Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
Here you go. I posted this in the other Gideon thread, but maybe you didn't see it.
https://gfy.com/showpost.php?p=18985061&postcount=134
That is a link to a post made by Gideon where he makes the claim that fair use allows him to buy content and then back it up by uploading/seeding it to torrents.
Everyone I know considers that distributing the content and piracy, but Gideon thinks is is just exercising his fair use rights.
To many here that is him advocating a pro-piracy position and piracy hurts their business. |
I read this, and I have commented a few times specifically on that claim, but I'm OK with repeating it.
I don't believe that a US court would agree that a torrent is a legitimate backup process under fair use. However, that only applies to the US and our particular flavor of copyright laws. Canada, for example, taxes recordable media (blank CDs, DVD, etc) with a "piracy tax" which essentially gives you a compulsory license to copyrighted material you wouldn't otherwise have had, my understanding is that any company who collects part of those taxes are unable to seek damages for copyright violations... So in Canada, a court may see it otherwise. If GG is indeed Canadian as some folks have claimed, in some circumstances he may be right.
Either way, advocating that position isn't the same as stealing content, and is just one guy's unpopular opinion. I respectably disagree that advocating that opinion here represents a real detriment to someone's livelihood, and I'll ask again for an example that is a little more concrete (not demanding, just politely asking, enough with the you don't deserve and we don't owe you etc rnetoric)