HBO Obtains DMCA Subpoena to Unmask 'Euphoria' Spoiler Account on X
torrentfreak.com
torrentfreak.com
I can see it being an NDA breach or something but otherwise not
-> [HBO Lawyer] classifies the infringing content as 'summaries of unpublished, character, setting, and plots of a forthcoming series'
I could see an argument that it is a trade secret, too-- which could be used to oppose downstream dissemination.
I think a key thing to remember when assessing your own liability is fair use is a defense, not an automatic guaranteed right for blanket uses.
Leaking spoilers of unpublished works can definitely cause market harm, and serves no wider good for the market the same way educational material would.
I wouldn't like to be on the receiving side of this lawsuit. At the very least it's going to be expensive to defend against.
Taking TF's reporting at face value, would twitter be able to sufficiently identify a user? Does Twitter have the address, real names, etc. of its users?
Why would Twitter voluntarily run that sort of query to satisfy a subpoena?
Whether it's difficult and risky for the average user depends on the threat model. "Twitter doesn't directly have my name, address, or phone number sitting in their database next to my account" is easy. Other things are more difficult.
The only thing that falls apart is the IP address identification, which is only a very small signal for identifying an internet user. X/Twitter undoubtedly has more identity information than just an IP address.
That said I don't know how much browser fingerprinting Twitter might be doing and if fingerprints from other services might be possible to crossreference. Much higher risk is probably visiting other sites both with and without the VPN using the same browser without thinking about it and thus leaking your fingerprint or even account cookies that way. Or if you don't run a filter then visiting a site without the VPN that embeds Twitter tracking assets would leak to them directly.
You sue the social media to get the IP at time, then sue ISP with the reference to that suit to get IRL identity from IP + time, then sue the person using that IRL identity. Some parts of this has been simplified because courts having to process 3 lawsuits to move just couple grands for just a "@username I murder you this particular way and time" is ridiculous.
What if the accused used Tor or foreign VPN? I guess the matter goes to local FBI equivalent?
Unless someone spent a lot of effort to avoid it, any person with a IP address probably had something that established a connection at some point to one of those companies and that connection probably contained an identifier of some kind. It might have been a software update check, some user telemetry, a browser tab open to social media, a connection to icloud etc.
Once you get a match you ask that company for a list of every IP address that was ever used by that user/account, and in that list you should get a bunch of connections from an IP that belongs to a regular ISP. Very few people are using a VPN 100% of the time.
People are not always good at infosec for convenience, and Twitter's design for this was incompetent even before Musk's acquisition.
Admittedly, kind of a dick move, but I have to admit I did find it kind of funny at the time.
I mean, keep in mind I was fourteen when this happened, and fourteen year old boys are very often assholes and I was sadly not an exception to this.
I guess I just found it funny how much of a reaction people had with it. I liked the Harry Potter books too, I was reading them like every other fourteen year old was, and the plot being spoiled for me didn't really bother me very much, cuz, you know, it's just a book. Some people really got upset.
Again, definitely a dick move to do that, and a dick move for me to find it amusing. Kids are douchebags.
There's entire categories of entertainment media that use "unfortunate things happening to strangers" for comedic effect.
Also, there's the assumption that it was a real spoiler. It's not immediately verifiable. What if people were yelling "Snape kills Harry"? Why did the people in line assume the guy yelling into the night was being truthful, or that weirdly cropped images of pages weren't just photoshopped?
I acknowledge it's a dick move, but it really is just a spoiler for a book, not exactly life ruining and really shouldn't even be day-ruining. I had the book spoiled for me too and it was just something I moved on from, somehow.
This was done because it was the easiest way to massively distribute pain to people about a known weak spot. It was mean spirited, anti-social, and honestly indefensible.
If it isn't what's the defense?
Elsethread, you mention that "some people really got upset.". In some sense, the more upset they get, the more successful the troll and the funnier it gets, right? At least, it feels funny to me, at the same time as it also feels bad to imagine upset kids, at the same time as feeling that upset kids learning that other humans are cruel is a necessary part of growing up.
These were people who lined up for hours outside of a bookstore still waiting to get in after midnight. Many of those people were young and the lack of perspective and experience at young ages often results in assigning a disproportionate weight to the emotional events they experience. An event like that might not have been day-ruining for you, but I have no doubt that there were people who were genuinely hurt by it.
The question of whether humans are more biased towards social or antisocial behavior[1] is a complex one that philosophy has struggled with for a long time without a clear consensus.
1. Often historically framed as whether humans are inherently good or evil.
Assholes do exist, and you should be aware of them, but assholes are a tiny minority of the population. There are far more people who aren't assholes, and an even greater number of people who are just doing their own thing and can't be bothered to go through the effort to hurt others just for kicks.
To go a step further, sure he killed Dumbledore but without knowing why, and without knowing the real why that's revealed later, only a small part of the fun is lost. That's what makes it re-watchable to me. I'll remember the twists and the endings, but the emotions and the minutae are what keep me watching.
Unlike the DMCA notice, where WBD used “video” to describe the content, the declaration to the court by Michael Bentkover classifies the infringing content as “summaries of unpublished, character, setting, and plots of a forthcoming series”.
This distinction may matter, as a summary of a plot may not enjoy the same protection as a leaked video. Copyright generally protects the expression of a work, not the underlying ideas or plot descriptions.
> Unlike the DMCA notice, where WBD used “video” to describe the content, the declaration to the court by Michael Bentkover classifies the infringing content as “summaries of unpublished, character, setting, and plots of a forthcoming series”.
Isn't that simply about spoiling people, or what's the "crime" here? The article also says "Copyright generally protects the expression of a work, not the underlying ideas or plot descriptions", so I'm still unsure what the actual issue is, besides the misuse of DMCA.
If the videos posted to twitter were just summaries and not actual video of the unreleased show it seems unlikely that there was any copyrighted material being proliferated
There are enough laws that they'll find something to nail you on.
If it catches engagement, the main firehose feed will show it. They've begun using Grok and AI processes, which is hit and miss, but definitely improving.
Having Japanese, French, other countries' tweets automatically translated back and forth has been fun, too. It'll be interesting to see where it gets to in the next few years.
It was all porn. I was on a call with a friend and he checked from his account too and it was there as well, so this wasn't some kinda A/B test thing. It disappeared after a bit. My point is the algo is a bit wonky.
The catch is it's a UGC based algorithmic system with instant feedback, which means the fastest adapting contents with most bandwidth absolutely wins, which tends to be, like that.
Does anyone have the solution to this problem anyway? I thought this was always inevitable on WWW.
Trying to bend the platform morality to suit your idealisms seriously ruin yours over time.