[ForrestN]

A lot of Tumblr porn is actually very specifically (and astutely) curated. The few times I've visited, it's actually a much nicer experience than porn websites. If anything, I think Tumblr would be wise to lean into being, among other things, a space for the sharing of erotic content. Maybe there's some spam but it's pretty easy to find your way into non-spam on Tumblr in my experience.

[ionforce]

Isn't that a bit thorny since most of the content is copyrighted...

[devonkim]

My understanding of the Tumblr porn content is that they’re usually small clips and I believe under so many seconds doesn’t count under copyright infringement laws. However, nothing would be a problem if it was original content that had waivers and age of consent forms and such on file.

[kibwen]

> I believe under so many seconds doesn’t count under copyright infringement laws

Careful here. This appears to be referring to the concept of fair use, but firstly there are multiple criteria used to judge fair use (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#U.S._fair_use_factors), secondly these criteria are (intentionally) subjective and up to a judge's interpretation, and thirdly fair use is US-only.

[ryanplant-au]

The term fair use is US-only but many nations have similar concepts or concepts that overlap with it. Australia's 'fair dealing' policy allows for the use of copyrighted material without seeking approval if its purpose is in satire, research, reviewing, media criticism, or news reporting, for example. What's notable there is that length or amount used aren't as important, which has some positive effects but also some important negative ones (it would not be possible to create Google in Australia because taking the summary snippets and image thumbnails has no legal justification). Interestingly in the last big debate over loosening Australian copyright law and adopting broader fair use, the American MPAA was the biggest funder of opposition efforts.

[wyager]

> thirdly fair use is US-only.

That seems fine. In the interest of their userbase, companies should aim for the least copyright-damaged user experience possible; this means picking a single country (ideally one with liberal copyright law) and ignoring copyright law in other countries they aren’t based out of. If countries want to force their censorship standards, they can at least be honest about it and block the website (rather than silently deflecting the responsibility of censorship to the website itself).

[jstarfish]

Not your problem when the content is user-uploaded.

[jiggunjer]

tell that to piratebay

[jstarfish]

No.

They brought the heat on themselves when they decided to mock DMCA requests and cease and desists instead of accommodating them.

There's a reason 4chan, Reddit, imgur, Tumblr and its ilk all still exist in the age of copyright. None of them produce their own content-- it's all user submitted, and mostly in violation of some copyright or another.

Generally speaking, my understanding is that hosts aren't liable for user-uploaded content unless they curate or promote it (deletion notwithstanding). That changes their role to that of a content distributor/publisher instead of a mere platform. This is why backpage's CEO got arrested for human trafficking whereas craigslist's did not-- when challenged craigslist shut down its prostitution ads, but Backpage actively reworded and posted them and in doing so became their publisher.

[thaumasiotes]

The content uploaded to the pirate bay wasn't (isn't) copyrighted either.

[mschuster91]

Most on porn sites is, though.

[kristofferR]

Most on the internet too. Every image meme and reuploads of other images are basically also copyright violations.

[lugg]

This doesn't mean a company Tumblr's size can ignore it. Reddit, Google, Facebook, et al all need to consider these things as they operate.

I'm not saying they can't skirt the laws a little bit and get away with it, all I'm saying is they need to have awareness.

[kristofferR]

Nah, they just need to be vigilant about DMCA requests.

Due to the Safe Harbor rules in US copyright laws they don't really need to remove copyrighted content proactively. There's tons of subreddits exclusively dedicated to piracy that they don't care about.

[philipov]

Everything you say, and everything you think, is a copyright infringement. Pay up!