Ask HN: Is notifying users about a movie available on torrent illegal? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is notifying users about a movie available on torrent illegal?

1 pointvsakos3 comments

I'm planning to create a website where users can "subscribe" on a movie and they get a notification when the movie is available in cinema, dvd, itunes, etc. I got an idea that i can also check PirateBay for BRRips and notify the users about the torrent availability, but without any reference to the torrent or the tracker site, just the message "XY is available on iTunes and in BRRip". I'm wondering is this illegal and can i have legal issues with it?

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IINAL. This is a dangerous gray area. Read for example the NinjaVideo case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NinjaVideo . (For example, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3464060 (154 points, 875 days ago, 157 comments), in particular the second comment by murz)

It’s very different if you comply with all the DMCA provisions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Ac... and can honestly say:

“Oh my God! I did’t see that! It’s all user generated content! I’ll delete that now!” (and you delete the copyright infringe content now.)

than

“I just finishes the selection and the official movie of the week winner is $title linked by $user.”

(Perhaps this is not the ideal solution and perhaps this is not the right thing, but if you don’t follow the DMCA to you need good lawyers.)

NinjaVideo was a streaming website, but on my website there won't be any illegal content. Only the "BRRip" word will be present in just two locations:

1. in the user's control panel next to a checkbox so he can decide whether he wants to be notified about the torrent availability

2. in the email sent to the user (or in other form of notification) with the text "BRRip is available for movie XY", no links to torrent or warez content or something.

Legal is one thing. Asking for trouble is another. You don't have to necessarily be doing something illegal to invite trouble.

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