Legal documents - Warez linking is legal.

[Lease]

Hi guys,



Need a quick favour from you guys,

Would anybody know of a web page, or some sort of legal document, that can support that warez linking is legal?



Thank you;)

[jirimail]

Wow, that would be awesome! When I used to have my sites on sharehost, i got always suspended for illegal warez linking! (now i have my own server, he he..)
Im gonna watch this topic, hope we have here some good warez lawyers :D

[Cøbra]

Get a lawyer. Only person who can do them for you. Won't come cheap though, lol.

[Masked]

1st reaction : Warez linking is illegal, anything that has anything to do with warez or cracks is illegal.

2nd reaction : Warez linking is apparently legal due to freedom of speech, as long as it isnt on your server
However, the person who owned tv-links.co.uk was simply linking and got raided for it!
an example (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071016-riaa-shifts-legal-battle-to-a-new-front-sues-usenet-access-provider.html)

[Cøbra]

Warez linking is illegal...

Warez linking is apparently legal...You're contradicting yourself there, mate.

[Masked]

corrected
these are 2 opposite reactions which resulted in legal fight ?
both are right in their own way !

[Cøbra]

Depends on what country the server's located in and possibly also what country you reside in.

(link (http://images.chillingeffects.org/512.html)) 17 U.S.C. Sec. 512. Limitations on liability relating to material online [DMCA Safe Harbor provisions] (which applies in the USA only):

Information Location Tools. - A service provider shall not be liable for monetary relief, or, except as provided in subsection (j), for injunctive or other equitable relief, for infringement of copyright by reason of the provider referring or linking users to an online location containing infringing material or infringing activity, by using information location tools, including a directory, index, reference, pointer, or hypertext link, if the service provider -
(1)
(A) does not have actual knowledge that the material or activity is infringing;
(B) in the absence of such actual knowledge, is not aware of facts or circumstances from which infringing activity is apparent; or
(C) upon obtaining such knowledge or awareness, acts expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material;
(2) does not receive a financial benefit directly attributable to the infringing activity, in a case in which the service provider has the right and ability to control such activity; and (3) upon notification of claimed infringement as described in subsection (c)(3), responds expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity, except that, for purposes of this paragraph, the information described in subsection (c)(3)(A)(iii) shall be identification of the reference or link, to material or activity claimed to be infringing, that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate that reference or link.Honestly, no one can be formally charged without an investigation followed by a successful conviction after a court case.

Because the Internet is (rapidly) ever-evolving, it's hard for the law to keep up with the various Internet technologies.

The DMCA, being quite vague, gives copyright owners, legal institutions and law enforcement agencies broad powers.

In other countries, it's a grey area, thus copyright owners resorting to "scare" tactics.

Also note that the owners of TV-Links and OiNK (both British) have not been formally charged (yet). Both are on-going investigations.

Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean you're off the hook and immune from prosecution.

Although we make up excuse after excuse, we all know we're "guilty" (debatable, I know). Proving that is just a legal nightmare (i.e. expensive and time-consuming).

[WarezBeast]

No disclaimer/documents will ever save you IF you live in the UK/USA (or any other place with the DMCA policy).

Anti-piracy groups & law enforcement officers will not go to your forum and read the disclaimer, they will find your location (and if successfull in doing that) will raid your home.

They can do fuck all in the long run, if/when they take you to court all you need is a decent lawyer and you'll get away with a slap on the wrist and a fine (if that!).

:D

[Cøbra]

The UK does not have DMCA. It is a purely American law and applies only in the US.

Honestly though, we all pirate. Even taping something on TV is violating copyright. Even cops do it. Law enforcement agencies are generally not proactive when it comes to tackling digital piracy. They only get involved in one of 2 instances:

Gangs are making huge profits from sales of counterfeit digital goods, thus drastically affecting revenue of the copyright holder.
There is pressure or they've been fed misleading information from another agency.

[Baby Jesus]

*bookmarks*

That'll come in handy some day I'm sure. Thanks Cøbra (http://katzforums.com/member.php?u=10)

[arunkumar2006]

It seems little funny coz lots of guys are not aware of practical life. If you would keep all profit alone that you made from piracy .. surely you will be in hands of cops but what happens in real life :
Here money is All in All
Normally a share of profit goes to ....... you all know what i want to say. So cops normally ignore this even they are well aware of this. If legal owner don claim then it is too fine but he can get you in court.
There is a hole in US law like you are not responsible for content that is uploaded by your community but you will have to remove it if legal owner of content do objection.
There are lots of illegal videos on youtube.com but this law saves youtube owners.
Same thing applied to other copyright materials.

I think you should check this about internet piracy coz it is little different
"code 431.322.12 of the Internet Privacy Act signed by Bill Clinton in 1995"

I think when money comes in way everything seems legal to law creators for example
"once paypal was accused to support illegal activity like online pokar and in many other activities (but i don want to expose here please try to find in old news websites ) by USA's investigation agency ( you all know name) , lots of thought it is end of paypal but but money again came in way and saved paypal as paypal had to pay millions of dollars as fine. "

Offshore servers are placed in those locations where these kind of piracy is allowed like hongcong and malesiya and of course some servers in canada also allow private uploading and linking but i can't expose name of this service provider sorry.

Ans yes me too have received warning three times but every time i removed content quickly so don get any problem that is best solution when someone object using DMCA policy.

[UltimA]

"Code 431.322.12 of the Internet Privacy Act signed by Bill Clinton in 1995" doesn't exist.

Warez Linking is 'legal' but 'not legal' per se.
As Cobra said, they've not charged anyone for it (yet), however they have hampered TV-Links and OiNK which in theory do what we do.
I can only put it down to the fact they only go after people who are 'worth it'.
TV-Links and OiNK were huge in what they did, and taking them down killed it somewhat.

