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Comment by techthroway443 | Hacker News Reader

How is hosting magnet links that let you download copyrighted material not considered hosting infringing content?

Google host entire books that are still known to be in copyright without getting the author's permission; that doesn't according to the courts count as copyright infringement. But we're expected to think that hosting content metadata is [contributory] copyright infringement?

Gun manufacturers are murderers in such a world.

Just to play devil's advocate, gun sales are regulated in one way or another in many places. Permits, background checks, waiting periods. The pirate bay, in many ways, acts more like a gun runner than a gun manufacturer. They don't create the content, they just make it available and try to skirt regulation through a technicality or even direct non-compliance.

So like the HN darling Uber?

In a very literal way - the copyright to the contents of a particular magnet file is not owned by the DMCA claimant, and distributing that magnet file to others is not a violation of copyright laws.

Since when is metadata considered covered under copyright?

If the metadata in question is used specifically for the purpose of distributing copyrighted material then how should it not be?

You just made searching the internet for an ISBN or employing the Dewey Decimal System illegal. Congrats!

I think you instead meant to imply some sort of intent test. That gets very difficult very quickly. Figuring out how to write the RIAA's perpetual money-machine into law while not destroying section 230 or accidentally banning photocopiers is your next task.

I'm failing to see the connection between magnet links to download copyrighted material and searching for an ISBN.

ISBN numbers have identified copyrighted works since 1967.

Magnet links are basically just deterministically computed ISBNs for arbitrary data.

Here is the magnet link for a zero length file.

    magnet:?xt=urn:ed2k:31D6CFE0D16AE931B73C59D7E0C089C0&xl=0&dn=zero_len.fil

How is that different than:

    978-0262510875 "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - 2nd Edition"

Because magnet links do not carry the copyright of the files they are supposedly associated with. And third parties not the pirate bay send you the content you do not download it from the pirate bay.

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