Preface: I personally don't care if it's legal or not, I'm gonna do it anyway. But, I wanted to pose the question here to people who are smarter than me to get your opinions. Plus, my partner is completely anti-piracy so I can only enjoy it by myself and it makes me kind of sad to do so. So it'd be nice to give them a reason to consider it. Also also, I am not knowledgeable enough to even know if this is a stupid question, so please be kind.

I saw an old post/comment chain that the stremio + rd + torrentio combo is "technically" legal in the states due to some workaround about distributing vs consuming. You're also not downloading anything or torrenting anything. I know that on their own, Stremio and RD are perfectly legit sites. But adding Torrentio into the mix is where it gets the spicy flavor. Now that some years have passed and that post might be outdated, what are your thoughts now? Is there a case to be made in favor of this being legal?

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[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 month ago (3 children)

In the US, outside of licensed channels, it is a copyright violation on both sides. But I don't think it's ever really been prosecuted for people who only download, outside of one or two really weird and/or "make an example of them" cases.

[–] nefarioushoneybee@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

This makes a lot of sense. I didn't think about the licensing of channels. Seems like thats a super simple, black-and-white way to say "yeah its illegal". Thank you.

[–] nefarioushoneybee@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ok second question in response. So what would be the difference then of consuming copyrighted media uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo before they're taken down because of violations? Would that also mean I violated the law by streaming it from an unintended source even though those sources are legit? (YouTube/Vimeo)

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Those sources are not legit. Strictly speaking yeah it would be participating in copyright infringement, but it'd be real hard to convince a court that the rightsholder was materially harmed by you watching it. If anyone, they go after the person who uploaded it (and the platform hosting it, if they aren't taking stuff down).

[–] nefarioushoneybee@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago

That's fair. It would make sense for it to be consistent whether I watched it illegally through YouTube or the Stremio combo. Ah well, looks like I continue to pirate alone.

[–] jlow@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 month ago

When you're torrenting you're always uploading as well, though (unless you're a filthy leech), so the "only downloading is fine" only applies to RD (which I don't know much about, I think it's a bit like Usenet)? I have a friend in Germany who got fined for torrenting (this was years and years ago).