learning wrote:Your servers are in Sweden though, aren't they? Sweden is known to have the least idiotic copyright laws iirc, they even tolerated TPB for long time.
Yeah, we could probably get away with quite a lot for a long time. That doesn't mean we have resources to engage in it though. I'm not particularly worried that we'd run into anything particularly dangerous when/if we set up such a site, but it might still be quite a nuisance.
This is not something definite that is going to remain true for all overseeable future: It's just a judgement call that right now energy could be spent better than trying to moderate user contributions and answer copyright claims.
I for one would support a third part initiative for creating such a site as a next best alternative. As long as the site owners are able to ensure that licenses are followed and that understandable separation is made between MH official and user contributions, I only see benefits with such an asset sharing area.
A side note: Eventually the pirate bay guys got locked up in prison and were fined some six million us$, which they don't have any theoretical ability whatsoever to pay during their lifetimes. One of the members (who was formally convicted of aiding and abetting copyright infringement) was placed in a high security prison and had to endure special restrictions usually intended for the most dangerous criminals.
This said, the TPB legal correspondence is well worth a read:
http://indianfusion.aglasem.com/50408/h ... make-rolf/ Favorite quote: "It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are morons, and that you should please go sodomize yourself with retractable batons."