5 ms·

> You violated the law and their (rather reasonable in this case) terms of service and are shocked to find they'd rather not do business with you? When I worke

> You violated the law and their (rather reasonable in this case) terms of service and are shocked to find they'd rather not do business with you? When I worked in the Intelligence Community I had to go through multiple FBI investigations and polygraphs. Every single one of them asked me about laws I may have violated in the past. One of the agents even said (paraphrased, of course) "Maybe you downloaded some movies? It's illegal but many don't realize it and probably most people do it". Pirating is one of those crimes that has become normalized. The parent may have realized it was illegal but didn't think much of it and probably didn't realize it would lead to his account being completely disabled. The trouble with Google accounts and becoming disabled is it can very likely ruin a good part of your life because of how much of your data they hold and there are zero ways to redeem yourself if you did do something wrong and there are zero ways to resolve the problem if it was due to something inaccurate or false (which has happened especially if someone else gets into your account).

eweise 9y ago
Is downloading movies illegal?
- Anon1096 9y ago
  Sharing copyrighted content is
  - icebraining 9y ago
    Not just sharing - even loading a program to RAM to run it is considered a copy and needs a license, as per MAI v. Peak.
- sp332 9y ago
  They can sue for copyright infringement, but since the damages are tiny, they generally don't bother. What's different since the DMCA is that "commercial scale" infringement is now a criminal offense even if you're not making any money. And if you're uploading, say by using a bittorrent client which uploads while you're "downloading", then they could make a criminal case.
  - narrowrail 9y ago
    Well, given the question asked, we need to be clear that the legality of downloading copyrighted content varies by country. Also, the DMCA[0] has been around for 21 years, so it's not exactly a recent change. The last time the industry went after a torrenter, it was Hunger Games (2010), IIRC; I always attributed to the Streisand affect[1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_A... [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
Ao7bei3s 9y ago
> One of the agents even said (paraphrased, of course) "Maybe you downloaded some movies? What's the correct answer?
- notatoad 9y ago
  The correct answer is to tell the truth. The point of the security clearance process is to determine what somebody might be able to hold against you (i.e. to blackmail you into giving up confidential information) If you told your interviewer that yes, you have downloaded some pirated movies, then if somebody calls you up saying "hey, i'll tell your boss you're a movie pirate if you don't tell me X" you'll feel confident shutting them down.
  - Fnoord 9y ago
    You should tell the interviewer the truth, but you'll feel confident denying due to lack of proof when a random person makes the claim. If anything, it makes an asset vulnerable to extortion _from_ the FBI. See also "The FBI Is Struggling to Hire Hackers Who Don't Smoke Weed". [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/262dde/the_fbi_is_struggling_to_hire_hackers_who_dont/ https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/262dde/the_fbi_is_str...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- astura 9y ago
  The truth.

eweise 9y ago

Is downloading movies illegal?

Anon1096 9y ago
Sharing copyrighted content is
- icebraining 9y ago
  Not just sharing - even loading a program to RAM to run it is considered a copy and needs a license, as per MAI v. Peak.
sp332 9y ago
They can sue for copyright infringement, but since the damages are tiny, they generally don't bother. What's different since the DMCA is that "commercial scale" infringement is now a criminal offense even if you're not making any money. And if you're uploading, say by using a bittorrent client which uploads while you're "downloading", then they could make a criminal case.
- narrowrail 9y ago
  Well, given the question asked, we need to be clear that the legality of downloading copyrighted content varies by country. Also, the DMCA[0] has been around for 21 years, so it's not exactly a recent change. The last time the industry went after a torrenter, it was Hunger Games (2010), IIRC; I always attributed to the Streisand affect[1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_A... [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

Ao7bei3s 9y ago

> One of the agents even said (paraphrased, of course) "Maybe you downloaded some movies? What's the correct answer?

notatoad 9y ago
The correct answer is to tell the truth. The point of the security clearance process is to determine what somebody might be able to hold against you (i.e. to blackmail you into giving up confidential information) If you told your interviewer that yes, you have downloaded some pirated movies, then if somebody calls you up saying "hey, i'll tell your boss you're a movie pirate if you don't tell me X" you'll feel confident shutting them down.
- Fnoord 9y ago
  You should tell the interviewer the truth, but you'll feel confident denying due to lack of proof when a random person makes the claim. If anything, it makes an asset vulnerable to extortion _from_ the FBI. See also "The FBI Is Struggling to Hire Hackers Who Don't Smoke Weed". [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/262dde/the_fbi_is_struggling_to_hire_hackers_who_dont/ https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/262dde/the_fbi_is_str...
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
astura 9y ago
The truth.