Supposing I’m Fred The Fed and I want to shut down Hexbear.net

What if I try to make a case that admins tolerate sharing copyrighted material in violation of Statute XYZ, so the site is illegal and should be seized.

You might say, “Copyright laws are dumb, man! Who cares!” but that doesn’t matter. Tell that to the law.

Should we get a lawyer’s advice on this? What steps does the site need to take to avoid heat?

  • Feinsteins_Ghost [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    exactly what conversations about piracy does this site have? and why would you try to make the case? copyright laws are dumb. but exactly what laws are being broken here? ‘hell yeah pirate all the things’ isnt exactly illegal, nor is it sharing copyrighted materials.

    • Hurvitz [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      3 months ago

      people sharing links to copyrighted material (mega links to patreon content, links to video game repacks, etc.) and instructions. Probably not illegal for the site to host since its just links, and ancillary to the primary purpose of the site, and it probably helps that we aren’t hosted in the US, but still a bit questionable, enough to cause some headaches at a minimum if someone really wanted to come after us.

      If we actually attract serious attention from feds I doubt copyright would be the worst of our concerns though. More likely is just DMCA complaints and the like. Not sure how those work when you’re hosted in EU, I’m sure there’s some amount of reciprocity but idk the details