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0 pointsmafuy8h ago0 comments

In Germany at least, uploading even a single byte of content is illegal. We don't really have Fair Use here; there are only few, very narrow exceptions.

It is also not even required to show that that single byte was uploaded, your IP getting logged as part of the swarm suffices. The burden of proof is on you now. It was much, much worse than in the US.

While all this is technically still true today, a new law a few years ago luckily mostly blocked the path. It was badly needed, because the situation was horribly abused by law firms.

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pocksuppet1h ago

> It is also not even required to show that that single byte was uploaded, your IP getting logged as part of the swarm suffices

What if someone would release software that would connect to random swarms and not upload or download anything? Would they still be criminally liable? You could disguise the purpose by saying it's measuring swarm diversity.

defrost7h ago

In Australia it was determined that an ISP bears no responsibly to respond to allegations of copyright infringement by ISP users.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadshow_Films_Pty_Ltd_v_iiNet...

Of course Telco's can choose to be involved, perhaps accept payment to lookup and snitch, etc. but for the most part a number of ISPs in Au just wash their hands of devoting resources to play connect the dots for others.

numpad06h ago

Same in Japan. There's allegedly someone making big bucks going after bittorrent users, straining ISP abuse teams and judicial systems. Interesting that Germany has laws against that.

cortesoft7h ago

You comment shares bytes with copyrighted content, does that mean you broke the law?

lxgr1h ago

Context matters.

“Here’s byte 0x67, which is at offset 0x729B1A38 of Copyrighted_Blockbuster.4k.mkv, as requested” is different from “here’s byte 0x67, and it’s the first byte of my text response to your comment”.

simondotau7h ago

> even a single byte of content is illegal

10010110

Watch out die Deutschen, that’s the first byte of Super Mario Bros.

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