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Comment on FBI nabs worker at DVD company for ripping prerelease blockbusters

sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Here’s the interpretation by the US copyright office in their FAQ:

Uploading or downloading works protected by copyright without the authority of the copyright owner is an infringement of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights of reproduction and/or distribution.

The enumerated rights of copyright owners are detailed in Title 17, section 106, with exceptions (e.g. fair use) described through section 122. The relevant portion is:

(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;

(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;

(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

My understanding is that the copyright office is using 1&3 in their interpretation. So my understanding is that Meta is violating copyright by downloading copies of copyrighted work if their use doesn’t fall under the fair use claims.

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finitebanjo@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Right, so the owners have their rights enshrined in laws to make copies, sales, and derivatives, but that doesn’t mean people other than owners are breaking a law by downloading a copy that a third party made and distributed. In fact, that text alone doesn’t make it illegal to make copies, derivatives, or distributions, that would instead be outlined in U.S Code Title 17 Chapter 5 Section 506 which says:

§506. Criminal offenses

(a) Criminal Infringement.—

(1) In general.—Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed—

(A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;

(B) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180–day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000; or

(C) by the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.

(2) Evidence.—For purposes of this subsection, evidence of reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work, by itself, shall not be sufficient to establish willful infringement of a copyright.

(3) Definition.—In this subsection, the term “work being prepared for commercial distribution” means—

(A) a computer program, a musical work, a motion picture or other audiovisual work, or a sound recording, if, at the time of unauthorized distribution—

(i) the copyright owner has a reasonable expectation of commercial distribution; and

(ii) the copies or phonorecords of the work have not been commercially distributed; or

(B) a motion picture, if, at the time of unauthorized distribution, the motion picture—

(i) has been made available for viewing in a motion picture exhibition facility; and

(ii) has not been made available in copies for sale to the general public in the United States in a format intended to permit viewing outside a motion picture exhibition facility.

(b) Forfeiture, Destruction, and Restitution.—Forfeiture, destruction, and restitution relating to this section shall be subject to section 2323 of title 18, to the extent provided in that section, in addition to any other similar remedies provided by law.

(c) Fraudulent Copyright Notice.—Any person who, with fraudulent intent, places on any article a notice of copyright or words of the same purport that such person knows to be false, or who, with fraudulent intent, publicly distributes or imports for public distribution any article bearing such notice or words that such person knows to be false, shall be fined not more than $2,500.

(d) Fraudulent Removal of Copyright Notice.—Any person who, with fraudulent intent, removes or alters any notice of copyright appearing on a copy of a copyrighted work shall be fined not more than $2,500.

(e) False Representation.—Any person who knowingly makes a false representation of a material fact in the application for copyright registration provided for by section 409, or in any written statement filed in connection with the application, shall be fined not more than $2,500.

(f) Rights of Attribution and Integrity.—Nothing in this section applies to infringement of the rights conferred by section 106A(a).

(Pub. L. 94–553, title I, §101, Oct. 19, 1976, 90 Stat. 2586; Pub. L. 97–180, §5, May 24, 1982, 96 Stat. 93; Pub. L. 101–650, title VI, §606(b), Dec. 1, 1990, 104 Stat. 5131; Pub. L. 105–147, §2(b), Dec. 16, 1997, 111 Stat. 2678; Pub. L. 109–9, title I, §103(a), Apr. 27, 2005, 119 Stat. 220; Pub. L. 110–403, title II, §201(a), Oct. 13, 2008, 122 Stat. 4260.)

As with your quote from the FAQ, the entire section says:

Is it legal to download works from peer-to-peer networks and if not, what is the penalty for doing so?

Uploading or downloading works protected by copyright without the authority of the copyright owner is an infringement of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights of reproduction and/or distribution. Anyone found to have infringed a copyrighted work may be liable for statutory damages up to $30,000 for each work infringed and, if willful infringement is proven by the copyright owner, that amount may be increased up to $150,000 for each work infringed. In addition, an infringer of a work may also be liable for the attorney’s fees incurred by the copyright owner to enforce his or her rights.

Whether or not a particular work is being made available under the authority of the copyright owner is a question of fact. But since any original work of authorship fixed in a tangible medium (including a computer file) is protected by federal copyright law upon creation, in the absence of clear information to the contrary, most works may be assumed to be protected by federal copyright law.

Since the files distributed over peer-to-peer networks are primarily copyrighted works, there is a risk of liability for downloading material from these networks. To avoid these risks, there are currently many “authorized” services on the Internet that allow consumers to purchase copyrighted works online, whether music, ebooks, or motion pictures. By purchasing works through authorized services, consumers can avoid the risks of infringement liability and can limit their exposure to other potential risks, e.g., viruses, unexpected material, or spyware.

For more information on this issue, see the Register of Copyrights’ testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Statutory Damages are civil. Risk of liability for downloads means it isn’t certain. There are no criminal proceedings for downloading copyrighted media, it isn’t illegal.

In fact, it’s actually even more lenient than I had expected, you STILL don’t qualify for criminal charges even if you cost the real copyright owner $999.99.

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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Section 506 is about penalties, it doesn’t define what’s legal or not. If your actions don’t neatly fall under one category or another but you have violated the exclusive rights of the property owner, courts have a fair amount of discretion in interpreting the law to come up with a judgment.
  
  That’s why I linked the exclusive rights grant instead of the penalties, the penalties are based on the rights you violated, so it’s a lot more terse than wading through the various penalties that have a bunch of conditions (if you’re an org making >X, Y penalties apply, if you’re an individual and damages…). If we were talking about what the penalties in a specific case are, then yeah, looking up penalties is instructive. But if we’re merely deciding whether a law was violated, then it’s a simple matter of identifying whether exclusive rights were violated.
  
  Also, whether the case is tried in civil or criminal courts is irrelevant to legality, it’s only relevant to the types of penalties that can be enforced.
  
  Statutory Damages are civil
  
  Yes, and damages are only awarded if the plaintiff can demonstrate that you’ve violated the law. You can’t be forced to pay damages if they can’t prove a law was violated.
  
  Risk of liability
  
  All this means is that most files distributed over P2P networks are illegally distributed, which means the risk of breaking the law is higher. If you’re just downloading Linux ISOs (where distribution is allowed explicitly in the FOSS license), you’re not breaking any laws, but if you’re downloading “Linux ISOs,” that risk is on you (works are automatically copyrighted).
  
  In fact, it’s actually even more lenient than I had expected, you STILL don’t qualify for criminal charges even if you cost the real copyright owner $999.99.
  
  It’s still illegal regardless of the level of damages, it just may not be worth the court’s time to enforce.
  
  The main differences between civil and criminal law are the stakes and burden of proof. Civil law has much lower stakes (no jail time), and criminal law has a much higher standard of guilt (beyond a reasonable doubt). Both are predecated on proving a law was violated.
  
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  - finitebanjo@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It’s crazy how I can post the literal actual text of the law and a link to it and you can just ignore that and say it isn’t what it is.
    
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