Meta Says it Made Sure Not to Seed Any Pirated Books * TorrentFreak
torrentfreak.com
In an AI lawsuit targeting Meta, authors claim the company used BitTorrent to share books from shadow library LibGen with third parties.

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.

  • hendrik@palaver.p3x.deEnglish
    41·
    2 days ago

    Sorry, this just isn’t correct. Yes, you can ask for almost anything and it’ll be alright and merely asking a question is completely legal.

    The issue is, you then proceed to do a second step. And that is transferring the data. And that is a separate thing. You then initiate the actual transfer. Your computer actively does that. It keeps the transfer going and recieves the network packets. It literally copies them into RAM and then copies them again onto your harddrive. To make your local copy. The uploader merely reads it from their harddisk and hands it out, they do one copy operation less. Though they’re still the distributor.

    I think any expert witness would testify in court, that your computer as the downloader does two copy operations, at least in the technical sense of the term. And that you’ve ultimately also initiated the transfer as the downloader due to how TCP/IP works.

    The thumbdrive example is a bit construed. I think you might get away with that, though. Unless you plug it into your computer. Because then all the copying to RAM and harddrive etc starts again. But I think just pocketing it is posession (which doesn’t seem to be wrong), and not necessarily copying.

    But like: how do other laws work where you live? Can you instruct someone to do something illegal and you’re fine? I can’t come up with anything normal, let’s say I hire someone to kidnap my child/wife to teach them a lesson. Or I hire a hitman to kill my arch enemy. Am I fine dong that? It’s a bit over the top. But where I live I can certainly get into trouble if I make people do something on my behalf. Which I’d argue doesn’t exactly happen here. It’s a bit more complicated… But your concept of law doesn’t seem to make much sense to me.

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todayEnglish
      21·
      2 days ago

      And that is transferring the data.

      I don’t even have the data. I can’t do anything involving the actual data. I can’t copy it. I can’t transfer it. The UPLOADER is the only one with the capability of transferring the data.

      You then initiate the actual transfer. Your computer actively does that.

      No, it does not. It requests the data. The server is perfectly capable of answering that request with “Fuck off, I don’t want to.”

      It keeps the transfer going and recieves the network packets.

      It keeps telling the server “I received that part, thanks, can I have some more?” The server is free to never start the transfer, or to stop it at any time.

      Receiving those packets is neither “copying” nor “distributing”.

      It literally copies them into RAM and then copies them again onto your harddrive.

      And then back again, into and out of ram every time you watch it… That’s not copying. If that was copying, you wouldn’t be able to use a DVD, as that act “copies” the disk every time you watch it. That theory has been raised a few times; to my knowledge, it has never been successful.

      Can you instruct someone to do something illegal and you’re fine?

      Generally speaking, yes. The examples you gave certainly don’t fit the general case, though. Suppose you’re my Uber driver. I break no law when I ask you to drive faster than the speed limit, or blow through a stop light. You’re free to refuse such requests.

      • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        The UPLOADER is the only one with the capability of transferring the data.

        You don’t seem to understand that there are 2 machines required to make a transfer. One uploads. One downloads. The two together make a copy. A machine cannot upload into the ether.