Earlier, after review, we blocked and removed several communities that were providing assistance to access copyrighted/pirated material, which is currently not allowed per Rule #1 of our Code of Conduct. The communities that were removed due to this decision were:

We took this action to protect lemmy.world, lemmy.world’s users, and lemmy.world staff as the material posted in those communities could be problematic for us, because of potential legal issues around copyrighted material and services that provide access to or assistance in obtaining it.

This decision is about liability and does not mean we are otherwise hostile to any of these communities or their users. As the Lemmyverse grows and instances get big, precautions may happen. We will keep monitoring the situation closely, and if in the future we deem it safe, we would gladly reallow these communities.

The discussions that have happened in various threads on Lemmy make it very clear that removing the communites before we announced our intent to remove them is not the level of transparency the community expects, and that as stewards of this community we need to be extremely transparent before we do this again in the future as well as make sure that we get feedback around what the planned changes are, because lemmy.world is yours as much as it is ours.

    • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is misinformation, straight up. They did not block an instance, they blocked communities; and Lemmy replicates all content to the server it’s being viewed from, so they would likely be liable.

    • Panja@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Merely blocking the instance in its entirety

      Did that actually happen? It looks like they just blocked those specific communities… Which seems completely fair

    • ZombieZookeeper@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Are you going to pay the Lemmy admins legal fees when Hollywood comes after them? In no part of your complaint did I see you volunteering to do so.

    • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This argument keeps showing up again and again. “The point of the Fediverse is to stay connected.”

      Someone want to point out the logic that is supposed to underlie this? Because I think a small subset of people has just completely made it up themselves.

      As far as I can see, we were given tools for things like defederation and blocking for a reason. Those tools did not need to get made, that took someone’s time and investment, so it must’ve been pretty important if they already got around to it.

      • Loom In Essence@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You’re right, the existence of a tool justifies any abusive use of the tool. Every instance should block every community and we should all get our own private instances and block each other.

          • Loom In Essence@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It’s not slippery slope because we have already been instance-hopping as every instance defederates and bans and defederates and bans, all the while we are ridiculed for expressing a desire to be connected, told to get lost.

              • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I believe the answer is the fact that the corporations are upset that they can’t control the free flow of information on the web, due to the way that it was designed. The free flow people seem to be worried that by de-federating and blocking communities we are effectively silencing them due to pressure from corporations that many people seem to feel shouldn’t have the ability to silence us.

                • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  So you’re saying people have been sensitized due to being banned/blocked/shadowbanned/whatever on the major services, and are thus having some kind of knee-jerk reaction to any and all blocks to participation here? Because we are certainly not a corporation. We’re just individuals, who have individual freedom.

                  Including the freedom to block people from our hardware.

                  • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    Essentially, yeah. The masses are having a kneejerk reaction. I believe the lemmings that were here before the major Sync/Reddit migration may have more of a point.

                    I don’t believe the second group is reacting just because [specific instance] is getting banned. I believe that group is reacting because of the implications of groups getting banned, as those lemmings are more concerned with maintenance than the corporations.

                • samus12345@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  And they’re right! Which means their anger is directed at the wrong thing if they’re mad at Lemmy.world. Be mad that the corporations have been given the power to crush the common people just by making them have to defend themselves in court.

            • Cabrio@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Then host your own instance with all the blackjack, hookers, and liability you want; instead of bitching about what toys someone else has in their sandbox.

              • Loom In Essence@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Instead, you can host your own instance and block everybody, and stop telling your fellow lemurians to fuck off, and stop pretending that sharing a very common opinion is “bItcHinG”

                You are just a troll.

                • Cabrio@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Do you practice being this stupid or does it come naturally? Your opinion has no bearing on reality.

    • mysoulishome@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m happy to see that’s a lawyer had stepped in to let us know there could never ever be any legal consequences whatsoever for federating with any other instance regardless of what they post. You are a lawyer right? And your E&O insurance will protect you if you’re wrong and give advice that gets us sued or jailed?