As we’ve all known and talked about quite a lot, we previously blocked several piracy-focused communities. These communities, as announced, were:
!piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com,
!steamdeckpirates@lemmy.dbzer0.com,
!piracy@lemmy.ml, and their local counterparts as follow up actions.
In our removal announcement, we stated that we will continue to look into this more in detail, and re-allow these communities if and when we deem it safe. It was a solid concern at the time, because we were already receiving takedown requests as well as constant attacks, and didn’t want to put our volunteer team at risk. We had zero measures in place, and the tools we had were insufficient to deal with anything at scale.
Well, after back and forth with some very cool people, and starting to have proper measures as well as tooling to protect ourselves, we decided it’s time to welcome these communities back again. Long live the IT nerds!
We know it’s been a rough ride with everything, and we’d like to thank every one of you who were understanding of us, and stayed with us all the way. Please know that as users, you are what makes this platform what it is, and damned we be if we ever forget it.
With love, and as always, stay safe in the high seas!
it sounds like they were getting legal threats directly levied at their volunteer team
In the spirit of transparency to the community, post pictures of the legal letters received. Or am just going to assume you are carrying out moderation ahem censorship on the instance.
sounds like they are working on it in good faith though.
Firstly, let me be clear. This is my opinion as someone who isn’t, and has never been involved with their instance in any capacity. My account is with pawb.social.
Posting legal letters may open them up to additional legal liability, and it is completely reasonable to let the community know what happened without sharing the actual letter.
Secondly, you’re putting words in my mouth. I am not saying they are censoring in good faith. I am saying the complete opposite, that they are reversing their stance in good faith. In other words, they are uncensoring content in good faith.
Posting legal letters may open them up to additional legal liability
So it’s a case of their word against ours… Anyway, IANAL but I’ve seen other similarly positioned projects in the open-source software world post evidence of similar letters.
they are uncensoring content in good faith
You do understand that this means that at worst the legal threat did not exist in the first place. At best, the threat no longer exists.
Either way, the damage is already done. I don’t see the point of walking back. You just don’t get to “uncensor” things after the fact.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.
In the spirit of transparency to the community, post pictures of the legal letters received. Or am just going to assume you are carrying out moderation ahem censorship on the instance.
Sure. All censorship starts out in good faith.
Firstly, let me be clear. This is my opinion as someone who isn’t, and has never been involved with their instance in any capacity. My account is with pawb.social.
Posting legal letters may open them up to additional legal liability, and it is completely reasonable to let the community know what happened without sharing the actual letter.
Secondly, you’re putting words in my mouth. I am not saying they are censoring in good faith. I am saying the complete opposite, that they are reversing their stance in good faith. In other words, they are uncensoring content in good faith.
So it’s a case of their word against ours… Anyway, IANAL but I’ve seen other similarly positioned projects in the open-source software world post evidence of similar letters.
You do understand that this means that at worst the legal threat did not exist in the first place. At best, the threat no longer exists. Either way, the damage is already done. I don’t see the point of walking back. You just don’t get to “uncensor” things after the fact.