How is pirating content so common and illegal yet nobody faces consequences for doing it?
In: Technology
The short answer is people do face consequences for it.
But the resources don’t exist to file charges against everyone and prosecute them in a timely manner. So they focus on the big fish.
People do face consequences for it. The problem is that piracy is so wide spread that there aren’t enough resources to fine and arrest everyone that does it.
The agencies try to focus on content distributors to try to slow piracy down, but also target random downloaders with large fines to try to get media attention to scare people into stopping.
The other problem is jurisdiction. Pirate websites are deliberately hosted in countries where US agencies have no jurisdiction so it takes a lot of effort to get the sites taken down.
Agencies also have come to realize that spending all these resources to shut down sites like the Pirate Bay is ultimately futile, because if the site goes offline 3 new sites prop up to take it’s place within a week.
Big companies like Disney have also changed tactics deciding to start streaming services instead. After decades of online piracy companies have finally started to realize that a lot of people don’t pirate to save money, they do it because it’s a more convenient way to consume media.
The idea being that if you provide people with the same or better level of quality and convenience as BitTorrent for a reasonable fee then people will stop pirating.
To add to what DarkAlman wrote.
Even if you face charges it’s very easy to get out of in most countries. This is due to it not being your fault if someone else downloads something illegal through your internet connection. So even if they can prove that for example Inglorious Basterds were downloaded through your internet connection at 6:15 AM on 10. Feb 2012, then they don’t have much of a case against you.
They (some shady law firm) might send you a letter claiming that you owe them 2500,- DKK and they will take you to court if you don’t pay them. Also if you don’t reply within 14 days they will automatically win the case and you will then actually owe them 2500,-. Luckily, such a letter can easily be countered with an email containing some legally sounding words which TL:DR says “Nah man, wasn’t me. And you can’t prove it”. They (still the shady law firm) will then reply with another attempt to scare you, which will say something to the extent of: “you clearly just found a standard response letter online, which is dangerous and you still owe us”. To this mail you then write them “*you* clearly just wrote a standard response to what you claim was a standard response from me, since you didn’t even mention the fact that I Rick Roll’ed you in my last response (hint: remember to Rick Roll them in your initial email to them). And since you haven’t brought up any new evidence I now consider this case closed”. This will now finally stop them from bothering you.
The above is in no way based on real events and has no relation to the actions /u/Brewe. No way Jose. Wasn’t me. so OPUS, you can just shove it up your shady arse (OPUS is the shady lawfirm that I in no way have been in contact with for anything that I did or didn’t do).
Piracy isn’t illegal. Seriously. It’s not illegal to download a movie or game or song or anything else. It’s likely against the terms of service of your internet service provider (which is why they can do things like shut down your connection after so many “copyright strikes”), but it’s not actually illegal.
What *is* illegal is unauthorized distribution of copyrighted works. So you won’t, for example, get in legal trouble from downloading something from the Pirate Bay, but the Pirate Bay can get in trouble for making it available to you. However, most pirate sites are hosted in countries that are unlikely to bust them.
Some caveats:
– “Not illegal” does not mean “can’t get in trouble for it”. If you violate the terms of service of any service while pirating, that service can go after you as specified in said terms. Depending on the circumstances, that might involve the ISP, the owner of the website or service you downloaded from, the owner of the hotspot if you happened to download using public wi-fi, and many others.
– Sharing your pirated file with anyone by any means (whether you sell it or give it away for free) is distribution, and you can get nailed for that.
– Torrenting blurs the line between “downloading” and “distributing”. If you seed your pirated torrents, you’re technically making an unauthorized distribution, and can therefore be held liable.
– The DMCA makes it illegal to bypass copyright protection mechanisms (big important point here: It’s illegal *even if you don’t make or intend to make unauthorized copies*). So downloading some kind of crack that bypasses a check and lets you play a legally-downloaded copy a game without an account *is* illegal, even though downloading the pirated game itself would not have been.
– A lot of things involved with digital files involve making “copies” by the mere act of using them. A clever lawyer might be able to, e.g., nail you on “copying” the pirated file to your system’s RAM when you happen to watch it. This is explicitly protected use when the file is an authorized copy, but I don’t know whether or not that would be enough to protect you when it’s not.
– I am not a lawyer, this isn’t legal advice, etc. etc.
It’s not illegal here in Australia. It might, however, be a civil offence.
In the test case the judge made clear that the most the copyright holder would be able to reclaim would be the cost of purchase of the item.
In this case it was a movie, so about $20. Not really worth chasing people for.
Here’s an article about it. https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/business-35547045
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