5 ms·

One has to wonder when our surveillance overlords will hack into torrent sites and steal user information so that they can easily score hundreds of high-profile

by ihsw 13y ago

One has to wonder when our surveillance overlords will hack into torrent sites and steal user information so that they can easily score hundreds of high-profile arrests for "IP Theft."

DanBC 13y ago
Copyright infringement isn't a criminal offence unless it's done as part of business. Thus, someone downloading or uploading torrents is not at any risk of "high profile arrests for 'IP Theft'". Most people don't do anything to hide their torrenting, so the information is all public anyway. I don't understand your point. Are you really trying to compare copyright infringement (usually not a criminal offence) with possession of drugs with intent to supply (a criminal offence, which can carry a prison sentence, and which has always been a serious crime)?
- harshreality 13y ago
  Copyright infringement isn't a criminal offence unless it's done as part of business. That's true in practice, mostly, but not true in theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NET_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NET_Act
  - DanBC 13y ago
    Ah, the context of the thread is UK, so I should have made that a bit more clear that I'm talking about UK law. Sorry. Thanks for the link though. Here's the UK stuff. Section 198 (http://www.ipo.gov.uk/cdpact1988.pdf http://www.ipo.gov.uk/cdpact1988.pdf) is the relevant bit here.
    - harshreality 13y ago
      198(1)(b), 198(1A)(b), 198(2)(b) say otherwise? The U.S. law, I think, but I haven't looked to refresh my memory, does something similar. It says it's only a crime if the value of the work(s) in question exceeds a dollar amount, on the premise that only someone seeking commercial advantage would share works of that much value. Ignoring, of course, that a lot of people who do a lot of p2p filesharing (completely not for profit) exceed those limits.
marijn 13y ago
You don't need to hack into sites for that—you can simply connect to a torrent and see the IPs that are uploading to you. This has been a very effective strategy in Germany, where ISPs will happily identify their users by IP, and courts will accept these IPs as proving the identity of the uploader.

by ihsw 13y ago

One has to wonder when our surveillance overlords will hack into torrent sites and steal user information so that they can easily score hundreds of high-profile arrests for "IP Theft."

DanBC 13y ago

Copyright infringement isn't a criminal offence unless it's done as part of business. Thus, someone downloading or uploading torrents is not at any risk of "high profile arrests for 'IP Theft'". Most people don't do anything to hide their torrenting, so the information is all public anyway. I don't understand your point. Are you really trying to compare copyright infringement (usually not a criminal offence) with possession of drugs with intent to supply (a criminal offence, which can carry a prison sentence, and which has always been a serious crime)?

harshreality 13y ago
Copyright infringement isn't a criminal offence unless it's done as part of business. That's true in practice, mostly, but not true in theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NET_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NET_Act
- DanBC 13y ago
  Ah, the context of the thread is UK, so I should have made that a bit more clear that I'm talking about UK law. Sorry. Thanks for the link though. Here's the UK stuff. Section 198 (http://www.ipo.gov.uk/cdpact1988.pdf http://www.ipo.gov.uk/cdpact1988.pdf) is the relevant bit here.
  - harshreality 13y ago
    198(1)(b), 198(1A)(b), 198(2)(b) say otherwise? The U.S. law, I think, but I haven't looked to refresh my memory, does something similar. It says it's only a crime if the value of the work(s) in question exceeds a dollar amount, on the premise that only someone seeking commercial advantage would share works of that much value. Ignoring, of course, that a lot of people who do a lot of p2p filesharing (completely not for profit) exceed those limits.

marijn 13y ago

You don't need to hack into sites for that—you can simply connect to a torrent and see the IPs that are uploading to you. This has been a very effective strategy in Germany, where ISPs will happily identify their users by IP, and courts will accept these IPs as proving the identity of the uploader.