Quote:
Originally Posted by gideongallery
you really don't know the law, even the DMCA provides protections for torrents
it the same protection that search engines and file hosting providers lobbied for and got. To screw torrents you would have to take the protection away from search engines.
That means screwing google, microsoft and a whole lot of big money players
it not the head of pin legal.
|
You don't get it, do you?
The Pirate Bay fails the stink test because they specifically DON'T respond to notices of copyright material. You think "search engines don't have to", well, I got news for you dude. You need to go back and look at all that Perfect 10 has done with Google, from getting the image search function modified from it's original method to getting listings and domains removed from the SERPs.
Further, the piratebay not only operates the site (and profits from it) but they also operate the trackers, which is in integral part of the process of trading copyrighted material. Without the trackers, there would be no file trading. The trackers are the "closed network" (ala Napster) and steps could be taken at the tracker level to block copyrighted material. They choose not to do so, but rather choose to use this copyrighted material to make their search site more attractive to users. It isn't hard to see a direct relationship between the stolen content being offered for free, and that TPB directly benefits financially from the offerings provided by these trackers.
TPB could very easily exclude trackers that have copyright material. They choose not to, because it would kill the popularity of their site.
Please consider
http://digital-law-online.info/cases/37PQ2D1590.htm for an indication of how this works in the US (yes, I know, TPB isn't in the US... but I am citing it to show you how this stuff happens in the real world). Knowing supporting the operations of pirates and profiting from their actions, even indirectly, creates liability. It is one of the reasons why DMCA is such a powerful tool, because one the notice of liablity has been filed with a company, they have to work to take action of the liability is there to be proven in a court of law.
I think that it is clear that the MPAA, RIAA, and others are now very focused on TPB and the Swedish Government. I would not at all be shocked to see a combination of legal action and much more public pressure applied for the Swedes to take action to stop the very obvious and very blatant abuses of intellectual property.