this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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I'm referencing this article: https://torrentfreak.com/film-companies-seek-torrenting-history-related-to-redditor-240220/

Given that they're expanding to reddit, I was wondering how dbzer0 is setup to handle similar requests. The legal help page for dbzer0 is just an e-mail address.

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[–] [email protected] 138 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Don't know man. I'm not making enough in donations to pay for the server costs, never mind hiring lawyers. I'll deal with this when I have to 😅

[–] [email protected] 43 points 8 months ago

Wait really? Fuck I will donate you something. Also if you ever need legal help I know the EFF can support you on that.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago (3 children)

There's two big links in the sidebar

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

Sweet, set up periodic donations, hopefully ive covered my costs of use

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I'm on mobile so can't see the sidebar, but did you fix it so the donation is for something innocuous? Like I want to donate to you to buy your mom flowers or something, not to run a piracy oriented server.

It's just to add a layer of protection for everyone around, including you.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

I'm on mobile so can't see the sidebar...

Then I recommend upgrading your mobile experience to one that does. I personally prefer Voyager, "an Apollo-like open source web client for Lemmy. It's a mobile-first app, but works great on desktop devices, too."

Voyager PWA: https://vger.app/ Source code: https://github.com/aeharding/voyager

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

The liberapay just supports my Foss work

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I’m signing up for a recurring donation because I think you personally are the GOAT, but one bit of advice:

It isn’t obvious that the images are links to the donation page. I’m relatively tech literate and I read the sidebar three times looking for a “DONATE HERE” hyperlink. Maybe consider making it a bit more idiot proof so fools like me can more easily throw money at you. 😉

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The "please help cover server costs" is not clear? Should I write also "press one of the icons below"? Before a couple of months it was just text Btw, but I changed it to make it pop out more

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Honestly, I feel like such a dumbass for not realizing it was a link, but yeah, “click the pirate coffee mug below” would have saved me some confusion.

In any event, I’m more than happy to donate to you, and will definitely do what I can to keep us going. If you get in a jam, let the members know—we’ve got your back. Best instance in the Fediverse!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Much appreciated. Honestly I've been kinda stumped on making my efforts somehow rewarded. My liberapay projects lists is like 2 pages long, but I get less funding than most. I don't know how others get thousands.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

It’s awareness. If I’d really thought about it, it would have been obvious to me that I should contribute, but most mobile apps hide the sidebar, and “out of sight, out of mind” as they say.

I would find it interesting to see a sort of “state of the union” post every month or so where you tell us the cool FOSS stuff you’re working on, how the servers are evolving, and how well the donations are covering your costs. No need to beg, just let the facts of the situation be known and jog our memories that we all have to band together to keep this place running.

Honestly, this whole conversation has lit a fire under my butt. I’m going to make a Santa Claus run through all my favorite trackers and FOSS projects, and it is all because you made me think for a bit. I imagine there must be others like me who would love to help, but just get caught up with their own lives.

Do y’all hear me, fellow pirates? Our captains need us! Heed the call! Put your money where your FOSS is!

Edit: screw it, I’m going to triple my donation. You deserve it.

I’m doing my part!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Hmm, I think you are right about those icons. I've just tweaked the layout slightly to make it more obvious what they represent with a text link underneath each one. Hopefully that'll help others figure it out.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

All instances should have the donation links at the top of the sidebar tbh, and an infographic or something to show how far along they are to paying for monthly server costs.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

The infographic would be so nice!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago
[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Do you think a warrant canary would help? Basically post something ASAP that says "I haven't been served any IP subpoenas as of today." Then, update the statement every so often unless you get served.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

Warrant canaries are an untested tactic

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

I appreciate the candid response (though I'm not from your server).

Here's hoping you don't anything annoying come your way.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 69 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's weird, but VPNs also work for things that aren't piracy, like freedom of speech...about piracy 😁

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Until you realize your vpn provider can see everything you do

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Could always go to excessive measures, your own cloud hosted VPN node to hop to an external provider or similar. Unless you're a major target nobody wants to deal with multiple providers and jurisdictions.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)

If you find a provider shady enough not to give a damn, then yes. Otherwise you have the same problem as before

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Or you can use the old trick of hiding a small computer in a fake charger and leaving it plugged in at a nearby business that you don't like.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I'm pretty sure mullvad will let you do this and they were pretty highly recommended last I checked

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

But their business model is solely based on not disclosing your info. If they do, most of all for just some silly comments on an Internet forum, be sure they are going to fail.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

Any VPN you choose should have a 'no-log' policy that's been third party verified

It's not just that they don't disclose it, it should be that they don't have it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Split tunnels are a thing friend

[–] [email protected] 57 points 8 months ago

you cant give what you dont have. i hope their log rotation is tight.

information is risk, so i delete any information as soon as its no longer needed including logs > 36 hours

[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I would hope a piracy instance is hosted somewhere that doesn't care about such things as American court orders.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Looks like it’s hosted by Lithuanian Radio and TV Center. At least that’s who owns the IP address.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

dbzer0? Or do you mean something else? LRTC is a public gov org, if someone is hosting a torrent tracker on their net they’re gonna have a bad time

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

I can’t speak to that. I just looked up dbzer0’s IP address and did a Whois to see who owned it.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Just don't incriminate yourself on social media. Lemmy is not private or secure. Its silly for anyone to rely on dbzer0.

Also...

"The plaintiffs have always maintained that they don’t intend to pursue legal action against the targeted Redditors."

Your probably to much of a small fish anyway...

[–] [email protected] 22 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The simple fact that lemmy federates posts will mitigate the problems posed by this. For example if they want your IP, they need to go to lemmy.today, but for mine they will need to go to tchncs.de. If we were using reddit, they would be able to get everyone's address with just one request. The more small instances there are, the harder it becomes.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I don't understand all of how federation works, but couldn't they just roll their own instance and just collect all the data they get from federating?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

AFAIK they would get the info "which user said what". The source would be what ever instance you are from tho, not your own ip. So the owner of a instance knows as much as everyone else.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Also, the elephant in the remains in the room: discussing piracy is not piracy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Exactly is freedom of speech.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Saying "I pirated XYZ", though, is admitting to a criminal act, and can be used in court if linked strongly to a person through their account information and IP address.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I am the zodiac killer. I am DB Cooper. I shot Tupac. Jimmy Hoffa is buried in my backyard.

Come get me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago

Don't pirate my achievements bro

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

I'm not sure that's actually true. I'm not a lawyer but I suspect it would take more than an internet comment saying "I did it."

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Arr there matey, I've been pirating them cat videos over them interwebs again. I love Cox, they even know that I pirate all the cat videos and they just tosh the any letters that they get pertaining to my activities on the intertubes into their paper shredder.

Is this an admission? While it would seem like it, I think not. How does anyone know what is true or not, especially when it's on the internet. Like me, am I the real LimeWire? How can you be sure?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Yes, but that data doesn't include user IPs.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago

@[email protected] actually dbzer0 doesn't have access to your IP address, only lemmy.today sees it

for everyone else it's the instance that your account lives on