While we can be pretty confident that Reddit has its own motivations (i.e. self-interest) for fighting these lawsuits, this is still a good news story for pirates.
More specifically there is no US Federal Law about obtaining pirated works, only the Redistribution
17 U.S. Code § 506 - Criminal offenses
(a)Criminal Infringement.—
(1)In general.—Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed—
(A)for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;
(B)by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180–day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000; or
(C)by the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.
(2)Evidence.—
For purposes of this subsection, evidence of reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work, by itself, shall not be sufficient to establish willful infringement of a copyright.
(3)Definition.—In this subsection, the term “work being prepared for commercial distribution” means—
(A)a computer program, a musical work, a motion picture or other audiovisual work, or a sound recording, if, at the time of unauthorized distribution—
(i)the copyright owner has a reasonable expectation of commercial distribution; and
(ii)the copies or phonorecords of the work have not been commercially distributed; or
(B)a motion picture, if, at the time of unauthorized distribution, the motion picture—
(i)has been made available for viewing in a motion picture exhibition facility; and
(ii)has not been made available in copies for sale to the general public in the United States in a format intended to permit viewing outside a motion picture exhibition facility.
So, basically, downloading cracked adobe products is always right. It’s always morally acceptable. But your provider is risking their ass.
The big industry names want to make you believe that you’ll be punished for downloading a car. It’s all fearmongering.
Yes but you commented on a global website, so your previous generalist statement definetly doesn’t apply to everyone reading it :)
Thats why I stated at the top that more specifically there is no “US Federal law…”
And that’s why they specifically referred to “your previous generalist statement” where you didn’t do that.
Then share your local law. Don’t be pissy that Americans are clarifying for other Americans.
America is such a small country though, no one would assume anything said online is directed at it’s miniscule population without an explicit reference.
