Warez Linking Illegal?

Hey,

My current offshore host allows warez linking. Even if he allows it, can I still get sue by companies for warez linking?

Let say I link to movies/applications that are not hosted on my server, can I get into legal trouble?

Yep, if you're in the US you certainly can. Many other countries as well, but I don't know their laws nearly as well.

Does it depend WHERE you are OR where your website is hosted?

Depends on where YOU are.

Your website's hosting location only matters in the sense that an ISP or host who is unfriendly to the US is less likely to give up your information. However, if the coppers do get the information from them (which they will, eventually, if only by going through ICANN and finding out who regged the domain), you'll be in trouble.

I can point to case law about this if you'd like. I also made a somewhat lengthy post on DP about this under another nickname that I can link you to via PM if you want to see it, though what I've said already is the gist.

you can get into trouble just for linking -- the pirate bay got into trouble just for offering torrents.

if you plan on doing this, then get both an offshore hoster and an offshore registrar.
and use a vcc to pay so that it can't be tracked back to you.

there are plenty of places that won't help american authorities find you (china, turkey, etc.) but it depends on what you are doing.

sharing ebooks -- no big deal.
sharing movies -- a big deal and they *may* eventually find you. they'll certainly try harder.

you can also be tracked by your postings in forums. a corporation could possibly order a forum owner to turn over your ip number, which can be traced back to you. so even if you're offshore, you are still at risk just by advertising that you have these links.

btw, people have been traced by postings they made in usenet groups, and that was done via their ip number. they were even using software to hide their ip number and they still got caught.

(note: this was a doctor who libeled a rival doctor and he got sued for his comments)

I'd be most concerned about the money trail. Think about how you are monetizing your site. Rather then the authorities trying to subpoena an offshore datacenter, it will probably be easier for them to get a network like cpableed to hand over all of your information.

You can socks up, use vccs and offshore hosting all you want.. Unless you're in a country that doesn't give a shit, you'd better have a way to keep the relationship with your network anonymous...

thats why dmca policies exist

you can get into trouble just for linking -- the pirate bay got into trouble just for offering torrents.

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Well I am not looking to link to SEVERAL thousands file like they do...

You can socks up, use vccs and offshore hosting all you want.. Unless you're in a country that doesn't give a shit, you'd better have a way to keep the relationship with your network anonymous...

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How can you keep it low profile if you want to get pay...?

thats why dmca policies exist

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Well, I thought DMCA could only affect you if you were hosting files on your own server.

J0kerz said:

Well I am not looking to link to SEVERAL thousands file like they do...

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All it takes is one..

J0kerz said:

Well, I thought DMCA could only affect you if you were hosting files on your own server.

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Lol nope. How will your hosting company respond when they get a dmca complaint from a major corporation? Will they just ignore it? Will they ask you to take it down? Or will they just shut you down? That is the million dollar question when comes to choosing an offshore hosting company for this sort of thing.

J0kerz said:

How can you keep it low profile if you want to get pay...?

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It's not about keeping a low profile, it's about them not knowing who the fuck you are. Think about it, if the authorities ask your cpa network to hand over all the information on affiliate xxxx that they have, what exactly will they be able to tell them? (first name, last name, address, paypal account, IP address, ect...)

What you have to ask yourself is, how can you get your money out of your virtual bank account (paypal, epass, ect..) while at the same time making it as hard as possible for that to be traced back to you?

Use your brain, I'm sure you can come up with something..

don't make you site so much popular...once its getting popular just left it and start making another...if you are into movie niche

Lol nope. How will your hosting company respond when they get a dmca complaint from a major corporation? Will they just ignore it? Will they ask you to take it down? Or will they just shut you down? That is the million dollar question when comes to choosing an offshore hosting company for this sort of thing.

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They will tell me that I received one but they will just ignore it.

At the end of the day, Just comply if you get caught out. You know why The Pirate Bay is getting screwed so hard, Is that they believe they have some moral obligation to the torrent community to stand up against movie corporations. You on the other hand, couldn't care less. So just comply.

Same thing happened with Napster. They refused to take down content.

