means.

[-] Uiop@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 9 months ago

If you were a true american you'd be for privatization of all utilties

[-] DudeImMacGyver@sh.itjust.works 53 points 9 months ago

Billion? What are they smoking???

[-] fubbernuckin@lemmy.world 28 points 9 months ago

Ikr? It's like they're counting every act of digital piracy ever to be their lost profits when that's obviously not the case.

[-] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 39 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It's not "like", that has been the argument with these piracy cases for ages. If I pirate 100 movies, it obviously means that if I couldn't have I would have gone to the shop to buy each and every one of them. It's even worse for anyone caught distributing the downloads, where a site host can be hit with this logic for every user download ever.

Apparently these days they are claiming that movie and TV piracy costs the US film industry $29-71 billion a year and the US GDP a cool $115 billion in total
Because, you know, we have all that money just floating in our pockets now thanks to piracy.

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 13 points 9 months ago

Video game piracy has led to more purchases from me, because I'll download a game to try on a whim that I wouldn't have purchased, find out that's it really good and buy it

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[-] RedstoneValley@sh.itjust.works 48 points 9 months ago

Media Corporations should not have a say in disconnecting users from the internet based on copyright infringement. The right to social participation is part of a basic human right - self-determination. Today, the majority of interactions with society involve communication via internet in one way or another, so that access to the internet is vital for enabling social participation.

[-] pirat@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago

Yeah, it's somehow comparable to a scenario where they had the power to decide you can't use uber/taxi, or postal services, because you used it to transport the HDD you're using for your private collection of copyright-protected media.

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[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 34 points 9 months ago

Spoons made me fat!

[-] moshtradamus666@lemmy.world 23 points 9 months ago

I live in Brazil, there are many problems here and stuff. But at least no one gives a fuck about piracy, lol. Never needed a VPN for torrents, not gonna need anytime soon.

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 8 points 9 months ago

If I'm not mistaken, Brazilian law allows people to download and make digital copies of copyrighted material, so long as it's for personal use. I should probably look into that sometime

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[-] autotldr 21 points 9 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

A federal appeals court today overturned a $1 billion piracy verdict that a jury handed down against cable Internet service provider Cox Communications in 2019.

If the correct legal standard had been used in the district court, "no reasonable jury could find that Cox received a direct financial benefit from its subscribers' infringement of Plaintiffs' copyrights," judges wrote.

The case began when Sony and other music copyright holders sued Cox, claiming that it didn't adequately fight piracy on its network and failed to terminate repeat infringers.

Cox's appeal was supported by advocacy groups concerned that the big-money judgment could force ISPs to disconnect more Internet users based merely on accusations of copyright infringement.

If not overturned, this decision will lead to an untold number of people losing vital Internet access as ISPs start to cut off more and more customers to avoid massive damages."

In today's 4th Circuit ruling, appeals court judges wrote that "Sony failed, as a matter of law, to prove that Cox profits directly from its subscribers' copyright infringement."

The original article contains 543 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 68%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!