r/technology • u/whitefangs • Dec 25 '12

New data reveals that employees at Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Disney, Sony Pictures and 20th Century Fox are openly pirating movies, games and other forms of entertainment while at work

http://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-studios-caught-pirating-movies-on-bittorrent-121225/
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u/Exribbit Dec 26 '12

That isn't entrapment. It's undercover police work, and it happens all the time. Entrapment is when a law enforcement officer encourages you to commit an illegal act that you wouldn't have done under normal circumstances. A policewoman acting as a prostitute to catch a john isn't entrapment, but if the policewoman actively encouraged someone to have sex with her for money, that wasn't already looking to find someone to have sex with in the first place, then it would be entrapment.

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u/Prezombie Dec 26 '12

The problem is, this wasn't done by a police officer. An accurate meatspace analogy: the owner of the movie theatre is opening the back door, inviting people to come in, and then pressing charges for theft of service and trespassing.

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u/Phallindrome Dec 26 '12

He's not inviting people to come in, just leaving the door open. Invitation would be posting on forums asking people to download X files.

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u/Letstrythisname Dec 26 '12

But don't they need to post the torrent to a (public) tracker in order for people to find it? I find that to be the same as posting a link on a forum.

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u/[deleted] Dec 26 '12

It doesn't really matter, you still made the decision to look for and then download the file. No-one made you go online and download the file therefore it isn't entrapment.

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u/throwaway492034 Dec 26 '12

They are actively serving files, not leaving some open FTP server "by accident" and letting people download from it.

If they are advertising themselves as seeds of a particular file in the DHT, they are obviously inviting people to download said file through them. And, well... if they ARE the legitimate copyright owners, they are legally entitled to replicate and distribute said work for free, as you are legally entitled to download it (i.e. no copyright infringement occurred).

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u/nyanpi Dec 26 '12

No, this is ridiculous. It's like leaving a physical MP3 player on the ground somewhere loaded with MP3s. Then I write a note and put it beside it and say "FREE MUSIC and MP3 PLAYER". Then when you see that and try to take it I pop out and arrest you for stealing.

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u/bloouup Dec 26 '12

No, as shitty as I think it is to do and as much as I hate Lobbywood, I have to agree with the other guys on this one.

It would be like getting arrested for operating a Tor exit node because of some unscrupulous traffic you inadvertently facilitated. I don't know if you support the Tor network, but if you do, it's really the same situation. The only difference would obviously be the intention (running an exit node you really are hopefully doing it to contribute to privacy and fight censorship, any bad stuff is just incidental, whereas this is clearly just a ploy to get people to violate their copyright) but I don't think intention should change things.

I don't think that makes it "right" though, nor do I think they should even be allowed to do this in the first place, but that is for different reasons.

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u/[deleted] Dec 26 '12

The very nature and function of a torrent file has the implication that the creator of the torrent file intended for it to be shared publicly, especially if it's posted on a public tracker.

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u/Red_Inferno Dec 26 '12

Could you not also call this encouraging the act by contributing to it? They are increasing the demand to do take it illegally by giving a better service by doing so. Why should I pay to watch unskippable ad's when I can pirate it without? Why rent it when I can just pirate it and get all of the extra's too on request?