this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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Lemmy.World Announcements

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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by lwadmin to c/lemmyworld
 

Earlier, after review, we blocked and removed several communities that were providing assistance to access copyrighted/pirated material, which is currently not allowed per Rule #1 of our Code of Conduct. The communities that were removed due to this decision were:

We took this action to protect lemmy.world, lemmy.world's users, and lemmy.world staff as the material posted in those communities could be problematic for us, because of potential legal issues around copyrighted material and services that provide access to or assistance in obtaining it.

This decision is about liability and does not mean we are otherwise hostile to any of these communities or their users. As the Lemmyverse grows and instances get big, precautions may happen. We will keep monitoring the situation closely, and if in the future we deem it safe, we would gladly reallow these communities.

The discussions that have happened in various threads on Lemmy make it very clear that removing the communites before we announced our intent to remove them is not the level of transparency the community expects, and that as stewards of this community we need to be extremely transparent before we do this again in the future as well as make sure that we get feedback around what the planned changes are, because lemmy.world is yours as much as it is ours.

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[–] lwadmin 90 points 1 year ago (28 children)

Doesn't matter if they are hosted here or not. The way federation works is that threads on different instances are cached locally.

We have NO issues with the people at db0 - we are just looking out for ourselves in a 'better safe than sorry' fashion while we find out more. As mentioned in the OP we would like to unblock as soon as we know we can not get in any legal trouble.

[–] [email protected] 77 points 1 year ago

"we are just looking out for ourselves in a 'better safe than sorry' fashion while we find out more."

This is an unfortunate aspect of individuals/small groups housing the fediverse vs big companies. Big companies have lawyers and the capital to back them, individuals do not.

If I was in your shoes, I'd do the same thing. I appreciate your wish for thus to be temporary. I hope you will share your findings once you come to a final decision; information like this is relevant to all those managing servers.

[–] nickhammes 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What needs to happen for you to be confident you won't get in legal trouble, and thus unblock them? Change on the db0 side? Lemmy.world admins getting legal representation/advice? Something else? I'm curious how you all see this playing it out in the future.

[–] dojan 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Highly doubt there's anything db0 can do. lemmy.world is in Europe, piracy has hefty legal ramifications.

Like you could argue that it isn't piracy all you want, but if faced with the possibility of your hobby landing you decades in prison and millions in debt, would you do it?

Just create an account at db0, this really isn't the big deal people make it out to be.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not all of Europe. In most parts (especially Eastern Europe) the most you will get is a slap on the wrist if you are really really unlucky. And decades in prison aren't a thing anywhere for simply sharing links to pirated content.

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[–] michaelmrose 1 points 6 months ago

It would be preferable if you would lie less. Evil pirate uploads potentially_infringing.mp3 to to filehost. Filehost actually serves potentially_infringing.mp3, a community on db0 hosts a link to potentially_infringing.mp3, lemmy.world caches locally a copy of data from db0. Of those the one guy directly uploading the information is at risk of an extremely unlikely single digit thousands of dollars.

Nobody not even evil pirate himself is at risk of decades in prison or millions in debt. Companies responsibility basically ends at taking stuff down when specifically notified of infringing content.

[–] CaptainEffort 31 points 1 year ago

Discussing piracy isn’t illegal. It would be one thing if they were hosting pirated content, but they don’t even link to anything.

If that were to change I’d understand the decision, but this just seems silly to me.

[–] dimspace 17 points 1 year ago

as far as i have seen (as a subscriber to c/piracy) there is no links to pirated content and they are very clear that that is not allowed

the vast majority of the discussion is on morals of piracy, anti piracy measures, etc etc

[–] tcj 8 points 1 year ago

I feel like there should be a major distinction between caching remote content and hosting that content yourself. Does Cloudflare get in trouble every time the FBI seizes a site that used Cloudflare routing, CDN, or caching? Not as far as I'm aware.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

We have NO issues with the people at db0 - we are just looking out for ourselves in a ‘better safe than sorry’ fashion while we find out more. As mentioned in the OP we would like to unblock as soon as we know we can not get in any legal trouble.

Words are empty, offers are void in Nebraska. You already took steps against people who simply mostly discuss piracy. What concrete steps can you take now to show that you'd actually unblock "as soon as we know"?

