this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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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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[–] 01011@monero.town 18 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Facebook was leeching? No way...

[–] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 50 points 1 day ago

Death penalty for leechers.

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 28 points 22 hours ago

We didn't inhale, so it's not illegal for us. ~ZuckFuck

[–] ChiefGyk3D@infosec.pub 212 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Somehow that makes it even worse in my opinion

[–] zaknenou@lemmy.dbzer0.com 104 points 1 day ago (1 children)

dirty hit and run behavior, motherf****ers

[–] merthyr1831@lemmy.ml 60 points 1 day ago

thats like the only thing that would've made this better bro

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 17 points 22 hours ago

I doubt anything legal would come from this, but it does progress the conversation about piracy:

“You wouldn’t download a car would you? Cause zuck would without sharing”

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 149 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So they're inconsiderate assholes and leeches.

[–] schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Now now, they're not just inconsiderate assholes and leeches.

They're inconsiderate nazi oligarch assholes and leeches.

[–] ursakhiin@beehaw.org 2 points 9 hours ago

Hey now, they aren't Nazis. Nazis at least believe in something, even if it's something terrible.

[–] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 154 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I was actually hoping to see that as a defense. The principal thing that copy enforcement corps always cite is 'we downloaded a copy from their IP, thus they made a copy and distributed the work'.

If this works as a defense here then in effect they make direct download portals legal for the users at least.

[–] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 day ago

You’re forgetting that they’re a rich corporation, and you’re not. They’ll get away with the defense, but even if it set a precedent, copyright groups can still sue you until you’re broke to make an example of you, even if you didn’t legally do anything “wrong”.

As long as you can sue someone for any reason without repercussions, then it’s always going to be the people with more money who come out on top. Always. Wining a lawsuit doesn’t mean you’re not still financially destroyed and driven into poverty for the rest of your life.

[–] quirzle@lemmy.zip 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Has anyone in the US ever been busted for downloading from a direct download portal? Or usenet?

I think any progress here is mostly in principle, as I don't think there's a big practical risk to downloading only as it stands today, though I don't follow things as closely as I used to and could be mistaken.

[–] Rivalarrival 37 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Has anyone in the US ever been busted for downloading from a direct download portal?

Nobody in the US has ever been busted on copyright grounds for downloading anything, regardless of source. The law does not provide for enforcement against downloading; only uploading.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 12 points 1 day ago

No, but even a baseless civil suit costs a lot of time and money to fight.

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[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 10 points 1 day ago

this is actually the way it works in australia: downloading content is not illegal; sharing content is illegal

thus as a consumer, usenet is fine

obligatory ianal

[–] ZeroGravitas@lemm.ee 60 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yes your honor I lit up but didn't inhale.

[–] juliebean@lemm.ee 3 points 15 hours ago

makes me think of the loopholes christian teenagers come up with to claim they're totally not having premarital sex.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

More like "Yes your honor I lit up and inhaled, just got a huge ass lungful, but I didn't pass"

[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 75 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Where now are the copyright trolls that sued regular students for millions of dollars for downloading 30 songs?

Under federal law, the recording companies were entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement. But the law allows as much as $150,000 per track if the jury finds the infringements were willful.

Let me see:

  • At least 100 million of books pirated
  • infringements were willful

So, a 15k billion dollars fine seem appropriate to give to Meta AND criminal sentences to all the c suite.

Or: apply the same rules to regular people and allow unlimited copyright violations without consequences

[–] quirzle@lemmy.zip 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, admitted in court that he downloaded and distributed 30 songs.

Your example is exactly why meta didn't seed.

[–] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It's a weak defense because the clients still exchanged metadata with other clients, plus there's the big issue of using the copyrighted works for their own profit, and not just archiving/preservation/personal use

[–] quirzle@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 day ago

It's a solid defense, since the lawsuit's about the sharing of the books. The metadata of the torrents isn't part of the relevant IP, and how they used the content they downloaded is a separate issue.

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[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 41 points 1 day ago (1 children)

the company clarifies that there is nothing 'independently illegal' about torrenting.

Ah yes, I'm sure this strawman defense will hold up well for them in court.

[–] diemartin@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It will probably work. Because, you know, money.

[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If it does work, does that then mean they've effectively declared torrenting to be legal? Or at least as long as you claim not to have seeded?

[–] diemartin@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago

You hope! Laws will still apply to us peasants

[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is there a way to change the torrent client's name\version so you appear in a list of seeds as Mark Zuckerberg?

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Certainly, but it's not like that'll get him in trouble or anything

It'd certainly encourage me to up my torrenting game so this shit appears 24\7 at rather weird uploads around the globe.

[–] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 47 points 1 day ago

Bastard leachers.

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 43 points 1 day ago (56 children)

ah so they only downloaded them illigally, and then used them illegally, but didn't share them illegally. got it

~~Sharing is caring~~

Sharing is crime(͡•_ ͡• )

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[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 18 points 1 day ago

not really what we upset about but okay

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Overthrow democratic nations 👍 Theoretically the owning class loosing out on a few bucks 😱

Thanks Meta.

[–] jbone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Haha, what a bunch of scumbags. They can"t even seed back when pirating.

We really need to round up all of Meta's executive directors, seize all their assets (every last cent) and require them to do mandatory two decade live-in community service as junior custodians (the lowest level custodians in the whole institution) at hospice centres or infectious disease hospitals. De-mining work and resource extraction junior support would also be good options for community service work.

Not for this of course, more like knowingly enabling genocide in Myanmar and so on.

[–] dicksteele@lemm.ee 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I know it’s their legal defense and all, but it’s not like any of us thought they would seed in the first place. Their business is only about taking for profit, not sharing or giving anything back.

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