For those of you with short memories,
I'm fairly confident the Napster rulings would likely apply to the single torrent tracker caught in this case. Napster did not host the infringing files itself, but it did point to them. If they were willing or able to block infringing files they could have continued; unable to do so, they shut down.
Bittorrent and similar distributed protocols may alter the infrastructure involved and make enforcement difficult, but does not alter the fundamental dynamics and legal responsibilities. Ergo a site that linked to legal torrents would have no problems; but one that links overwhelmingly to infringing torrents, and is unable and/or unwilling to block the infringing content, is almost certainly going to be subject to the similar actions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MR. Pockets
As far as some of the sites are concerned, some of the sites (Torrent-Finder.com being the major one) weren't hosting illegal files, just providing links to or being a search engine for the files.
|
It's my understanding that Torrent Finder was the
only file sharing site caught in this dragnet. The rest of the sites sell counterfeit goods, and the ICE press release only discusses counterfeits.
I have no idea how or why they got swept up in this, but it is always possible that the site has some sort of link to the counterfeiter(s).
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Mr. Pockets
So, it could be argued that the government didn't have the authority to do what it did. Also, is the ICE the right department to do it?
|
It seems pretty clear that they have the authority, and would almost certainly arrest the counterfeiters and close their shops if they were physically located in the US.
Since almost all of the sites are counterfeiters, Customs is the right department.