this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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I am just impressed by the idea and execution. Just wow. Too bad he took it too far.

top 21 comments
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[–] [email protected] 60 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Definitely an abuse of the system, but I'm struggling to see where criminal law says you can't make a bunch of fake accounts to listen to garbage music.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

In agreeing to be paid by music streaming platforms they almost certainly agreed not to do exactly this. Which makes it fraud.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Sounds like a breach of contract, which is a civil matter.

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

I think that depends on intent and amount of money involved, but I'm definitely not a lawyer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Its also cyber crime which is possibly why the FBI need to be involved

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Fraud is pretty broad and covers most things that deliberately misrepresent reality to take money from someone else.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Yet advertising and billionaires exist. It's not what you do, it's what clique you're part of.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

From justice.gov:

SMITH, 52, of Cornelius, North Carolina, is charged with wire fraud conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; and money laundering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

This is a ridiculous law, it might as well be called "money fraud". Justice is a bad joke.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 2 months ago (2 children)

In a 2017 email to himself, Smith calculated that he could stream his songs 661,440 times daily, potentially earning $3,307.20 per day and up to $1.2 million annually.

Great idea, but why would you email yourself about it?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I have a friend that I’ve tried to convince using a notes app, but he swears that emailing himself notes and to-do lists is more effective. He’s wrong, but to each their own.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh, sure. I get that. Sending yourself reminders is absolutely understandable. Sending yourself documented evidence of your plans to defraud someone is entirely different.

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

Recently, a bunch of people on tik tok found this "bug" in their banking app where you can write a bad check, then withdraw the funds before it clears... Then started crying about it when their balances updated

Dude definitely thought he discovered a cool new life hack

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Google keep used to (don't use it anymore) store your notes "backed up" by email. You could view all your notes in gmail.

Maybe it was something like that?

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

I do vaguely remember that. Could be?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I mean, if you treat your inbox as a to-do list, that's not that far-fetched

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

I can definitely follow his logic, but there are better tools available.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Bio...graphy?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

They only take crimes against the rich seriously - what a joke of a country the US is.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

I've thought of this, but don't have the wherewithal to actually make a project come to fruition.

I'm also not a lawyer, but I've read multiple articles on this, and it doesn't seem like any legal violation. Corporation got lazy, didn't confirm where 10m in royalties went and under what circumstance, and got burned.

Finally a corp gets scammed by the common man.

I say good on him.

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

NGL... I'm upset I didn't think of this