Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
The European Court of Justice handed down a ruling against The Pirate Bay yesterday, one which could have implications far beyond the torrent site. Platforms such as Google and YouTube, which play an active role in the way content is presented, could be seriously affected, experts warn.
After years of legal wrangling, yesterday the European Court of Justice handed down a decision in the case between Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN and ISPs Ziggo and XS4ALL.
BREIN had demanded that the ISPs block The Pirate Bay, but both providers dug in their heels, forcing the case through the Supreme Court and eventually the ECJ.
For BREIN, yesterday's decision will have been worth the wait. Although The Pirate Bay does not provide the content that's ultimately downloaded and shared by its users, the ECJ said that it plays an important role in how that content is presented.
"Whilst it accepts that the works in question are placed online by the users, the Court highlights the fact that the operators of the platform play an essential role in making those works available," the Court said.
With that established the all-important matter is whether by providing such a platform, the operators of The Pirate Bay are effectively engaging in a "communication to the public" of copyrighted works. According to the ECJ, that's indeed the case.
"The Court holds that the making available and management of an online sharing platform must be considered to be an act of communication for the purposes of the directive," the ECJ said.
Add into the mix that The Pirate Bay generates profit from its activities and there's a potent case for copyright liability.
Wait, you mean the EU is even more in the pocket of corporations than the US? Huh...
Source: https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-ruling-is-bad-news-for-google-youtube-experts-says-170615/
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Sunday June 18 2017, @10:01AM (6 children)
Sure, it's a different offence in the eyes of the law, but the word can be used in a metaphorical sense. You don't need intellectual property law for that guy stole my idea to make sense.
People who nitpick about it "not really being stealing" are generally just lazily ducking the hard work of defending copyright infringement.
We see the same thing with, say, Jews aren't a race, so antisemitism isn't racism. Well, sure, but it's still wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 18 2017, @11:36AM
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Sunday June 18 2017, @09:12PM
The metaphorical sense frames the argument in a way that misleads jurors about the law's letter and spirit, as Judge Kathleen Williams of a U.S. district court in Florida ruled [torrentfreak.com]. If you mean "copyright infringement", say "copyright infringement".
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday June 19 2017, @03:04PM (3 children)
People who claim it is stealing are engaging in intentional abuse of language in order to score political points. It's propaganda. There is a perfectly good word for this act, it is "copyright infringement".
Yeah, we've all heard someone say that, and usually the response is either "Yeah, so why aren't YOU doing it?" or "Don't be stupid." People would generally recognize that copyright infringement isn't something deserving of the massive fines and jail sentences being handed out. So the industry refers to it as "stealing" because people accept that theft should be punished -- because it causes injury to someone else. But with copyright infringement that isn't necessarily the case.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Monday June 19 2017, @04:07PM (2 children)
But in a sense, copyright is a broadening of the concept of theft. It expands the domain of ownership rights and entitlements, and rightly so. You may be right that use of the word 'stealing' can be for cynical reasons, but it's not always.
Copyright infringement is, generally speaking, wrong. So is theft. There exist exceptions in both cases.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday June 19 2017, @04:50PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Tuesday June 20 2017, @08:15AM
Sounds like we agree then.