this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2024
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Reddit is an American company, subject to American laws, that has a legal department (i.e. has lawyers on retainer). Lemmy World, like most other instances, is run by volunteers and donations and is subject to the laws where it's hosted and/or where its operators reside.
When you receive a takedown / DMCA / whatever legal mumbo-jumbo applies to your jurisdiction, you have two choices:
The first option is free. The second option costs a lot of money if you don't already have lawyers on retainer and can cost even more money if the court rules against you.
Sucks, but that's the way it is.
Again, I'm only speculating that was the case here. However, given Germany is one of the jurisdictions LW is accountable to, it's not that wild of a guess.
That's such a broad question that I'm not even going to bother. Instead, I'll answer with the same question as when "states' rights" are brought up:
"~~States' rights~~ Free to do what, exactly?"
You're also free to run your own instance and accept all the legal liabilities that come with that.
You actually have a third option: file a DMCA Counternotice. If my reading is correct, the very act of filing the counternotice allows you to keep the content up unless the original filer "insists" (it's the mechanism against "DMCA trolling"). DMCAis not a jail-free card to erase content from the internet.
Possibly, but the DMCA is strictly a US thing. The comply or fight in court are the only two somewhat universal options.
Other countries have other similar laws, though. LW's TOS says they're under legal jurisdiction of Finland, The Netherlands, and Germany. Not sure what their laws are like, but Germany seems pretty strict about it.
Could be, but still it reeks of overreaction. Without the need of seeing anything else, it's almost impossible that Germany's law is that strict that "linking to (discussion of) pirated material" would be off, since if that was the case Google would be making Germany rich with their fines, which doesn't seem to be the case. It's even worse when it comes down to saying "discussing or mentioning" internet piracy would be illegal - under the way copyright holders themselves understand it, this would mean mentioning the market of secondhand sales would be illegal in such jurisdictions.
Yeah, until LW addresses it, all we can really do is guess. I've just jumped to the most logical conclusion, but that doesn't mean it's even close.
For what it's worth, as an instance admin myself: I don't get paid to run it, I have other things to worry about, and most definitely don't have time or energy to deal with copyright BS. That said, I can completely understand their position and reaction.
Depending on how my day was going, I'd have also probably "shot first and asked questions later" with regard to removing the community and waiting until I had time to compose a post about it and be present to deal with the inevitable drama that would cause.
Hopefully they make an announcement soon.