this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2024

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Film Companies Seek 'Torrenting History' Related to Redditor * TorrentFreak (torrentfreak.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I didn't know reddit gave out the personal details of their users, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

all 17 comments

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I didn’t know reddit gave out the personal details of their users, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

You make it sound like they have a choice, or do so freely and willingly.

The article is clear on that they don't freely share without assessment though:

Reddit wasn’t willing to go along with the request, at least not in full. The company objected, arguing that handing over the requested information would violate its users’ right to anonymous speech.

Recent legal activity shows that Reddit doesn’t intend to automatically comply with all user information requests.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That is one thing Lemmy is not good at: Protecting its users legally. No admin can be expected to hire a lawyer to fight off those companies.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Lemmy is not storing anything for no reason tho, there's no point in that without advertising. The only data they could hand over would be public anyway.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (2 children)

What?

Lemmy instances can log IPs and any other info they want all day long, there is nothing stopping them. In some jurisdictions they may even be required to.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Of course they can but what would be the point of that? It would just cost storage space.

[–] Lodra 14 points 8 months ago (2 children)

An interesting discussion! You’re probably right about most Lemmy instances. But it’s entirely possible that some instances are running a modified version of Lemmy that collects more data. And only those admins will understand why. They could sell it as easily as any company.

You need to trust your service providers or accept what they’re doing.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't even have to be malice. I'm sure that most instance admins are great, competent and caring, but setting up a Lemmy instance is trivial, securing it is not.

The default configuration of a proxy could log connections, the config interface may accidentally be exposed unprotected and so on. Again, I'm not saying that most instances are inherently untrustworthy. But, depending on your instance, you are trusting one person or a small team of volunteers to stay on top of everything andyou can't expect them to drain their bank accounts in case of legal issues for you.

[–] Lodra 2 points 8 months ago

Absolutely a good perspective on the surrounding infra! I fully agree. Thanks for sharing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

CoW doesn’t mean your process won’t stop half way writing your movie file to disk if its improperly coded.

[–] 0x0 -1 points 8 months ago

Then stop using lemmy. Or host your own instance.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 8 months ago (2 children)

"the movie companies would like to see comprehensive details of the subscriber’s torrenting history, including records of visits to The Pirate Bay. In addition, it seeks information on other social media profiles, where more relevant information might be found."

The problem is, legally, nobody is required to maintain that information. They can ask all they want.

"I'm sorry, my browser history is deleted every time I close my browser. Problem?"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Not to mention, things like TPB history mean nothing. I can browse TPB all day, it’s neither illegal, nor does it prove I downloaded torrents.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Unless you're using a VPN, the ISP knows, and I bet they keep the records. Even if you're using a VPN, they'll know what VPN server you connected so the feds go after them instead.

Depending on how many infringement claims they're making against OP, and I'm assuming it's a lot if they're asking for info on a specific user and not a whole sub, well, good luck OP

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That's an ask for the ISP though, in this case they're asking the potential infringer who has no duty to cooperate.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

They're likely asking everyone at the same time if they're serious about it.