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.

  • Monkey With A Shell
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    15225 days ago

    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.

      • @[email protected]
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        3825 days ago

        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.

    • _cryptagion [he/him]
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      2325 days 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.

    • Pup Biru
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      1125 days 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