Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

DMCA Takedown Notice for Popcorn Time and Time4Popcorn

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 111 posts

Re: DMCA Takedown Notice for Popcorn Time and Time4Popcorn

#31

Post by sarahj »

vlunkr wrote: post #20
sarahj wrote: post #14

> Attached as Exhibit A is a series of screenshots taken from within the applications of each Project that includes images of copyrighted works available through the Projects. The representative titles shown in Exhibit A consist of only some of the motion pictures and television programs that are owned or controlled by the MPAA Member Studios and that are being infringed via the Projects. Exhibit A is provided as a r…

I can't say where the line is, but popcorn time seems to be in a different category than torrent clients, etc. in that popcorn time just gives you a list of copyright protected movies in its interface. With a torrent, you have to get a seed file elsewhere which could potentially be anything. It could be dangerous though, to start banning tools like this without defining a difference. That's why this is troubling, bec…

I'll extend my hypothetical.

Lets say there are two groups. One group builds a generic media client - under the guise of better delivery of free educational videos (MIT lectures etc.)

The other group sets up "Movie Copyright Watch" and publishes an up-to-date list of movie torrents - under the guise of occasionally reporting this list back to MPAA and the like.

Now lets say team A decide to adopt the same configuration format as team B uses to publish the list.

Neither team has done anything wrong and the resulting application is capable of infringing copyright - and is essentially equivalent to what popcorn time has.

What is the difference? Tools are tools - it is crazy to ban knives because you can stab people with them.

Re: DMCA Takedown Notice for Popcorn Time and Time4Popcorn

#33

Post by BoppreH »

sarahj wrote: post #14

> Attached as Exhibit A is a series of screenshots taken from within the applications of each Project that includes images of copyrighted works available through the Projects. The representative titles shown in Exhibit A consist of only some of the motion pictures and television programs that are owned or controlled by the MPAA Member Studios and that are being infringed via the Projects. Exhibit A is provided as a r…

With those applications you can get from clean install to playing a copyrighted movie in three clicks. You don't do that with a web browser.

Also, they are meant to be used that way. When people recommend those applications to friends and relatives they are meant to be used for copyright infringement.

I'm not agreeing with what was done here, but there is a qualitative difference between a torrent client, media player, etc, and the popcorn time applications.

Edit: yes, you can hit a movie streaming service with your web browser by navigating to a URL. Have a cookie. But that requires previous external data and thus is not "clean" install.

Re: DMCA Takedown Notice for Popcorn Time and Time4Popcorn

#35

Post by buro9 »

nvk wrote: post #24

And it's back http://blog.popcorn-time.se/

Is that real?

On the main domain: http://popcorn-time.se/

> Our user's safety comes first!! Therefore we added a free Built-in VPN so you can use Popcorn Time ANONYMOUSLY!

Have they really built in a VPN?

How would one know it is operating?

Does the VPN re-route all traffic? If so, how isn't that malware?

Re: DMCA Takedown Notice for Popcorn Time and Time4Popcorn

#36

Post by JacobEdelman »

X-Istence wrote: post #8

How is it okay for source code that enables infringement but does not infringe itself to be taken down by a DMCA request? The claimant in this case doesn't own any of the rights to the software yet wants it removed anyway ...

Ummm... that's almost the main point of the DMCA. Among other things the DMCA made it illegal to facilitate copyright theft. This has lead to several major cases including ones where attempts have been made to have scholarly papers censored when they papers point out holes in DRM (technologies that prevent users from doing what they want with content).

Re: DMCA Takedown Notice for Popcorn Time and Time4Popcorn

#37

Post by [deleted] »

superuser2 wrote: post #29
sarahj wrote: post #14

> Attached as Exhibit A is a series of screenshots taken from within the applications of each Project that includes images of copyrighted works available through the Projects. The representative titles shown in Exhibit A consist of only some of the motion pictures and television programs that are owned or controlled by the MPAA Member Studios and that are being infringed via the Projects. Exhibit A is provided as a r…

>Maybe we can skirt by with the general purpose nature of the above tools...so what about tools used to facilitate penetration testing (which can also be used for computer crime) - should we get rid of that source code too? Germany made all "hacker tools" illegal to posses in 2007. http://makezine.com/2007/08/11/the-hacker-tool-law-in-ef/

[deleted]

Re: DMCA Takedown Notice for Popcorn Time and Time4Popcorn

#38

Post by cheald »

BoppreH wrote: post #33
sarahj wrote: post #14

> Attached as Exhibit A is a series of screenshots taken from within the applications of each Project that includes images of copyrighted works available through the Projects. The representative titles shown in Exhibit A consist of only some of the motion pictures and television programs that are owned or controlled by the MPAA Member Studios and that are being infringed via the Projects. Exhibit A is provided as a r…

With those applications you can get from clean install to playing a copyrighted movie in three clicks. You don't do that with a web browser. Also, they are meant to be used that way. When people recommend those applications to friends and relatives they are meant to be used for copyright infringement. I'm not agreeing with what was done here, but there is a qualitative difference between a torrent client, media playe…

> With those applications you can get from clean install to playing a copyrighted movie in three clicks. You don't do that with a web browser.

Sure you can.

Click 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/fullmoviesonyoutube/

Click 2: Select a movie. Copyright infringement in two easy clicks!

Re: DMCA Takedown Notice for Popcorn Time and Time4Popcorn

#39

Post by eli »

saganus wrote: post #15
trillcode wrote: post #9

Wasn't popcorn time just a "tool" ? The tool is not infringing on copyrights until the user actually runs the application.

Maybe Github does not want to have to deal with the fallout of not complying, even if the DMCA notice is not technically correct (i.e. the tool is not infringing anything, it's the use of the tool that allows you to do so). I would rather fight the takedown notice, as this will potentially turn into a slippery slope (moreso than now), but then again i don't own Github. So basically I'm guessing it's a matter of "cost…

Tools designed to circumvent copyright are illegal too.

Re: DMCA Takedown Notice for Popcorn Time and Time4Popcorn

#40

Post by jamesaguilar »

BoppreH wrote: post #33
sarahj wrote: post #14

> Attached as Exhibit A is a series of screenshots taken from within the applications of each Project that includes images of copyrighted works available through the Projects. The representative titles shown in Exhibit A consist of only some of the motion pictures and television programs that are owned or controlled by the MPAA Member Studios and that are being infringed via the Projects. Exhibit A is provided as a r…

With those applications you can get from clean install to playing a copyrighted movie in three clicks. You don't do that with a web browser. Also, they are meant to be used that way. When people recommend those applications to friends and relatives they are meant to be used for copyright infringement. I'm not agreeing with what was done here, but there is a qualitative difference between a torrent client, media playe…

Right. This is the money sentence:

> Indeed, copyright infringement is so prevalent within the Projects that infringement plainly is their predominant use and purpose.

"Predominant use and purpose" is one of the tests for whether software is copyright-infringing under DMCA. IANAL but this looks pretty open-and-shut to me.

Post reply on HN