Uploading Pirated Books via BitTorrent Qualifies as Fair Use, Meta Argues

Corporate vs. Individual Piracy and Power Asymmetry

• Many contrast “poor kid pirating for entertainment” with trillion‑dollar companies pirating to enrich themselves.
• Strong sentiment that laws are harshly enforced against individuals but bent or reinterpreted for corporations.
• Some argue nothing fundamental changed: the money still flows upward; courts function as tools of power.
• Others point out that different “activists” care about different things (free information vs. artists’ livelihoods), so reactions aren’t purely anti‑corporate tribalism.

Meta’s Fair Use & BitTorrent Argument

• Meta’s claim: BitTorrent inherently uploads while downloading, so any incidental uploading is just how the protocol works and should be fair use.
• Multiple commenters rebut this technically: clients can minimize or disable upload; modified or certain clients can set upload to zero, so uploading is a choice.
• Some note BitTorrent’s social norms vs. protocol mechanics (seeding is default in clients, not a hard requirement).
• Many see Meta’s line as a desperate, almost comical legal argument unlikely to persuade a court.

AI Training, Copyright, and Precedent

• Debate over whether training on pirated books (or any copyrighted works) can be fair use, with comparisons to earlier book‑scanning cases.
• One view: training is transformative, doesn’t substitute for books, and publishers/authors suffer no legal harm.
• Opposing view: models depend critically on these works; authors should be paid or able to set conditions.
• Concern that large AI firms will cut licensing deals with big content owners, then use copyright to block open and startup competitors from training.

History of Enforcement and Damages

• Recollection of past RIAA lawsuits, statutory damages far above actual losses, and focus on upload/distribution in P2P cases.
• Some highlight the absurdity of damages scaling and the threat model: ordinary users sued for thousands vs. corporations treating infringement fines as a business cost.

IP, Levies, and Moral Views on Piracy

• Several express support for piracy or abolition/major reform of IP, with the caveat that creators still need to be paid.
• Discussion of “private copying levies” on storage media (e.g., in some European countries) as moral justification for personal piracy; others argue this unfairly subsidizes pirates and incumbents.

Broader Worries About AI and Law

• Fears that AI follows the surveillance industry pattern: free and useful early, then locked‑down, enshittified, and heavily regulated in favor of incumbents.
• Cynicism that whatever precedent emerges will likely favor corporations and not “regular people.”