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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

#121

Post by Macha »

cjaybo wrote: post #55
sodality2 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doubt, there would be no reason for it to be copyrighted material, it would just be a torrent test

Couldn't the same thing have been said for the problematic youtube-dl test case?

The issue with the youtube-dl case was that certain copyrighted video pages did have a different structure, so they needed to test they could parse that page correctly.

There's no technical difference between a torrent containing ArchLinux.iso and TheBeatlesDiscography.zip however.

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

#122

Post by Hamuko »

themacguffinman wrote: post #85
afavour wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's weird that we expect Github to do that, in a way. The repo might well be hosted on there for free, but we all want Github to spend a ton in legal fees to defend something they make zero cash from. I'm not sure what my point is here other than finding it sad that code hosting is so centralised.

I think it's in Github's interests to push back on this. MPA's dubious legal requests likely cost Github time, money, and PR to resolve properly. It adds up over time and I doubt any company wants to be caught in the middle of an arms-race conflict like this, nipping it in the bud could very well be worth the upfront legal fees.

I imagine MPA would also be emboldened by this if Github removes the Nyaa repository forever on what is basically a pretty flimsy basis ("Nyaa.si uses the code and that's a piracy website so the code itself is piracy").

What's next? Transmission and rtorrent?

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

#123

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

slg wrote: post #48
toomuchtodo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Github needs to go on the offensive and begin to take action against fraudulent DMCA notices, including justification to seek damages for these claims.

IANAL, but I am pretty sure Microsoft has little recourse here. The requests would need to be knowingly fraudulent for recourse and that is a huge hurdle to prove that the MPA is knowingly acting in bad faith rather than just being overaggressive. The DMCA desperately needs to be reworked at the very least.

You don't go after the MPA. You bring charges against their lawyers who are acting in bad faith and submitting fraudulent documents.

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

#124

Post by fireattack »

jniedrauer wrote: post #110

This site is mainly used to share Japanese media. The streaming services have really dropped the ball in this area. They either don't simulcast to other parts of the world (netflix), offer terrible subtitles that are worse than fan translations (netflix, crunchyroll), or just plain never release content for international audiences. I pay for every relevant streaming service I can, and even when I can access legal, of…

The coverage of Anime in some countries (such as the US) are a lot better than before though.

Can't speak of translation quality as I don't watch English-sub, but they have no problem with simulcast. As a matter of fact, lots of popular animes released on Nyaa.si nowadays are directly ripped from Crunchyroll/Funimation/etc. TVrips from Japan, which were the main source before, are actually getting rarer and rarer.

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

#125

Post by niea_11 »

Confiks wrote: post #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 ch…

You can still download the zip file of the repository through archive.org.

And there is no direct link (took a quick look) to copyrighted content in the source code. If they shutdown the main site, without a data backup, the code is useless. Users will have to re-upload and re-seed the torrents they have.

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

#126

Post by zucker42 »

maltalex wrote: post #63

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…

> This is probably what makes this complaint possible.

What makes this complaint possible is that the MPA blatantly expands the scope of copyright, counting on their large legal budget and the skewed possible consequences to discourage people from fighting back.

The MPA doesn't care whether this repo actually infringes on their copyright, nor whether the DMCA allows them to issue a takedown request. They only care that this will hurt people who oppose their interests and that there is little practical recourse.

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

#127

Post by vorticalbox »

rapfaria wrote: post #22
jitendrac wrote: post #13

Torrents were great threat in past years, but now in world with streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime,Hulu and all others torrent is not a serious threat. So,that's a baseless argument, Its like don't sell knives they can be used to murder. Torrents are also useful for many others purposes, like distribution of big opensource software, downloading files with unreliable connection and slow speed, to distribute…

Until you are paying for 10 distinct services, and the music colossi start to create services of their own. Who you gonna call? Plex+sonarr

This is why Netflix was great, it showed the TV world they were doing it wrong by having 100's of services rather than one with everything.

Now people want a cut of Netflix pie and making the same mistake again.

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

#128

Post by almaember »

_jal wrote: post #111
toomuchtodo wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No, but GHE is paid software. And not like it's impossible to migrate, it's just a fancy git frontend after all. Gogs/Gitea/Gitlab CE is completely capable of doing what it does.

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

#129

Post by CodesInChaos »

From the complaint it sounds like this repository doesn't just contain the code of a tracker, but also of a torrent search/indexing site (similar to the pirate bay website). The urls listed as infringing seem mostly be related to this website, not a tracker.

I think the argument is that nyaa.si is clearly designed for piracy, and the code is specific to that website evidenced by its url being embedded all over the codebase.

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

#130

Post by jchw »

nemothekid wrote: post #116
jchw wrote: 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…

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…

I understand that, but those files do not show that the repo is preconfigured to host copyrighted files. I don't get what the search XML or database migration is supposed to prove for example.

All they have demonstrated is that it is the source code for nyaa.si. I don't get how that is enough to do anything.

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