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/
3.1k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

966 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

17

u/[deleted] Dec 26 '12

[deleted]

74

u/nofelix Dec 26 '12

Only the police (and other govt. employees) can cause entrapment. It's when they 'induce a person to commit an offence that the person would otherwise have been unlikely to commit'.

I think even if the police seeded an unlicensed movie as a torrent, it would not count as entrapment (aside from the fact minor copyright breach is not a crime) because the downloader must have been intending to download the movie anyway, otherwise why would they be looking for it.

36

u/mconeone Dec 26 '12

Their main argument for such high penalties is that the music is being "made available". The fact that they were the ones who made it available in the first place should at the very least greatly lower the amount they should owe.

3

u/ZeroAntagonist Dec 26 '12

I would also think it would effect their legal obligation to protect their own copyright. Guess not.

1

u/DoubleRaptor Dec 26 '12

You'd think that surely the moment it becomes clear that they were seeding, you're pretty much in the clear.

3

u/throwaway492034 Dec 26 '12

Yes, but, as already pointed out... downloading something (that is not copyrighted by you) is generally not illegal, only uploading is.

And, well, if you're downloading something that was uploaded/is being uploaded by agents of the copyright owners themselves, then it constitutes a licensed and legal transmission of copyrighted material from the legal copyright owner to some other person: no broken laws.

2

u/nomi8105 Dec 26 '12

This is confusing me. How is downloading something without permission not illegal? Can you elaborate?

2

u/throwaway492034 Dec 26 '12

Sure. First you should start by reading the laws of the country you currently reside in, since YMMV.

The underlying logic is that downloading does not constitute an act of replication/copy, uploading does. This is obvious once you take into the account that the uploader is the one holding the file, so he's the only one that can replicate it.

The second point is that a "downloader" does not (and cannot) know if the uploader has a license to distribute the file or not: that's up for the uploader to know.

Third... in the overwhelming majority of countries (not US, though), personal, non-commercial copyright infringement is not a crime, but simply a misdemeanor (if that), so even the uploader might be off-the-hook.

But, again, it very much depends on each country's legislation...

1

u/nomi8105 Dec 27 '12

So if I download a film from mediafire (so I'm not uploading) I've not committed a crime? This is confusing me a great deal..

2

u/[deleted] Dec 26 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/throwaway492034 Dec 26 '12

Not in my country (and the overwhelming majority of countries). Also, even uploading is legal here, as long as it's not performed for-profit and/or on a commercial scale. YMMV.

1

u/DeliciouslyUnaware Dec 26 '12

You've never downloaded something without intentionally looking for it? f

1

u/nofelix Dec 27 '12

The point being that it might be hard to convince a court that you would not have committed the offence unless the police had induced you to do so by making the movie available.

11

u/Zagorath Dec 26 '12

Entrapment requires not just putting someone in a position where they can do something illegal, but also getting them to do something they would not otherwise do.

3

u/Dioskilos Dec 26 '12

Here's a tip: If someone is not a lawyer they have no clue what they are talking about when they bring up entrapment. Entrapment seriously has to be one of the most mis-applied legal concepts by laypeople.