5 ms·

I have become convinced that the RIAA lawyers emerge from their crypts every few years, generating a slew of copystrikes to justify their retainer fee.

by saynay 6y ago

shmerl 6y ago
That's exactly what they do. Troll everyone they can reach.
greggturkington 6y ago
This software makes it easy for people to download copyrighted movies and the RIAA attorneys (at least some) are acting in good faith to prevent people from breaking copyright law and causing their client damages. Can someone argue against me please? (genuinely contribute to discussion by arguing against my own biases, call me a moron instead of downvoting)
- pil4rin 6y ago
  By this right, Zoom/ Google Meet / Teams have screen recording that would allow for this as well. How deep should we go down this hypothetical rabbithole?
- chmod775 6y ago
  Even if we take that as a given, my response would be: "Yes, so what?" The software also a long list of legitimate uses, as was demonstrated by the various prominent users that spoke up. I can use the camera on my phone to record a copyrighted movie, and thus circumventing the DRM, or just use a device like this: https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-USB3HDCAP-Video-Capture-Device/dp/B00PC5HUA6/ https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-USB3HDCAP-Video-Capture-... (analog VGA is probably preferred here, for lack of HDCP support). And that is only necessary if we're talking about some modern DRM that makes your OS work against you, so you can't directly capture with OBS or something. We're gonna ban all of those now?
- evilduck 6y ago
  Creating or providing a tool and using a tool are not the same action. Likewise, since there are legal fair use scenarios of copyrighted materials (short clips, criticism, satire, academic, etc) so even using the tool isn't inherently against the law and the person creating or providing the tools can't know and legally doesn't need to know the end user's intentions. Copyright lawyers working for the highest profile abuser of copyrights absolutely know the very basics of copyright law and are therefore acting in bad faith.
  - schoolornot 6y ago
    Drug paraphernalia is still a crime in most places. Not sure what the equal to "spice grinder" here is.
    - thatcat 6y ago
      if there is no residue then classifying it as "drug paraphernalia" would be in bad faith
    - roughly 6y ago
      I don't know what the laws are on possession, but before marijuana was legalized it was far, far easier to buy a bong than the weed to smoke in it. I'm wracking my brain to try to think of a piece of drug paraphernalia that is illegal to sell or illegal to possess in the absence of the drugs themselves.
      - lozaning 6y ago
        In the state I live in it's illegal to to be in possession of any paraphernalia. Thats why you cant buy a bong anywhere, but can buy a water pipe at every corner store headshop. That being said it's a petty misdemeanor that does not result in any jail time until your third infraction. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/152.092 https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/152.092
    - edoceo 6y ago
      Anna Purna in Berkeley, CA used to have this sign: "these are water pipes not Bongs! You will be asked to leave" (c1995)
- yati 6y ago
  Git+your OS make it easy to acquire this software, Your browser and OS collude together to make it easy to run it, The elecric supply to your house makes it easy to run the computer that runs the OS, ... Do you really want a world where this scumbags should go after everything that "makes it easy" to do illegal activities?
- pc86 6y ago
  That piracy causes client damages is a debatable point. Studies have shown those who pirate software, movies, television, etc., will rarely use or consume that content if they didn't pirate it. I know way back when, when I pirated stuff voraciously, if I couldn't find something I just never read/saw/used it. Not once in my life have I spent days or weeks trying to pirate something only to turn around and pay for it. Some (not all) studies even show that in the case of software, piracy in some cases leads to legitimate use, i.e. purchasing. Now there's no doubt that piracy violates copyright law. We can debate whether or not that's a good thing, whether the laws in question are just, etc., until the end of time. But it's not a foregone conclusion that piracy has any negative economic impact on copyright holders.
  - Cloudef 6y ago
    https://gizmodo.com/the-eu-suppressed-a-300-page-study-that-found-piracy-do-1818629537 https://gizmodo.com/the-eu-suppressed-a-300-page-study-that-... there's study that says piracy actually boosts sales.
- roughly 6y ago
  An awful lot of tools provide the opportunity for their users to break the law, and yet we still sell those tools and place the onus of following the law on the users. While guns are the obvious example, lockpicks are widely and freely available, as are a whole host of other items with which one could commit nefarious deeds. Copyright law seems to be one of the only areas in which the fact that someone Could use a tool to commit a crime seems to be grounds for criminalizing the tool and not the act.
reacweb 6y ago
Maybe their purpose was Widevine. The youtube-dl takedown was a way to distract the attention. I don't think we should rejoice until Widevine is back.
- smnrchrds 6y ago
  I am out of the loop. What happened to Widevine?
  - boogies 6y ago
    https://hn.algolia.com/?q=widevine https://hn.algolia.com/?q=widevine
  - mmm_grayons 6y ago
    Some guy wrote a tool to intercept the keys for level three on windows. Most streaming services offer only low-quality streams with level three, but big G dmca'ed the repo and most forks. Mirrors are still up all over, though; here's one: https://github.com/kipyegonmark/widevine-l3-decryptor https://github.com/kipyegonmark/widevine-l3-decryptor
- tbodt 6y ago
  The widevine-l3-decryptor takedown wasn't filed by the RIAA
disown 6y ago
They are looking for that one time where people are either not paying attention or are too exhausted to care. What is the saying? We have to win every little battle, but all they have to do is win once. > generating a slew of copystrikes to justify their retainer fee. Considering how they were able to change social media to favor the copyright owners, I'm betting whoever is paying them feels the fees are justified.
- chungus_khan 6y ago
  > We have to win every little battle, but all they have to do is win once. "Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always." -Provisional IRA after almost assassinating Thatcher in a bombing