[–] michaelmrose 1 points 6 months ago

Your argument is that user hosts infringing_song.mp3 on file_host, a community on lemmy.ml has a link to filehost and lemmy.world has a cached copy of the text containing the link to lemmy.ml which has a link to filehost and you think lemmy.world has legal exposure?

[–] Maalus 0 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Soo ultimately you personally will be the only person determining what people can and can't see, based on your perception alone. You don't like something, you'll ban it. You worry about something, you'll ban it. And there won't be a trace without you saying "we banned something". Which means there are no checks at all to you powertripping in the future. How is this supposed to be free, open and general then? This is even worse than reddit was.

[–] assassin_aragorn -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Feel free to contractually agree to pay all their legal fees, in that case.

[–] Maalus 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There won't be any legal fees since the communities being talked about are allowed in the EU. Other people have made the same point already, but if you are scared of litigation, then you can't host a forum at all. There is always a place where your forum breaks rules. I.e. no disparaging Putin in Russia. Making fun of the twitter CEO is more likely to get you a lawsuit than any of the communities mentioned, yet it is allowed. Also, it never is a straight up instantenous lawsuit. It always starts with communication saying "don't do that anymore please". Once you reject, then a lawsuit is viable and not frivolous. So you can wait till that happens and then block those communities, once a company actually complains. Not when you think that maybe somewhere in the future something might happen or maybe not.

Truth is, lemmy is small fries. It will be that for a long time with the issues it has. Nobody cares about a tiny community hidden way deep inside.

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[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's their house, you're just visiting. If they are concerned, there's no one else to help. If they get in trouble, will you be stepping in to help them? No.

[–] Maalus 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Once you start hosting an instance that has open registration, it's not just "their house" anymore. They are providing a service to people. They do so willingly. Arbitrairly blocking instances because you don't know how something works and don't bother to check it isn't the way to host a free and open instance.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Nah, their box, their responsibility, their rules. They could shut it off tomorrow, ban people randomly, change what posts are allowed, federate as they choose. We can't do shit, and that's fine cause we can each make our own instance or join another

Edit Any assumption you have durable rights or privileges is just untrue.

Yes, they offer access willingly, as in "at their will"

Edit would a downvoter be able to refute me? Are we in some sort of contracted relationship with instance admins?

[–] michaelmrose 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

They CAN do all of those things but people would be right to critique them for it. Freedom isn't freedom from criticism or complaint. Furthermore they want this to be a functional community as much as their users do which is why this discussion even exists.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

That doesn't refute anything I said. Their house, their rules.

You can criticize mom for setting a bedtime, but you must go to bed.

[–] michaelmrose 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The discussion is not whether they can set those rules its should they and should we keep participating

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Regarding your first point, there is no discussion, they can do whatever they want, they are omnipotent on that.

Regarding your second, that's absolutely fair game.

[–] michaelmrose 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Once you start hosting an instance that has open registration, it’s not just “their house” anymore. They are providing a service to people. They do so willingly. Arbitrairly blocking instances because you don’t know how something works and don’t bother to check it isn’t the way to host a free and open instance.

You seem to be uniquely bad at reading so this is comment is the start of this subthread you originally replied to. Nobody ever suggested they COULDN'T implement any rule they please. It was never a point anyone brought up for you to be refuting. It is literally you dishonestly trying to steer the discussion away from the actual point of discussing SHOULD they.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

No, I discussed a facet of the larger concept, which requires basic critical thinking to acknowledge.

I am not obligated to address all features of the topic, and that is not dishonest.

Edit I specifically refuted the topic of "once you host, it's not your house". Bullshit. It's 100% their house and that's the end of the line.

[–] MothBookkeeper -2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

You fucking donkey, did you read their comment before you replied to it? They aren't doing it just because they want to; there are legal implications.

[–] Maalus 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

There really aren't. Talking about piracy is allowed in Europe. Sharing stuff isn't. This is a kneejerk reaction. Also, please don't talk to people that way.

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[–] michaelmrose 1 points 6 months ago

Feel free to leave if this is how you talk to people

[–] mysoulishome -3 points 1 year ago

Beehaw doesn’t have downvotes. DOESNT. HAVE. DOWNVOTES!!!! HOW CAN THEY GET AWAY WITH TAKING AWAY DOWNVOTES FROM ME… WHAT RIGHT DO THEY HAVE???

It doesn’t affect me at all because I don’t have an account there. But I’m real mad, see…

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