The plaintiffs have always maintained that they don’t intend to pursue legal action against the targeted Redditors. Instead, they’re seeking information to support their lawsuits against RCN and other Internet providers.
The motion to compel shows that the movie companies are seeking the following information from Mr. S, who is not necessarily the Redditor:
All written communications with RCN concerning piracy from Oct. 1, 2017 to the present.
Payment records to RCN from Oct. 1, 2017 to present.
All personal computing records pertaining to usage of BitTorrent from Oct. 1, 2017 to the present.
All social media account usernames used including for Reddit, Twitter and Facebook January 1, 2016 to present.
All Reddit posts and messages from Jan. 1, 2016 to the present
Records of all movie piracy websites (including but not limited to YTS, 1337x, RARBG, Torrent Galaxy, The PirateBay) that were used at your Internet service.
I get that money can be tight but to avoid such situation (at a personal level) regarding piracy. things to note.
don't talk/post about how that you pirated any media, or face potential legal risks.
movies companies might not like it yet it's not illegal to tell people how to pirate a movie. Don't hint that you did it yourself though.
Reddit doesn't have to provide any info to them, i'm assuming the film companies wanted the scoop from Reddit for free. What if they pay Reddid? who knows..
The way things are going over there Sputz will probably hand everything over as long as they invest. I still remember when the canary quietly went away.
The sad part is, a few years ago I gladly paid for the Disney Hulu bundle along with HBO. Now it's all gone to shit and they never even improved the Disney Plus app. My subscription payments are long gone and I'm better off for it.
If I can pay a single reasonable fee and have access to literally everything, I do.
If I could do that without having to go through the effort of finding everything myself, I would absolutely pay for that. I used to stream because it was better. I can’t afford that now though, and not everything is even available.
It's not them who should learn. It's us. That it's always a game of profit maximization as that's what the system incentivises. For public companies, if something can be made worse to maximize profit extraction, it likely will be. If something can be made more expensive, it likely will be. Most companies don't make products or serve customers. They make money for and serve their major shareholders. They know what they're doing. We don't.
Wouldn't things like torrenting records and "movie piracy websites" used fall under fifth amendment protections? They're being asked to provide a record of the piracy they've committed.
I can't speak to that, but a lot of the information the article says they are looking for they couldn't find via reddit. They'd have to compel Mr. S personally to get a lot of this stuff:
All written communications with RCN concerning piracy from Oct. 1, 2017 to the present.
Payment records to RCN from Oct. 1, 2017 to present.
All personal computing records pertaining to usage of BitTorrent from Oct. 1, 2017 to the present.
All social media account usernames used including for Reddit, Twitter and Facebook January 1, 2016 to present.
All Reddit posts and messages from Jan. 1, 2016 to the present
Records of all movie piracy websites (including but not limited to YTS, 1337x, RARBG, Torrent Galaxy, The PirateBay) that were used at your Internet service.
No, the fifth amendment says no person "shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself". Anything you've voluntarily said on reddit is fair game. (And this is a civil case anyway.)
They are asking for records of the redditor using and downloading from public trackers.
This basically incriminating themself when revealing the information.
I'd argue that would come too close to it. Though I am no lawyer.
You're not protected against evidence you've created. I quoted the actual text of the amendment for a reason. You can absolutely incriminate yourself by creating evidence of a crime, but you cannot be compelled to be a witness against yourself.
…and who the hell keeps personal computing records of anything, let alone when a particular protocol is used? “Mmm-hmm, yes, let me just write this down, February 20, 2024, 14:28 US CST, used BitTorrent to torrent all of the bits.”
Lawyers would fight it, but it would probably boil down to "No such records exist". But they aren't looking for your personal records- this would be your browser history, connection logs, that sort of thing. Which means your PC(s) could be seized as evidence to extract any relevant info.
I have never visited any of those sites and my only social media is the reddit account you have. Sorry I can't provide logs because 1. I never did those things and 2. My browser clears all data on close. Also, BitTorrent is a legal software to use, I use it to download Linux distros. If you would like my payment and communication records with RCN, you will need to subpoena them to have the records handed over. Anymore questions, movie people?
