"Cox did not profit from its subscribers' acts of infringement," judges rule.

Court blocks $1 billion copyright ruling that punished ISP for its users’ piracy::“Cox did not profit from its subscribers’ acts of infringement,” judges rule.

    • quindraco@lemm.eeEnglish
      3113·
      10 months ago

      Yes, but also no - and be careful, you’re asking this around people who absolutely do hold manufacturers morally responsible for what people do with products bought from them. See e.g. any discussion of gun control on here.

      If you want to draw an analogy between traffic and the internet, the ISP is your provider of roads; your PC+router+modem is your car. So this is much, much closer to suing the state for building and maintaining the road the getaway car used.

      Also, there’s no cleanly analogous crime - “getaway car” sounds like a comparison to robbery, but no-one here was robbed. Sony’s argument for damages would have been based on theoretical sales it didn’t make, arguing that its government-issued monopoly on its IP automatically implies anyone pirating content would have paid them for it.

      So here’s an even closer analogy: you sell marijuana in a state with a fixed number of dispensary licenses, and you are the only person in your neighborhood with a license. You set up shop. Someone else shows up in a van and gives away pot for free; your sales go down. You sue the state for providing the road the van used to do this.

      • ABCDE@lemmy.worldEnglish
        154·
        10 months ago

        None of those analogies really work as there are certain protections which could be required by law by ISPs, for example. In some countries porn is blocked. In others, drugs. If you allow drugs to be dealt in a school as the principal, you are going down.

        Comparing it to guns (which have few intended consequences)… Yeah nah mate.

    • Wrench@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      10 months ago

      Maybe closer to cars not having limiters to prevent speeding.

      They could. The tech exists. Even to lock it to specific speed limits (not just an upwards cap) using GPS.

      But most would say that’s overreaching. Until an insurance company sues/lobbies for it because it would improve their bottom line to force drivers to drive more responsibly by legally pushing the manufacturers to add limiters.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    14·
    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    A federal appeals court today overturned a $1 billion piracy verdict that a jury handed down against cable Internet service provider Cox Communications in 2019.

    If the correct legal standard had been used in the district court, “no reasonable jury could find that Cox received a direct financial benefit from its subscribers’ infringement of Plaintiffs’ copyrights,” judges wrote.

    The case began when Sony and other music copyright holders sued Cox, claiming that it didn’t adequately fight piracy on its network and failed to terminate repeat infringers.

    Cox’s appeal was supported by advocacy groups concerned that the big-money judgment could force ISPs to disconnect more Internet users based merely on accusations of copyright infringement.

    If not overturned, this decision will lead to an untold number of people losing vital Internet access as ISPs start to cut off more and more customers to avoid massive damages."

    In today’s 4th Circuit ruling, appeals court judges wrote that “Sony failed, as a matter of law, to prove that Cox profits directly from its subscribers’ copyright infringement.”

    The original article contains 543 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • FinishingDutch@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    10 months ago

    You know, I saw a guy the other day with an honest to goodness eyepatch. First time I’ve ever seen one in the wild.

    Guy looked like older Snake from Metal Gear Solid, but clearly wasn’t cosplaying or anything like that. I assume most people with one eye just get a fake one here. If only to avoid all the pirate jokes that he probably gets.

    • Louisoix@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Welp, here goes my confidence in wearing an eye patch. And yeah, I don’t have one eye and for the longest time think that it’d be cool to wear one.

      • FinishingDutch@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        Please do wear one if you want to! That guy made my day; he looked like a badass.

        It’s such a rare thing to see, you’ll probably get a few jokes. But also some really fun interactions I imagine. If nothing else, you’ll give some kids a fun story to tell about that pirate they met :D