Earlier, after review, we blocked and removed several communities that were providing assistance to access copyrighted/pirated material, which is currently not allowed per Rule #1 of our Code of Conduct. The communities that were removed due to this decision were:

We took this action to protect lemmy.world, lemmy.world’s users, and lemmy.world staff as the material posted in those communities could be problematic for us, because of potential legal issues around copyrighted material and services that provide access to or assistance in obtaining it.

This decision is about liability and does not mean we are otherwise hostile to any of these communities or their users. As the Lemmyverse grows and instances get big, precautions may happen. We will keep monitoring the situation closely, and if in the future we deem it safe, we would gladly reallow these communities.

The discussions that have happened in various threads on Lemmy make it very clear that removing the communites before we announced our intent to remove them is not the level of transparency the community expects, and that as stewards of this community we need to be extremely transparent before we do this again in the future as well as make sure that we get feedback around what the planned changes are, because lemmy.world is yours as much as it is ours.

  • pankuleczkapl@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    91
    arrow-down
    28
    ·
    1 year ago

    I think you don’t understand what a DMCA notice actually is. The whole point of it is to give you a chance to remove offending content. The “threat” of legal action won’t actually result in anything, provided you comply, and that is exactly why I do not understand the preemptive actions, when there is basically no such thing as immediate legal threat in case of DMCA notices. The copyright holders often do not want to go through the court system either and will gladly accept pre-legal-action compliance.

    • benji@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      The power of the panopticon lies not in being able to see and punish all deviant activity, but to encourage self-correction in all potential deviants who must always assume they are being watched.

    • AlmightySnoo 🐢🇮🇱🇺🇦@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      51
      arrow-down
      46
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      You seem to know your way around the law then, so please be the change you want to see in this world. Host a piracy instance and show everyone here that we were wrong and that the admins were just overreacting.

      • pankuleczkapl@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        38
        arrow-down
        16
        ·
        1 year ago

        I can openly admit I am breaking the law for example by using torrents for piracy - and I seed as much as I can, though it in theory makes me liable. So yes, I am the change I want to see - piracy should be free to discuss everywhere

      • Squander@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        14
        ·
        1 year ago

        Be the change you want to see -should be the catchphrase specifically for lemmy trolls

          • WraithGear@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            18
            arrow-down
            9
            ·
            1 year ago

            Criticism is not attacking. They made an unpopular decision for a flimsy reason. Its their right to do it, just like its their right to be wrong about it. But if they can’t handle mild criticism, then maybe hosting a lemmy instance was a bad idea.

            I think lemmy world will be fine with mildly annoyed comments and a bunch of down votes.

    • echo64@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      17
      ·
      1 year ago

      I think you don’t understand what a DMCA notice actually is. The whole point of it is to give you a chance to remove offending content.

      it really isn’t, the whole point is to streamline the capability for copyright holders to remove content they think they have rights to, without a lengthy court cases. it’s still a lot of overhead for any service to manage and also still opens you up to legal action.

      • pankuleczkapl@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        31
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        From DMCA.com:

        The document stipulates the content that has been stolen and republished without permission with a request for removal. It must be created and submitted in a specific manner so as to comply with the law. Failure to do so means the “notice” to remove the content will not be followed by any party involved in the infringement.

        In exchange for the immediate removal of the content the publisher receives safe harbor from litigation regarding the illegal publication of copyrighted content.

    • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      It doesn’t really have anything to do with DMCA (a US law). Lemmy world is hosted in Germany which is even harsher on copyright than the US with much stricter penalties.

      The world doesn’t revolve around the US.

      • pankuleczkapl@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        It does have a lot with DMCA. Maybe not specifically the DMCA, but all the relevant regulations all around the world that are equivalent to DMCA because of copyright treaties. And yes, while you are right about Germany being more dangerous in terms of piracy (mainly because of copyright trolls), the relevant authority handling the case could very well be the USA court system.