Court blocks $1 billion copyright ruling that punished ISP for its users’ piracy::“Cox did not profit from its subscribers’ acts of infringement,” judges rule.
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wtf is that stock image lmao
That’s clearly an internet pirate. That’s the man costing Hollywood billions of dollars.
…so…he is a Hollywood CEO then?
Wouldn’t this be equal to suing Ford for making the get away car?
Yes, but also no - and be careful, you’re asking this around people who absolutely do hold manufacturers morally responsible for what people do with products bought from them. See e.g. any discussion of gun control on here.
If you want to draw an analogy between traffic and the internet, the ISP is your provider of roads; your PC+router+modem is your car. So this is much, much closer to suing the state for building and maintaining the road the getaway car used.
Also, there’s no cleanly analogous crime - “getaway car” sounds like a comparison to robbery, but no-one here was robbed. Sony’s argument for damages would have been based on theoretical sales it didn’t make, arguing that its government-issued monopoly on its IP automatically implies anyone pirating content would have paid them for it.
So here’s an even closer analogy: you sell marijuana in a state with a fixed number of dispensary licenses, and you are the only person in your neighborhood with a license. You set up shop. Someone else shows up in a van and gives away pot for free; your sales go down. You sue the state for providing the road the van used to do this.
None of those analogies really work as there are certain protections which could be required by law by ISPs, for example. In some countries porn is blocked. In others, drugs. If you allow drugs to be dealt in a school as the principal, you are going down.
Comparing it to guns (which have few intended consequences)… Yeah nah mate.
No analogy is ever going to be perfect when you try to look into the details too much… that’s why it’s an analogy.
Right, but that one was pretty poor.
Maybe closer to cars not having limiters to prevent speeding.
They could. The tech exists. Even to lock it to specific speed limits (not just an upwards cap) using GPS.
But most would say that’s overreaching. Until an insurance company sues/lobbies for it because it would improve their bottom line to force drivers to drive more responsibly by legally pushing the manufacturers to add limiters.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A federal appeals court today overturned a $1 billion piracy verdict that a jury handed down against cable Internet service provider Cox Communications in 2019.
If the correct legal standard had been used in the district court, “no reasonable jury could find that Cox received a direct financial benefit from its subscribers’ infringement of Plaintiffs’ copyrights,” judges wrote.
The case began when Sony and other music copyright holders sued Cox, claiming that it didn’t adequately fight piracy on its network and failed to terminate repeat infringers.
Cox’s appeal was supported by advocacy groups concerned that the big-money judgment could force ISPs to disconnect more Internet users based merely on accusations of copyright infringement.
If not overturned, this decision will lead to an untold number of people losing vital Internet access as ISPs start to cut off more and more customers to avoid massive damages."
In today’s 4th Circuit ruling, appeals court judges wrote that “Sony failed, as a matter of law, to prove that Cox profits directly from its subscribers’ copyright infringement.”
The original article contains 543 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
That is an excellent photo.
You know, I saw a guy the other day with an honest to goodness eyepatch. First time I’ve ever seen one in the wild.
Guy looked like older Snake from Metal Gear Solid, but clearly wasn’t cosplaying or anything like that. I assume most people with one eye just get a fake one here. If only to avoid all the pirate jokes that he probably gets.
Oh man, story time!
I like to stab people competitively. One of the risks you run is that they stab you back.
About 20 years ago now I was sparring with a pal of mine. We were using shinai - a Japanese sparring sword made of four slats of bamboo lashed together with leather. My pal drew back for a pull thrust and I deflected it with a move where I stepped back and lifted my blade to direct the thrust above my head.
… Only I forgot to step back. Instead of redirecting the thrust harmlessly above myself, I brought the tip of his shinai directly into my right eye. (Stupidly, I wasn’t wearing any protective gear.) The inch-wide tip smashed my eye down and collided with the back of my eye socket.
I hit the ground, blind, weeping blood and in the most pain I’ve ever experienced.
Fortunately, I kept the eye… but I was seeing triple due to the swelling in my socket. So I bought an eye patch and wore it until I healed.
During my convalescence I happened to have a really shitty day. It was a cold winter day and I was running late to work. My car ran out of gas a mile short. I had to run the last mile in the cold and wet, already late and getting more frustrated every moment.
By the time I reached the parking lot for my shitty retail job, I was in a foul mood.
… Now at this point in my life I wore a frankly excessive amount of black leather. Black leather boots. Black leather jacket. Black leather gloves. My pants were black too, but they were at least denim.
So imagine if you will - a six foot tall man, wearing all black leather and an eyepatch, stalking angrily across the parking lot with a baleful expression.
People were getting the fuck outta my way. Gazes averted, people turned their heads and just dipped.
… Until The Boy. A pale haired kid of about five or six was being towed out of my path by his mushroom- haired mother - but he was rooted to the spot. Staring at me with unabashed excitement, he slipped free of his mother’s grasp and shouted, “Look Mom! A Pirate!”
I started guffawing, bad mood instantly gone. Mushroom-Mom grabbed her kid and started dragging him away. I called after them “It’s okay!” But with a mumbled “No, it’s not”, she dragged the boy into their car and fled.
… And I went to work, Pirate King of the K-Mart.
I absolutely love that story!
A tall angry dude dressed all in black leather with an eyepatch definitely would give me Snake Plissken vibes; either that or someone from an anime :D
Ha ha - thank you! I love that story too.
Welp, here goes my confidence in wearing an eye patch. And yeah, I don’t have one eye and for the longest time think that it’d be cool to wear one.
My dude - eye patches are cool. I only had to wear one for a few weeks, story in my other comment, but for real an eyepatch is an awesome opportunity.
Get - or make - yourself a nice eye patch. Own it. Don’t settle for plain black or tan. Get it embroidered. Bedazzle it. Get yourself patches in different colors and patterns.
An eyepatch is always gonna be noticed, so don’t try for subtle. Lean into it instead and make it fucking awesome.
My wife is an embroiderer, so I actually like the idea, thanks!
Please do wear one if you want to! That guy made my day; he looked like a badass.
It’s such a rare thing to see, you’ll probably get a few jokes. But also some really fun interactions I imagine. If nothing else, you’ll give some kids a fun story to tell about that pirate they met :D
Wear one, but occasionally switch eyes, see if anyone notices
Now that would be a real challenge!
