Film Companies Demand Names of Reddit Users Who Discussed Piracy in 2011 (arstechnica.com) 67
Reddit is fighting another attempt by film companies to unmask anonymous Reddit users who discussed piracy. From a report: The same companies lost a previous, similar motion to identify Reddit users who wrote comments in piracy-related threads. Reddit avoided revealing the identities of eight users by arguing that the First Amendment protected their right to anonymous speech. Reddit is seeking a similar outcome in the new case, in which the film companies' subpoena to Reddit sought "Basic account information including IP address registration and logs from 1/1/2016 to present, name, email address and other account registration information" for six users who wrote comments on Reddit threads in 2011 and 2018.
Will Slashdot defend the same? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Will Slashdot defend the same? (Score:5, Interesting)
Slashdot has deleted comments in the past. Don't want to piss off the Scientology loonies. https://www.theregister.com/20... [theregister.com]
We are blessed! (Score:1)
An actual Creimer post! And trolls everywhere rejoice!
Does this have to do with Reddit and Twitter dying?
You should check out lemmy and threads. I hear they’re really quite nice.
Also Metafilter I hear has a really cozy group of users.
Do you like Ninja Turtles? The Technodrome is a real nice board.
There are all places you should go instead of Slashdot.
Re: (Score:2)
I followed a link on that site and it led to a maze of twisty little links, all alike. There's an hour I'll never get back. And, just for grins, I took a look at DuckDuckGo:Scientology:news, and there are lots of recent hits, often featuring our favorite celebrity OT3, Tom. Always good for some clicks. Also sites from Scientology showing The Good Works(TM) that they do.
Re:Will Slashdot defend the same? (Score:5, Insightful)
I wouldn't be surprised if Slashdot was influenced by the film industry to disable it using Swastika and Goatse trolls as an excuse.
Because Slashdot is a place where were ACs were constantly linking to pirated content?
Because the MAFIAA cares what a small bunch of nerds think to the point of getting a company to change a policy?
Because we loved the Goatse and Swastika crowd and didn't all want them gone?
The mark of a good conspiracy theory is that it is plausible. Your comment is not a very good conspiracy theory.
Re: (Score:1)
Sounds too vague (Score:3)
Reddit should fire back asking them to narrow this down.
For example do they mean discussions of historical British, French or, more recent Somali, piracy, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc...
Re:Sounds too vague (Score:4, Funny)
/r/pi-racy - it's a subreddit for people with a Raspberry Pi fetish.
Re: Sounds too vague (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Legitimate (Score:1)
Re:Legitimate (Score:5, Funny)
I don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
What is the problem with discussing piracy? Since when ist that a crime? Now, doing piracy may or may not be a problem (depending on motivation, volume, methods and where you are), but discussing it?
Re: (Score:3)
What is the problem with discussing piracy? Since when ist that a crime? Now, doing piracy may or may not be a problem (depending on motivation, volume, methods and where you are), but discussing it?
Depends on what they said in the discussion. If they said "I successfully pirated all the movies that Universal Pictures released in 2018," for example, it might be different from saying "I think pirates are cool."
Re: (Score:3)
The piracy sub over there is kind of dumb. You can talk about piracy all you want but can't mention sources like Pirate Bay.
Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Interesting)
Depends on what they said in the discussion. If they said "I successfully pirated all the movies that Universal Pictures released in 2018," for example, it might be different from saying "I think pirates are cool."
Not from 2011. The civil statue of limitations is five years. The criminal one is three years. There's no legal case they could actually build based on it. Not unless the movie piracy also somehow tied into a serious crime like murder. On the other hand, I suppose if they specifically confessed to putting a particular file on a filesharing network and it's still there and people are downloading it, that might be considered ongoing depending on the circumstances.
Re: (Score:2)
BTW, I am not a lawyer, and the only commercial I made was a promo for a play
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Interesting)
Seems like their main target is an ISP as they have "identified" these users as customers, with the belief that the ISP doesn't do enough to discourage piracy on its networks. They want the logs from the last seven years to attempt to construct a narrative that as there was discussion of piracy from users of that ISP that this proves there must have been some, therefore they can go after the big bucks.
The response given in Arkell v. Pressdram applies here as they've already tried this dragnet bullshit and been denied in the courts.
Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Interesting)
In their motion to compel filed on June 20, film companies said the evidence requested from Reddit "is clearly relevant and proportional to the needs of the case." The Reddit user comments "establish that Defendant [Grande] has not reasonably implemented a policy for terminating repeat infringers sufficient for a safe harbor affirmative defense as required" under copyright law, and "establish that the ability to freely pirate without consequence was a draw to becoming a subscriber of Defendant and/or subscribers are motivated to use its service for pirating content efficiently," the film companies claimed.
That's exactly it. The suit isn't "MafiAA vs six people who randomly mentioned piracy." It's After II Movie LLC., et al., v. Grande Communications Networks LLC. The MafiAA are pushing this along against Grande Communications (now rebranded as Astound Broadband). [crosstimbersgazette.com]
Intriguingly, the MafiAA claims are also seemingly voided by statute of limitations. Per the coverage on TF: “Plaintiffs cannot demonstrate a prima facie case of copyright infringement against xBROKEx based on their mention of ‘the expendables’ over twelve years ago when the statute of limitations for copyright infringement is three years,” Reddit notes.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not a crime to discuss piracy. The users here are being sought as witnesses, not infringers. The Plaintiffs are accusing the ISP of not terminating repeat infringers. Under the DMCA, failing to implement a repeat-infringer termination policy can result in the ISP being liable for the copyright infringement. Cox got hit with a $1 Billion judgment, they are appealing. The Plaintiffs here are trying for a similar result with RCN.
Whether these users can be unmasked so they can be named as witnesses? Probab
Statute of limitations? (Score:3)
12 years ago? I'd argue the statute of limitations is long passed along with any log files.
IP addresses??? (Score:2)
Now why would Reddit be keeping logs of users' IP addresses, anyway? For over a decade???
DISCUSS PIRACY (Score:2)
I find piracy enjoyable and have cracked DRM many times.
Re: (Score:2)
Piracy exists Oh no!
While I'm here though... I believe businesses should approach piracy as competition they should compete against rather than trying to get taxpayers to fund their useless efforts to shut it down. Worked for Valve Software.
Re: (Score:2)
Of course, cracking DRM +/= piracy. When I purchase a movie (which happens a few times a year), first thing I do is rip it to our Jellyfin server.
I've even paid for a MakeMKV license just to support the developer (since the software itself is in perpetual beta and free to use).
Bring Forth (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The Statue of Limitations
There's a joke about a short monolith in there someplace.
Their message is clear: Not safe anywhere (Score:2)
Their message is clear: you are not safe anywhere from their StaSi like tactics of bullying people!
Haha (Score:1)
Stupid film companies and their stupid lawyers never learn. I would love them to try and sue me. Granted, I'm not a big enough target for them to gain literally anything out of me, so it'll never happen.