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Comment by irthomasthomas

6 months ago

Is copyright in America different to Britain? There, it is legal to download books you don't own. Only distribution is a crime, which most torrenters break by seeding.

8 comments

irthomasthomas

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throwawayffffas  6 months ago

I think it's very similar in both countries, but you have got it wrong. Downloading a book without permission is copyright infringement in both countries, regardless of whether you distribute it.

In the UK it's a criminal offense if you distribute a copyrighted work with the intent to make gain or with the expectation that the owner will make a loss.

Gain and loss are only financial in this context.

Meaning that in both countries the copyright owner can sue you for copyright infringement.

rahimnathwani  6 months ago

What do you mean by 'it is legal'?

Do you mean:

A) It's not a criminal offence?

B) The copyright owner cannot file a civil suit for damages?

C) Something else?

  • irthomasthomas  6 months ago

    > Only distribution is a crime

    • rahimnathwani  6 months ago

      What relevance does that have to the present case? The judge, in this civil matter, said there would be a trial. He didn't say anything about it being a criminal trial. The strings 'crim' and 'felon' do not appear in the ruling.

        We will have a trial on the pirated copies used to create Anthropic’s central library and the resulting damages, actual or statutory (including for willfulness).

      1 reply →

kelnos  6 months ago

It's not a crime in the US, either, I believe, but you can certainly be sued in civil court for it.