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GitHub has received a DMCA from MPA about torrent tracker nyaa.si

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Re: GitHub has received a DMCA from MPA about torrent tracker nyaa.si

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft would never do that unless their hands were forced. Too much potential business with them. We could try forcing their hands by removing all our code from Github?

More effective would be those who are at orgs paying for Github Enterprise to express to their account managers they'll take their business elsewhere if Github is unable to defend it's platform from malicious actors. Github don't care if you take your code elsewhere. They most definitely care about revenue (and developer mindshare a somewhat close second).

Such a claim is pretty weak, actually. MS would not be held responsible for code in someone's GHE instance any more than they would for a movie stored on an NTFS file system.

So the sales rep is likely just going to be confused by the attempt to use unrelated leverage.

Re: GitHub has received a DMCA from MPA about torrent tracker nyaa.si

#112
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't, however, baselessly propagate their claims. As far as I can tell it's bullshit. The source code may be for nyaa.si but it just contains normal torrent tracker code. Take a look at the files listed: > https://github.com/nyaadevs/nyaa/blob/master/utils/api_info.... Online here: https://gitlab.com/SIGBUS/nyaa/-/blob/master/utils/api_info.... See anything remotely suggestive? Not I. > https://github.com/nya…

how about trackers.txt ?

See, I still think that's innocuous since it does not list any particular infringing links. For example, Google has no issues showing us opentrackr.org.

And yet, it is completely absent from the DMCA takedown, which signals to me that they really did no work at all before making this takedown.

Re: GitHub has received a DMCA from MPA about torrent tracker nyaa.si

#113
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal computers make copyright infringement possible. They need to go .

I guess this is exactly what Apple thinks when they remove root from your devices.

$ sudo whoami

root

Re: GitHub has received a DMCA from MPA about torrent tracker nyaa.si

#114
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't, however, baselessly propagate their claims. As far as I can tell it's bullshit. The source code may be for nyaa.si but it just contains normal torrent tracker code. Take a look at the files listed: > https://github.com/nyaadevs/nyaa/blob/master/utils/api_info.... Online here: https://gitlab.com/SIGBUS/nyaa/-/blob/master/utils/api_info.... See anything remotely suggestive? Not I. > https://github.com/nya…

how about trackers.txt ?

a link to a list of trackers it no more illegal than publishing the public street address of a business that sells products that are illegal in certain jurisdictions (texas dildo law, anyone?)

Re: GitHub has received a DMCA from MPA about torrent tracker nyaa.si

#115
>Specifically, at the URL, the Repository hosts and offers for download the Project, which, when downloaded, provides the downloader everything necessary to launch and host a “clone” infringing website identical to Nyaa.si (and, thus, engage in massive infringement of copyrighted motion pictures and television shows).

I'd like for Motion Picture Association to publish a step-by-step guide on how I can engage in massive infringement of copyrighted motion pictures and television shows using this piece of software.

Because I imagine at some point in the guide they'd tell me to generate torrent files of copyrighted files I have and upload them to the site, which is really outside of this project.

Or is Nginx also infringing because when downloaded, it allows me to start engaging in massive infringement of copyrighted motion pictures and television shows by enabling directory indexing and uploading MP4s?

Re: GitHub has received a DMCA from MPA about torrent tracker nyaa.si

#116
post #98

The title is misleading. This isn't some generic torrent tracker. The repo in question is the source of a specific site - nyaa.si [0] which according to the complaint is preconfigured to share copyrighted material: > The identified files and code are preconfigured to find and provide infringing copies of our Members’ film and tv content to Nyaa.si users in violation of copyright law. This is probably what makes this…

Please don't, however, baselessly propagate their claims. As far as I can tell it's bullshit. The source code may be for nyaa.si but it just contains normal torrent tracker code. Take a look at the files listed: > https://github.com/nyaadevs/nyaa/blob/master/utils/api_info.... Online here: https://gitlab.com/SIGBUS/nyaa/-/blob/master/utils/api_info.... See anything remotely suggestive? Not I. > https://github.com/nya…

They DCMA doesn't say that the repo was used to host copyrighted material:

>The identified files and code are preconfigured to find and provide infringing copies of our Members’ film and tv content to Nyaa.si users in violation of copyright law.

They are basically saying "this is the codebase for nyaa.si, and as proof here are a bunch of files that prove that assertion". What I don't understand is the legal grounds they have to compel GitHub to remove the repository. It would be like if I removed ffmpeg from github because freestreams.tv was using it to power their backend.

Re: GitHub has received a DMCA from MPA about torrent tracker nyaa.si

#117
It would be great if the code for GitHub was on GitHub so that people could host their own.

How far are we removed from: “please remove this book on C++, as individuals may learn how to pirate music from Britney Spears using the knowledge herein”

Re: GitHub has received a DMCA from MPA about torrent tracker nyaa.si

#118
post #9

The MPA seems to be getting braver with these takedowns, considering how quickly the youtube-dl one got flipped around. This one seems particularly shaky as you could not use it to explicitly download anything - rather to host data of your own (with no explicit requirement for it to be unauthorized copyright violation). EDIT: perhaps just a ploy to unmask the authors of the torrent site?

The youtube-dl demands were from the RIAA (Recording Industry Artist’s Association). This is from the MPA (Motion Picture Association), the only one of the three major supporters of SOPA and PIPA that GitHub’s parent company (Microsoft) is not an official member of (the third is the ESA — Entertainment Software Association).

Re: GitHub has received a DMCA from MPA about torrent tracker nyaa.si

#119
Note that there are various older forks [1] [2] available that allow to verify that the project isn't in fact "preconfigured to find and provide infringing copies of our Members’ film and tv content". The most 'incriminating' file is "api_uploader_v2.py", which lists categories such as "6_2 - Software - Games". Which is not infringing at all.

While unrealistic, it's technically possible that some of the files have changed (significantly) since June 12 2019, the last commit of [1]. However, it's very unlikely that the database migration file, 2bceb2cb4d7c_add_comment_count_to_torrent.py, would have been changed.

[1] https://github.com/marwanpro/nyaa

[2] https://github.com/crf444/nyaa

Re: GitHub has received a DMCA from MPA about torrent tracker nyaa.si

#120
post #79
post #39

Reading the complaint, it's clear their focus is not on generic tracker source code but on copyrighted file metadata being preloaded into the tracker source code: > The identified files and code are preconfigured to find and provide infringing copies of our Members’ film and tv content to Nyaa.si users in violation of copyright law.

Yes, people should really read the DMCA before jumping into conclusions. I see a lot of false assumptions in the comments.

In the defense of the falsely-assuming people the actual legally actionable bits are all the way at the end of the complaint, and the first few paragraphs sound like the MPA is alleging that merely publishing the source code of a BitTorrent tracker is itself infringement.

I swear, it's almost as if the people who work for these publisher trade groups are trying to pull aggro and look crazy.

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