Then the next question is what about Megaupload/Megavideo/Rapidshare etc. These places comply 100% to any sort of DMCA request. And that's they are still living today without hassles (Well without too much hassles).

If you are simply running a forum, That anyone can post links to about a whole range of content. Then you are in the same boat as megaupload etc. However if you are linking only directly to TV shows, things are a bit different (Since your sole intention is to break copyright).

And yes, It doesn't matter where the site is hosted. Over in New Zealand, Someone broke a name suppression lock (If someone gets accused of a crime, they get naming suppression so the public doesn't know. Often used with celebs etc). They broke the lock by naming it on their website (Which funnily enough is hosted on blogger). BUt they still got charged, regardless of where the website was hosted. Because they committed the crime inside this country. You are linking to warez from the USA by writing the html/post/whatever into your blog/site/forum.

So as soon as you remove the content when asked, there shouldnt be a problem right?

there shouldn't, but your other accounts (adsense, etc.) will likely get terminated.

if you wanna share, you can get away with that.

if you wanna make dough, forget it.

Okay I got a question,

What exactly is warez linking?

Here are some cases.

1. Your website link directly to a file that is hosted on someone else server

Your Website ---> TorrentSite.com/file.zip

2. Your website link, to let say a torrent website page, wheres on this page you can download the file.

Your Website ---> TorrentSite.com/Page-Where-You-Can-Download-File.html

3. Your website link to the the same torrent site as above but not directly on the download page but only redirect to the general domain name.

Your Website ---> TorrentSite.com



Case 1 & 2 are Warez Linking. But what about case 3?
Is case 3 considered Warez Linking?

All 3 cases are moot if done by a third party. E.g. forums, get away with it as long as they comply to DMCA requests. Website owners like rlslog gets away with it because they have members posting links on their site. Who doesnt get away with it are people who solely posts/links to direct files. Those people get f'ed.

So far there haven't been a case where Peter who uploaded the newest Massive Asses XXX porn to a filehost and posted links all over the internet, got caught & subpoenaed and prosecuted - Why? Because his content was taken down in time by the filehost. The copyright holders didn't go straight to their lawyers to start investigating the individual forums - instead they told the filehost that if they don't take this down, they'll get bumwrapped in 72 hours <= That's DMCA for you.

So, let's say I have a TV show streaming site. I embed videos from other sources like megavideo, so it's linking, not hosting.

I put a DMCA disclaimer on the site with a valid email address stated as the DMCA agent, and I monitor that email inbox. As soon as I would get a request, I'd take down the links referred to in that request.

I am operating from outside the US (as I'm physically out of the US) and hosting outside the US (yet the hosting country is different from my operating country). I'm not a citizen of the US either

Am I most likely to be okay when I respond to DMCA requests?

All the above is, for sure, hypothetical.

DamnedFreak said:

So, let's say I have a TV show streaming site. I embed videos from other sources like megavideo, so it's linking, not hosting.

I put a DMCA disclaimer on the site with a valid email address stated as the DMCA agent, and I monitor that email inbox. As soon as I would get a request, I'd take down the links referred to in that request.

I am operating from outside the US (as I'm physically out of the US) and hosting outside the US (yet the hosting country is different from my operating country). I'm not a citizen of the US either

Am I most likely to be okay when I respond to DMCA requests?

All the above is, for sure, hypothetical.

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It needs to be user submitted content for the safe harbour of DMCA to come into effect, if its posted by the admin your not protected by the safe harbour provisions in DMCA.

wordpress is the worst script in the world for doing movie sites as there are no provisions for public submissions...if you use a utube clone script you can plausibly pull-off DMCA compliance because the movies where submit by real people, weren't they

Can I assume that links to movie streams is another form of warez linking as that term is used in this thread?

Tnx mch,
DW

Megalomaniac Midget said:

It needs to be user submitted content for the safe harbour of DMCA to come into effect, if its posted by the admin your not protected by the safe harbour provisions in DMCA.

wordpress is the worst script in the world for doing movie sites as there are no provisions for public submissions...if you use a utube clone script you can plausibly pull-off DMCA compliance because the movies where submit by real people, weren't they

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What do you suggest as wordpress alternative for a movie website (where users can embed video from megavideo...) ??