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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[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

when downloading something, you are making a copy. That copy is unauthorized. It's illegal. The distributor didn't give it to you, they still have their copy. And you just reproduced it again.

[–] Rivalarrival 0 points 1 day ago

when downloading something, you are making a copy.

No, you are not. The uploader is the only entity capable of making the copy. You can't make a copy of something you do not possess.

When I send you a file, two copies come to exist. The copy on my computer, and the copy I created and sent to you. I made the copy, and I distributed it. You simply received it.

The copy you received is, indeed, unauthorized, but the infringing party is me, not you. I am the one who created and distributed the copy.

Receiving an unauthorized copy is not a copyright violation. A bootleg DVD is illegal to sell; it is not illegal to buy or to own.