Gitorious Fights Back Sony

[Nujui]

Since Sony had Ps3devs take down there Githubs, they switch to Gitorious. Sony has also sent DMCA take down notices too them, but one problem is that U.S law doesn't apply, it's Norwegain law. This is what they had to say about it on there blog.

"In response to Sonys DMCA take down notices Gitorious today posted this on their blog:

Re: Demand for removal of claimed copyright infringing content from Gitorious.org

This is in reply to your notification of United States Copyright Law Violations at Listed URLs, dated February 1st 2011. As we confirmed via email yesterday, the content was taken down from gitorious.org yesterday at 3.18PM CET.

Your claim made reference to US law, which is not applicable in Norway. When removing the content from our server placed in Norway, we did so to avoid being in violation with Norwegian law, to the degree that Norwegian and US copyright law is compatible.

However, it is unreasonable, and in conflict with basic legal principles, to assume someone as guilty until proven innocent. Allowing any third party to demand the removal of content on gitorious.org based on unproven claims of copyright infringement would assume any gitorious.org user would need to prove his innoncence under Norwegian law. This is unacceptable to us.

Our Infringement Notice Policy (http://en.gitorious.org/infringement_policy/) requires any Infringement Notice to include:

- An identification of the intellectual property right claimed to have been infringed

Since your letter of yesterday contained no reference to Norwegian law we kindly ask that you prove that the content is in fact in violation of Norwegian law. We will not act on further Infringement Notices related to this content until SCEA provides a Norwegian court order that deems the content in question as being in violation of Norwegian law.

Gitorious wants to make it absolutely clear that we have no agenda relating to the repositories in question. Our initial response to this notice was motivated by the fact that Gitorious could possibly be held accountable for not responding should this content be deemed illegal (with reference to “Ehandelsloven” §18). We object deeply to any violation of the basic legal principle of being innocent until proven guilty. This is why we have passed the ball back to Sony.

We hope you understand that it is not in Gitorious’, or the majority of its users’, best interest to pick this fight. We don’t have the resources nor necessary domain knowledge to assess the legality of all of our projects, which is why we have terms of service that state that users carry this responsibility."
[/p]
Source

 

[antwill]

We hope you understand that it is not in Gitorious’, or the majority of its users’, best interest to pick this fight. We don’t have the resources nor necessary domain knowledge to assess the legality of all of our projects, which is why we have terms of service that state that users carry this responsibility.

Because that worked so well for all those torrent sites...

 

[Rydian]

Because that worked so well for all those torrent sites...

Torrent sites get taken down when it's proven they willingly give access to illegal content, knowing it's illegal.

That's not the case here, and US law does not apply to the rest of the world.

 

[Oveneise]

Just reading about torrent sites makes me wonder how tpb has lasted all these years. Thank God for legal loopholes.

 

[Rydian]

Just reading about torrent sites makes me wonder how tpb has lasted all these years. Thank God for legal loopholes.

What legal loopholes? They're located in another country. There's countries other than the US, and they have separate sets of laws they follow.

 

[Oveneise]

Just reading about torrent sites makes me wonder how tpb has lasted all these years. Thank God for legal loopholes.

What legal loopholes? They're located in another country. There's countries other than the US, and they have separate sets of laws they follow.

Ah, I guess thats true (but haven't you heard of the DMCA?) But in the case of legal loopholes, when they reply to people asking them how US citizens have access, they say the site doesn't host any content itself, but rather only the .torrent files which are only hashes. THATS what I meant by legal loopholes.

 

[redact]

good on them for not just blindly complying with sony

(well they did at first but that was just temporarily as a precautionary measure)
and how dare sony expect them to give away private information of the site's users?

edit: just a link for those wondering what i was talking about in that third sentence

Please note that the takedown notice also calls for Gitorious to disclose identities and private data about the users in question. According to our attorney we are not required under Norwegian law to provide such information, and will not comply to this part of the notice.

Source

 

[Rydian]

Ah, I guess thats true (but haven't you heard of the DMCA?)That's US law.

QUOTE(Oveneise @ Feb 3 2011, 10:57 PM) But in the case of legal loopholes, when they reply to people asking them how US citizens have access, they say the site doesn't host any content itself, but rather only the .torrent files which are only hashes. THATS what I meant by legal loopholes.

That gets into things like jurisdiction and whether the UN can get involved because it involves copyright crap.

 

[ShadowSoldier]

Just reading about torrent sites makes me wonder how tpb has lasted all these years. Thank God for legal loopholes.

Swedish Laws give the finger to take down notices.

 

[jonesman99]

Even though Sony has the right to go after people if they feel threatened, at the same time they are taking it too far going around crying wolf everywhere. And at the same time, to the normal person or their partners, acting like everything is all good.

Whatever happens to Sony from now on, they REALLY deserve it. This company's legal actions disgust me. Nintendo isn't as bad as them, and they have been taking it up the ass for years now...

EDIT: Guess what? Its number 500 y'all! I know!!! (in my Bruce from Family Guy voice)

 

[shakirmoledina]

this was bound to happen ie when u cant fight them in your home ground, look for allies to fight them for you which in this case turns out to be cross border laws
cant say i know law (as rayder interestingly does) but definitely every country has copyright laws in one form or another and in this case, after a few weeks i am pretty sure sony will find the true loophole in norwegian law... or they can just shift to irc or torrent

why dont rom sites shift to a server that allows for sharing such content without worries

 

[Rydian]

why dont rom sites shift to a server that allows for sharing such content without worries

Cost I guess. ROM sites use a lot of bandwidth, whereas torrent sites only host the .torrent and metadata, which takes up many times less space and bandwidth than the actual content.

 

[xist]

What legal loopholes? They're located in another country. There's countries other than the US, and they have separate sets of laws they follow.

I spot a reply made of pure win....

 

[Oveneise]

Just reading about torrent sites makes me wonder how tpb has lasted all these years. Thank God for legal loopholes.

Swedish Laws give the finger to take down notices.

Yeah, just look at the "legal threats" section! They need to get some more emails up there. And good job for Glitorious for not blindly stepping down.