Sites such as PornWZ, aren't significant to authorities so much due to a much smaller user base, and the fact it isn't unique (going after PornWZ, would only increase traffic on other sites)

The amount of legal hell it's going to take to get the TV-Links' and OiNK's owners charged will be enormous, so I can't see them trying this against every webmaster.
Currently, I view hosting companies that allow the user to link to warez as at the hosts [I]discretion, rather than legality.

Warez Hosting is a totally different ballgame.
That's legal nowhere -- whether in the United States or Hong Kong.
You've stated regarding a Canadian host allowing it; if they continue, they'll suffer the same fate as the US InterCage.
If you're uploading warez to your servers, you're playing with fire.

- UltimA

[arunkumar2006]

If linking and indexing is illegal then search engines should also come under radar if they provide search results from any warez site but it is truth lots of warez sites gets lots of traffic from search engines as i get around 30% of total traffic. I think Internet Piracy is so wired ...not easy to solve this for anyone coz of different laws in different countries and rapid development of technology ( technology always provide a new way to do may things as piracy and beat law by new ways coz law takes time to come under practice and technology always walks tow step ahead).

whenever i think broadly i feel we all copy lots of things in lots of ways like everyone learn and sometimes copy things from others .it is also somekind of pirating but no one can stop it coz it is natural. I can't say about everything but at least knowledge should be free coz this helps in development of humankind.

[WarezBeast]

Heres some advice that will serve you well... "Just dont get caught" :)

[arunkumar2006]

Heres some advice that will serve you well... "Just dont get caught" :)

Yeah it is very simple while giving as advice not so easy in real life if cops really are behind you. Every thing is traceable by high end technology when it comes to online investigation as by google earth your room can be easily traceable in any multistory building even your clear photograph can be taken if you are walking in street with your working mobile via satellite. but i think they have many other more important work rather than wasting time on these silly issues.

[matrixkid]

as by google earth your room can be easily traceable in any multistory building even your clear photograph can be taken if you are walking in street with your working mobile via satellite

Someone is paranoid.
I dont think theyre willing to go to that extent to track down a webmaster who owns a site with a couple thousand members.

Play it safe, dont be stupid. NEVER host any files on your server and always link to other site's content - meaning, always use rapid,mega or any other host.
If you are asked to remove the information on your site then do it. Dont mess with the big boss.

If you are paranoid, signup on your own forums with a new username, and never login to that account from your PC, always login via a remote desktop, or proxy. Use this account then to post all the information on your forums. No trace back to you if you know what you're doing.

Hope this helps the ones out there who are getting nervous....

[Th3obr0]

Does it mean that Katz will also come under the radar and the admins can be raided? :P

[invisible121]

It sounds like rapidshare is bribing a lot for not getting caught...

[Cøbra]

RapidShare complies with all take-down notices. They themselves are doing nothing wrong.

Same goes for Google. You can use Google's services to find pirated content. They themselves are doing nothing wrong.

It's like saying syringe (http://images.google.com/images?q=syringe) manufacturers can be held liable for their product being used by drug addicts/users. It's not their fault.

However, if you're knowingly doing it, then you're liable.

Some of you guys ramble a lot. Keep your replies short and to the point, please.

[Gismo]

Ok asked my brother's daughter about this she is a lawyer and does deal in copyright and all this kinda stuff, so as far as I know this applies to Australia, you will not get a lawyer or legal firm for that matter to write up any document stating that warez linking is legal, from what she told me it's a bit of a grey area in Australia at the moment, because you can download TV shows from certain sites here after they air on TV and this is advertised on TV after show airs, one example Supernatural (which does infringe copyright)

[WarezBeast]

If you are asked to remove the information on your site then do it. Dont mess with the big boss.
Are you kidding me or somthing =)

You go to all the trouble of finding an offshore host, clearly with the means of breaking copyright and then your just going to comply with some companies meaningless threat?! :|

So I guess if microsoft asks you to remove anything in relation to there copyright your just going to do it? (putting aside the fact thats likely to be a couple of hundred/thousand things and you'll be pissing off half your members...)

If your going to breach copyright, just do it, no point in doing it then trying to rectify it for some big dumbass company that sends you a nasty email.

Heres my disclaimer:
http://www.warezbeast.net/index.php?showtopic=4092

Back on topic... just dont worry about it, odds are so patheticly low of you getting caught, and even when you do its unlikely it'll ever get taken to court.

[arunkumar2006]

@ matrixkid it seems you are still kid in this age of internet. proxy site has been outdated when matter comes to investigation. Fingerprints of your hardware can be traced coz every network card has unique id then what will do proxy sites.

@lakshyak katz is not exception.

@invisible121 as i told in previous any hosting iste is not responsible for content that is uploaded by users but they must remove it if legal owner complains. Hosting compnies take advantage of a hole in US law.

@Gismo as i said there is not clear picture coz lots of peoples even governments also get benefited by these kind of stuffs.

[st0ne]

"Code 431.322.12 of the Internet Privacy Act signed by Bill Clinton in 1995" doesn't exist. [information (http://www.snopes.com/legal/privacy.asp)]

Glad you brought that up. I've brought this up to other webmasters of other forums, and have actually been banned for trying to help. Everyone thinks that line protects them, when its actually just a line of false bullshit.

Thanks for posting that ultima :)

[Vovachkka]

When Warez becomes legal, give me a call.

[Speedy63]

90 percent of what we do on sites like this and other dl sites is illegal why the hell are we worrying about being done for linking to warez sites. As one of the others just said, DON'T GET CAUGHT!!!!!!

[Lease]

Wow, look at the response.
Huge thanks to all who replied. :D