Question Re: Magnet Links

[thirty20]

Hi there,

We all know hosting .torrent sites is frowned upon and against TOS, but what about indexing and hosting magnet links (hashes), in the way recently adopted by the owners of ThePirateBay.org?

Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_URI_scheme and http://www.dslreports.com/faq/10840

What is HG's stance on the publishing of magnet links from their shared/reseller hosting users? A client of mine is curious. As far as I know it is not illegal or copyright infringement in any way to publish magnet links on web pages.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer!

[EarlyOut]

Originally Posted by thirty20

As far as I know it is not illegal or copyright infringement in any way to publish magnet links on web pages.

Technically, it's not illegal or copyright infringement to publish links to sites that provide pirated material, either, but that doesn't mean that it's OK, or that HG will tolerate it. If you're facilitating copyright infringement, you're in trouble territory. Peer-to-peer networks are used almost exclusively for illicit purposes (yeah, yeah, I know that there are some legit uses - I'm talking about the other 98%).

[Keith W]

This would be against Hostgators terms of service

[thirty20]

Great to know. Thanks

Originally Posted by Keith W

This would be against Hostgators terms of service

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by thirty20

As far as I know it is not illegal or copyright infringement in any way to publish magnet links on web pages.

In general, "as far as I know" is another way to say "need to do more research".

Originally Posted by EarlyOut

Technically, it's not illegal or copyright infringement to publish links to sites that provide pirated material, either, but that doesn't mean that it's OK, or that HG will tolerate it. If you're facilitating copyright infringement, you're in trouble territory.

You're spiritually (and sensibly) in tune with this great quote from GatorNathon:

"With U.S. copyright law, if you have to ask, you probably shouldn't be doing it."

Actually, it may be more than "technically" these days. There's been a lot of legal discussion about this...even more since this thread:

Are we allowed to link to...