chat

This sounds like just general computer ignorance and fear which is pretty common among people who aren't terribly informed but have been given security training and over-extend any (sometimes dubious) lessons from that.

Or her work has software on her computer and she's worried they'd catch her doing that and get in trouble. Problem is many such people just aren't interested in the 10 minutes it takes to become educated by a friend on that and will shrug off attempts at explaining it because computers are scary.

Hey, it's me, your friend, can I have server access? I would love for the Chinese spies to know that I watched The Croods 2 thirty-seven times in a row.

I'm more concerned about the profit driven streaming services violating my security than any pirating website.

Shakma

I believe you mean SHAKMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Also if she's just declining to link a work laptop or something to pirated material I wouldn't blame her, lots of companies will just immediately fire you for stuff like that.

Copyright and intellectual property is fake anyway. Long live the

你好，it’s me，your local Chinese spy。我的命令is to distribute copies of 「...And Justice For All」 with the bass guitar not digitally removed (the original version Lars tried to suppress) on “Limewire”。 This will somehow aid 中华人民共和国 in ways even I am unsure of.

smartest american

bahahaha... "they're watching EVERYTHING i do!"

I had a friend who freaked out over me streaming pirated films over discord. Like they didnt even have the files they just though them being in a chat with illegal media streaming was going to get them in legal trouble

I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding of US copyright law is that it's a violation of copyright law to share (upload) copyrighted material that you don't own, not a violation to receive (download) copyrighted material. The technicality that people have been sued for using peer-to-peer software where the user both uploads and downloads the copyrighted files.

Also copyright infringement in most circumstance is a civil infringement, not a criminal infringement. This means that you are only prosecuted by the copyright holder, the rights holder could try to sue you in court. The US government won't prosecute you for copyright infringement unless you are making money from it or are operating a large scale distribution operation. However, it is very difficult for a rights holder to track you down and it's costly for them to prove it in court, so they don't bother.

Use a VPN when you use peer to peer software to share files.

If she is employed by DoD then they scared the bujeezus out of her that she will go to jail if she commits a thought crime about China.

If she is employed in private sector, then her employer scared the bujeezus out of her that they will sue her and her extended family for one trillion dollars.

The threats make people unwilling to test boundaries.

Does she not own a computer of her own?

Everybody has a :no-fun-allowed: person in their group.

SHAKMAAA!