this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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Unsure if anyone can clarify. But my understanding that simply downloading a watching isn't an issue.
Selling illegally copied content is what can cause real legal issues.
I'm uncertain of any cases of anyone getting in trouble for simply watching copied content.
Example... 1st user pirates movies or videos and uploads them to YouTube or any streaming company.
2nd User then streams or downloads them to watch them offline. I've yet to see the 2nd user in this scenario face legal consequences.
Vs
2nd User then streams or downloads content and makes money off it. Here I see the 2nd user have legal issues.
Again I'm just a regular guy going based on regular guy logic.
Copyright infringement laws vary but even though simply downloading copyrighted material is against policies, it's hard to enforce and most copyright holders don't always find grounds for a lawsuit or it's straight up not worth pursuing. You downloading a movie off a website is the same as a friend of yours sharing the same movie with you on a USB stick.
Actions against unauthorized distribution of copyrighted materials (especially if it's for profit) on the other hand are much more easily enforceable.
Downloading and watching is a crime. One night be able to say they didn't know what they were downloading but likely the file name and site or torrent is a good clue that's bullshit.
Your probably discussing chance of getting caught. You likely will see a DMCA complaint or something like that to your ISP at worse for downloading but enough of these might get your service terminated (some ISP don't care.)
Sharing the files and usually sharing a lot of files publicly or semi publicly will get you more attention and that will get the media companies more likely to take you down as a distributor.
VPN and smart browsing habits will reduce a lot of this risk though.
Think of downloading is one star in GTA. They will chase you if they are you. Uploading is two stars when they start shooting at you. Profiting of it is like three stars and that's when they get more aggressive. You can get busted at one star but it's just very unlikely.