About illegally downloaded materials...

WhiteWashMan

Doctor J wrote:

OK, I'm no legal law guy, so I asked IRMA, their response is



So I guess that clears things up?

excellent, they used more words than i did to say the same thing though...

Doctor J wrote:

very grey area?

apparently not

Doctor J

Ahhh you misquote me WWM, I was never under the impression that it was anything other than very definitely illegal

WhiteWashMan

sorry, so i did.

ai ing

Doctor J wrote:

OK, I'm no legal law guy, so I asked IRMA

Yeah, theres an impartial source of information alright. It is understandable that boards want to stay well clear of the grey areas though. Grey areas only stay grey until it gets tested in a court.

Karl Hungus wrote:

First of all, Lost is a TV show that's being broadcast in the US ahead of Ireland. We've also got quite a number of users who are from the US, so it's perfectly reasonable to assume that there's a number of people who are discussing the latest episodes of Lost are from the states, and saw that episode as it was broadcast on TV.

Thats a load of bollocks and you know it. Just because there is not as risky to let this go as it is for music does not make it right. It is still dicussion of pirated media.

steveland?

I've never liked the "cousins" analogy. I'd much prefer if people would just discuss the episode and not fill the first 2 or 3 pages of episode discussions with "Oh my cousin is sending it to me as we speak, the package should arrive in the next 2 hours 35 minutes and 3 seconds"

That's why for a while I was locking the episode discussion threads until the episode had actually been aired (that and stopping people voting before they'd seen the show) but I haven't had much time recently to do that because it means I have to be online straight away in the morning to unlock it.

I'd like it to stop and for people to just discuss the show but it's not going to happen...

On a side note this is a good article about illegal downloading. There's a good argument there about how, when Battlestar Galactica first aired, it was available for download which generated huge hype around it and generated record viewers in the states. Same with Doctor Who.

While you might assume the SciFi Channel saw a significant drop-off in viewership as a result of this piracy, it appears to have had the reverse effect: the series is so good that the few tens of thousands of people who watched downloaded versions told their friends to tune in on January 14th, and see for themselves. From its premiere, Battlestar Galactica has been the most popular program ever to air on the SciFi Channel, and its audiences have only grown throughout the first series. Piracy made it possible for "word-of-mouth" to spread about Battlestar Galactica.

Now I don't condone discussing how/where to download the episodes but I don't think discussing the content of the episodes hurts in any way. If no-one had downloaded the first series of Lost when it came out would there have been as much hype in Ireland and the UK when it started?

I'd imagine it would've just been another show RTE put on for 3 weeks on prime time and then relegated to the depths of 1am on a Sunday or something...

Doctor J

ai ing wrote:

Yeah, theres an impartial source of information alright.

Sure, but is there anyone else here more qualified? Are you suggesting the guy lied?

Karl Hungus

ai ing wrote:

Thats a load of bollocks and you know it. Just because there is not as risky to let this go as it is for music does not make it right. It is still dicussion of pirated media.

I didn't say it was right, I simply said more caution should be taken.

CuLT

ai ing wrote:

Thats a load of bollocks and you know it. Just because there is not as risky to let this go as it is for music does not make it right. It is still dicussion of pirated media.

How can you possibly claim that discussing a tv show even might be illegal?

It boggles the mind.

Tar.Aldarion

CuLT wrote:

How can you possibly claim that discussing a tv show even might be illegal?

It boggles the mind.

Discussing illegally downloaded episodes, the downloading was illegal...

damien

Nothing wrong with discussing something that has only aired in America. Boards won't get in trouble for that. If people give instructions on how to download it, then that's a different matter. However Boards can be taken to court to reveal the identities of those that discussed the new Tool album or Lost TV show that has yet to be released to the public.

I don't see anything wrong with discussing P2P tools like Bittorrent and their ilk either, the same way someone can discuss hammers and the best kind of hammers to use. It is only when the discussion turns to "How to commit a crime using a hammer" that it becomes a bit iffy for Boards Ltd.

Grey areas only stay grey until it gets tested in a court.

Nicely said ai ing

Orion

Doctor J wrote:

You're making an unauthorised copy, not the uploader.

Both are making a copy. Both are illegal. The reason uploaders are targetted is to get the source. There are thousands of downloaders but a select few uploaders. Naturally they'll be replaced by others but that's the principle behind it. To use IRMA's (*cough* *spit*) analogy it's like chasing down drug dealers instead of users.

Regarding copyright - Brad Templeton has a very good myth-busting explanation here.

Doctor J

Taken rather out of context, that one, I was referring to the previous post where it was claimed

By that definition the uploader is infringing on copyright, not the downloader.

I was making the point that when a download is initiated, it is the downloader who is making the copy at that moment, not the uploader who has already made a copy, both are clearly violations of copyright.

Fighting Irish

flogen wrote:

From a legal point of view boards.ie could, as is my understanding, get in a lot of trouble by allowing people to post links to p2p clients, torrent sites etc. that hosted illegal downloads of any nature=

No it couldn't!!!!

If something was hosted here or someone posted a link to a torrent then maybe(very very unlikely) but if i posted a link to where someone could download a p2p program e.g. kazaa, bearshare nothing could be done to boards, but yes i agree all the forums have slightly different rules on it, i think a rule should be made that bans all talking about it forum wide

WhiteWashMan

as with everything on here, i think common sense should rule the day.

p2p applications are not illegal.
talking about any material is not illegal.

what we dont want here are anything to do with getting material illegally.

how people get it in their own homes in their own time is up to them.
as pointed out before, boards.ie is not a moral compass.
if people want to download illegal material, thats up to them, and its nothing to do with boards.ie.

so i reckon if people are giving details of how to get hold of something, or asking for info on how to do it, it should be deleted.

if people are discussing a song, album, movie whatever, then its none of boards.ie business how that person saw, got or listened to it.

as long as boards.ie is not responsible for people geting material, then no foul.

thats the way i see it.

on the other hand, if karl wants to do something about an album thats not even on the shelves as yet, then thats up to him.
i think the lost forum has it right.
chat about the episodes, but we dont want any discussion on facilitating people on how to get them.