Quote:
Originally Posted by DianNC
I don't get it. And, at the risk of sounding uninformed, why don't they go after the websites that are providing the material?
Monitoring a private individual's internet usage seems inordinately intrusive to me. Are the sites that are making these downloads available not also complicit in illegal acts???
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Because websites often aren't "providing" material; they're providing links to peer-to-peer torrents, which are files on individuals' machines.
One site ran an ad on April 1 seeking a programmer:
[T]he conundrum [torrentsite] faces is determining who owns copyright over what files are described within torrent files that [torrentsite] indexes, and what are the wishes of these copyright holders. Is a file's copyright owned by hippies such as Richard Stallman and similar Free Software gang with these ridiculous beards? Or socialist commies such as these filmmakers posting free films and shows at Vodo, (absurd, I know) and similarly free music at Jamendo, and any other sites hosting such so-called copyleft non-sense? Or such copyright holders, whoever they are, hang on to their copyright as they rightfully should and intend on suing any who infringes on their copyright? Afterall, victories in court or settlements are worth more than customers. These copyright holders are our friends and [torrentsite] seek your expertise in bringing copyright thieves to justice. And profit.
Candidates for a position as Senior Architect and Programmer for Anti-Piracy has the following requirements:
- Semantically determine from names of file listings within close to 7 million .torrents [torrentsite] indexes, the following: copyright holder of such files, and metadata on the copyright status of such files
- [torrentsite] do not host or have access to such files ([torrentsite] can't be a hypocrite and download these files like all the pirates do), so your job it is to determine the above by solely file names
- No master database referencing copyright ownership and status with files shared on P2P networks currently exist, so your job it is to build such a database
- Desired, but not required: to determine names and addresses of pirates participating in the piracy of copyrighted works, for law enforcement purposes (not those owned by copyleft hippies, after having determined copyright status of files). Note that IP addresses does not suffice, even a child can copy out IP addresses of fellow pirates in his BitTorrent client.
How many of a torrent's listings need to be of copyrighted material shared without permission for it to be shut down? Many indie bands and movie-makers count on torrent networks to distribute their creations; that way, they don't have to host the files all themselves. Cost of distribution is spread throughout a web of volunteers.
And, as mentioned, identifying the material needs to be done by filename alone. Is "Harry-Potter-1.pdf" a copy of Rowling's copyrighted material--or someone's essay about character analysis and symbolisms in Rowling's first book? Or is it a work of fan fiction?
Is a file called "100 Great Scifi Stories.zip" full of infringing material, or a collection of creative commons releases? When you've sorted out that it's not all CC releases, what do you do about the orphan books--the ones where the author is deceased, and it's unclear who owns those copyrights now? They may not mind if the books are still being read.
It's not like selling stolen stereo equipment out of the back of a van; it's a lot harder to pin down who's being harmed and how much, and who's liable for facilitating it. (Is a supermarket liable for not locking up its parking lot late at night if drug trades happen there? If they chain down the lot after closing time, will customers be happy to cover the extra expense of the locks and possibly guards?)
If there were simple, easy answers, they'd've been put in place years ago.