I have become convinced that the RIAA lawyers emerge from their crypts every few years, generating a slew of copystrikes to justify their retainer fee.

by saynay 6y ago

I have become convinced that the RIAA lawyers emerge from their crypts every few years, generating a slew of copystrikes to justify their retainer fee.

shmerl 6y ago

That's exactly what they do. Troll everyone they can reach.

greggturkington 6y ago

This software makes it easy for people to download copyrighted movies and the RIAA attorneys (at least some) are acting in good faith to prevent people from breaking copyright law and causing their client damages. Can someone argue against me please? (genuinely contribute to discussion by arguing against my own biases, call me a moron instead of downvoting)

pil4rin 6y ago
By this right, Zoom/ Google Meet / Teams have screen recording that would allow for this as well. How deep should we go down this hypothetical rabbithole?
chmod775 6y ago
Even if we take that as a given, my response would be: "Yes, so what?" The software also a long list of legitimate uses, as was demonstrated by the various prominent users that spoke up. I can use the camera on my phone to record a copyrighted movie, and thus circumventing the DRM, or just use a device like this: https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-USB3HDCAP-Video-Capture-Device/dp/B00PC5HUA6/ https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-USB3HDCAP-Video-Capture-... (analog VGA is probably preferred here, for lack of HDCP support). And that is only necessary if we're talking about some modern DRM that makes your OS work against you, so you can't directly capture with OBS or something. We're gonna ban all of those now?
evilduck 6y ago
Creating or providing a tool and using a tool are not the same action. Likewise, since there are legal fair use scenarios of copyrighted materials (short clips, criticism, satire, academic, etc) so even using the tool isn't inherently against the law and the person creating or providing the tools can't know and legally doesn't need to know the end user's intentions. Copyright lawyers working for the highest profile abuser of copyrights absolutely know the very basics of copyright law and are therefore acting in bad faith.
- schoolornot 6y ago
  Drug paraphernalia is still a crime in most places. Not sure what the equal to "spice grinder" here is.
  - thatcat 6y ago
    if there is no residue then classifying it as "drug paraphernalia" would be in bad faith
  - roughly 6y ago
    I don't know what the laws are on possession, but before marijuana was legalized it was far, far easier to buy a bong than the weed to smoke in it. I'm wracking my brain to try to think of a piece of drug paraphernalia that is illegal to sell or illegal to possess in the absence of the drugs themselves.
    - lozaning 6y ago
      In the state I live in it's illegal to to be in possession of any paraphernalia. Thats why you cant buy a bong anywhere, but can buy a water pipe at every corner store headshop. That being said it's a petty misdemeanor that does not result in any jail time until your third infraction. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/152.092 https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/152.092
  - edoceo 6y ago
    Anna Purna in Berkeley, CA used to have this sign: "these are water pipes not Bongs! You will be asked to leave" (c1995)
yati 6y ago
Git+your OS make it easy to acquire this software, Your browser and OS collude together to make it easy to run it, The elecric supply to your house makes it easy to run the computer that runs the OS, ... Do you really want a world where this scumbags should go after everything that "makes it easy" to do illegal activities?
pc86 6y ago
That piracy causes client damages is a debatable point. Studies have shown those who pirate software, movies, television, etc., will rarely use or consume that content if they didn't pirate it. I know way back when, when I pirated stuff voraciously, if I couldn't find something I just never read/saw/used it. Not once in my life have I spent days or weeks trying to pirate something only to turn around and pay for it. Some (not all) studies even show that in the case of software, piracy in some cases leads to legitimate use, i.e. purchasing. Now there's no doubt that piracy violates copyright law. We can debate whether or not that's a good thing, whether the laws in question are just, etc., until the end of time. But it's not a foregone conclusion that piracy has any negative economic impact on copyright holders.
- Cloudef 6y ago
  https://gizmodo.com/the-eu-suppressed-a-300-page-study-that-found-piracy-do-1818629537 https://gizmodo.com/the-eu-suppressed-a-300-page-study-that-... there's study that says piracy actually boosts sales.
roughly 6y ago
An awful lot of tools provide the opportunity for their users to break the law, and yet we still sell those tools and place the onus of following the law on the users. While guns are the obvious example, lockpicks are widely and freely available, as are a whole host of other items with which one could commit nefarious deeds. Copyright law seems to be one of the only areas in which the fact that someone Could use a tool to commit a crime seems to be grounds for criminalizing the tool and not the act.

reacweb 6y ago

Maybe their purpose was Widevine. The youtube-dl takedown was a way to distract the attention. I don't think we should rejoice until Widevine is back.

smnrchrds 6y ago
I am out of the loop. What happened to Widevine?
- boogies 6y ago
  https://hn.algolia.com/?q=widevine https://hn.algolia.com/?q=widevine
- mmm_grayons 6y ago
  Some guy wrote a tool to intercept the keys for level three on windows. Most streaming services offer only low-quality streams with level three, but big G dmca'ed the repo and most forks. Mirrors are still up all over, though; here's one: https://github.com/kipyegonmark/widevine-l3-decryptor https://github.com/kipyegonmark/widevine-l3-decryptor
tbodt 6y ago
The widevine-l3-decryptor takedown wasn't filed by the RIAA

disown 6y ago

They are looking for that one time where people are either not paying attention or are too exhausted to care. What is the saying? We have to win every little battle, but all they have to do is win once. > generating a slew of copystrikes to justify their retainer fee. Considering how they were able to change social media to favor the copyright owners, I'm betting whoever is paying them feels the fees are justified.

chungus_khan 6y ago
> We have to win every little battle, but all they have to do is win once. "Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always." -Provisional IRA after almost assassinating Thatcher in a bombing