[deepnet]

Unfortunately in many juristictions seeding is copyright infringement and leeching is not.

Seeding by default sadly gets a lot of newbs into trouble - especially as publicising IP addresses are part of the protocol.

Porn blackmail companies and MPAA agents know that seeders are low hanging fruit.

Similarly Limewire and ilk using the downloads folder as a default share folder is useful for the health of the network but this has led many to be unwitting uploaders - which is what they got done for.

Jammie Thomas is a case in point, newb music fan (or her kids I recall) but the sharing by default is what she was convicted of - for $30,000,000.

No one has ever been convicted of downloading alone - they don't bother trying.

So seeding by default can be very cruel - sadly.

Even with that caveat, those like Jammie, brought up on Sesame Street were taught to share and don't know how severe tne penalties can be.

That sharing is or can be wrong is now taught at a nursery level.

[claudius]

> Unfortunately in many juristictions seeding is copyright infringement and leeching is not.

At least in Germany, both leeching and seeding are copyright infringements as soon as you upload any data back into the swarm. Since leeching also does this (though not exclusively), it is also copyright infringement. Pure downloading is not, though, which is why streaming websites (just downloading, no uploads) are fairly popular here.

[deepnet]

Yes by leech only I meant downloading alone.

Well clarified thanks.

[amelius]

This is why bittorrent should have included passwords. If everybody uses the same password (e.g., "cyberpunk"), then everybody could download each other's files, while the liability would lie purely with the leecher (because he broke into someone else's machine by guessing the password).

[loup-vaillant]

> That sharing is or can be wrong is now taught at a nursery level.

Really? This is yet another step closer to "The Right to Read". Such a waste. We should end scarcity, not create it artificially.

[maldusiecle]

Where are you getting 30 million from? Her initial fine was $220k, a later appeal upped it to 1.2 mil, then back to $54k, and the final ruling was $220k. (Source: wikipedia.)

Which is still a crazy result, but it helps no one to make up numbers that are several orders of magnitude higher than the real ones.

[deepnet]

Yes of course, thanks for the correction - I'd edit but the hour is up - going back over the case, enraging injustice.

The sum you mention was the 1st amount, on appeal this was raised to $1,920,000, then lowered to $54,000, appealed again to $1,500,000, then appealed to $54,000, appealed finally in 2013 to $220,000.

She denied ever using Kazaa and no such files were recovered from her hard drive.

Conviction was on IP address alone from MediaSentry.

* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Records,_Inc._v._Tho...

Over six years in court, mess your life up some, threats began in 2005, so 8 years of harrasment over 24 songs.

IMHO the many years she was dragged through the courts already more than sufficient.

Flippin bonkers.

[branchless]

A regular person hit for 30 mm. USA is insane.