Piracy

**peter** · 12-24-2006, 10:17 PM

There was a thread related to antivirus software that eventually led to a member recommending pirated software.

This is unacceptable. Neither illegal activity, nor the promotion of it, will not be tolerated on the forums. I have deleted the offending posts and have warned the poster via PM. Any related activity by any member will result in their immediate suspension.

The forum guidelines have been updated accordingly. No warnings will be given in future.

The distribution of all software, whether open source or proprietary, is protected by legal structures. OpenFree.org respects them all and will honor the law retroactively, via post deletion and user suspension, if a legal authority requests us to do so in cases where the forum membership was previously unaware of the violation and the request is deemed valid.

**Lovechild** · 12-25-2006, 03:00 AM

Peter in the future would it be possible to do the following to avoid that threads suddenly appear odd to readers since posts disappeared in the middle of a debate:

Mark the user as banned somehow - Change the status to "Maximum bannination"? Also change the text of the post to something like: "This post has be modified in accordance with the Forum Guidelines[this should be a link]. Reason: Recommending copyright violation".

Likewise I would like to change the forum guideline wording from piracy to copyright violation, that covers all cases we worry about and it avoids playing into the RIAA/MPAAs hand by using their branding of sharing.

Oh and both links go to the guidelines, I believe one should go to the offending thread.. no?

**peter** · 12-25-2006, 08:24 AM

I've made both changes.

**Compunuts** · 12-25-2006, 07:11 PM

I don't really think mentioning or recommending any pirated software or discussion of it is illegal. Thus, I don't see any need for moderating it in anyway. After all, the site mentioned that ALL the expression of any post is the opinion of the poster. So I don't see any legal or otherwise violation there.

What next? Are we going to tell them how to talk, what language to speak??

**Lovechild** · 12-25-2006, 10:29 PM

Originally Posted by Compunuts

I don't really think mentioning or recommending any pirated software or discussion of it is illegal. Thus, I don't see any need for moderating it in anyway. After all, the site mentioned that ALL the expression of any post is the opinion of the poster. So I don't see any legal or otherwise violation there.

What next? Are we going to tell them how to talk, what language to speak??

What he did was say "it is free here <link to a popular torrent site>, just search for it" that gives the impression that it's legal and that it is acceptable to make OpenFree.org in accessory to copyright violation. While I wish the law was different, untill it is I don't think it's fair to put Peter at risk.

**Compunuts** · 12-26-2006, 12:52 AM

How does someone's own post put the site admin at risk??

Take DeCSS as an example. Unless you host the codes in itself, there is no one suing or shutting down any forums, mailing lists or sites which simple point to where you can get DeCSS code.

Nonsense ....

**Lovechild** · 12-26-2006, 02:44 AM

Originally Posted by Compunuts

How does someone's own post put the site admin at risk??

Take DeCSS as an example. Unless you host the codes in itself, there is no one suing or shutting down any forums, mailing lists or sites which simple point to where you can get DeCSS code.

Nonsense ....

In recent history, forums have been shut down and admins sued over infringing behavior.. don't look at me, it happens - just in the last week one of the largest anime forums was shutdown over copyright infringement and had their software licenses revoked - no actual sharing just encouragement and enabling, no kidding this is bad stuff (my hatred for this artform aside).

Untill we have sane laws and sane people enforcing them, I think it's only prudent not to risk Peters hide.

Also the argument that nobody has been sued for informing people where and how to get and use things like DeCSS is not only patently wrong, it has happened. This form of argumentation is exactly the same as saying "it's not illegal till you get caught" regarding any offense.

Bitch to your representative, not me - they are the ones with power to stop this insanity, personally I think my representatives are getting a tad tired of answering mails from me everytime they fail to fix this.. shouldn't yours feel the same way?

**Compunuts** · 12-26-2006, 04:58 AM

Originally Posted by Lovechild

just in the last week one of the largest anime forums was shutdown over copyright infringement and had their software licenses revoked

Link??

Anyway, let's apply this to Openfree. What license they are going to revoke? Linux's GPL?

Also the argument that nobody has been sued for informing people where and how to get and use things like DeCSS is not only patently wrong,

No it's not. Patent is a lousy way of excuse for being greedy.

This form of argumentation is exactly the same as saying "it's not illegal till you get caught" regarding any offense.

Just because I teach you how to shoot a gun and you go and kill someone with that guy don't make me guilty of any offense. That's entirely up to you.

Just because I told you where to get weed don't make me the drug offender.

Bitch to your representative, not me - they are the ones with power to stop this insanity, personally I think my representatives are getting a tad tired of answering mails from me everytime they fail to fix this.. shouldn't yours feel the same way?

No need. My representative is smart enough to vote against DMCA. May be your community should get smarten up and get a different representative. Just because they are there don't mean you have to take it.

**trickster** · 12-26-2006, 02:02 PM

My two cents,

I say we don't want to encourage copyright violations for the following reasons:

1. None of us are lawyers. None of us know all the implications of it, and it is better to err on the side of caution.
2. More importantly, copyright-violated software goes against the spirit of the forum (nonwitshtanding the latest Windows forum merge.) Copyrihted software is neither open nor free, and we don't want to encourage people to keep using it by helping them obtain it (by less than legal means, more so.)

**Schotty** · 12-28-2006, 01:48 AM

Look, if Peter is hosted in the US and/or resides in the US, Lovechild is %100 correct here. The assinine poloticians seem to love bending over and taking it anally from whomever pays the most in kickbacks via lobbyists. The *AA's have won there, and thus even an avatar pic with the code to DeCSS is a violation and leaves the hosting provider and the maintainer at legal risk. Although they would win in court and the poster would lose, there are still things like court costs and lawyers that arent cheap. Ill agree and just leave it at, Peter hasnt done anything to warrant us venging the costs (and presence) of lawyers.