Re:Popcorn Time repository unavailable due to DMCA takedown
by Retric on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @10:44AM
(#23080534)
Use of a Hash by a torrenting site to enable people to download the movie is clearly damaging the market for the original work.
Clearly some uses of a Hash qualify for fair use, but it’s hard to argue that Popcorn Time is one of them.
Re:Popcorn Time repository unavailable due to DMCA takedown
by thaumasiotes on Tuesday May 05, 2020 @11:27AM
(#23081037)
I don't think we're disagreeing on that point. All I'm saying is that the nature of the hash as being derived from the movie file is irrelevant. If people organized movie torrenting by assigning version 4 UUIDs to movie files, then Popcorn Time would infringe just as much by publishing those UUIDs as it does by publishing hashes. There's no "derivative work" argument being made on either side. If there was, the pro-Popcorn-Time side would win.
1. Transformative use. The uses of e.g. an MD5 hash of a movie file are not similar in any way to the uses of the movie itself, however represented.
2. Market substitution. The availability of hashes cannot possibly damage the commercial market for the movie. Nobody who wanted the movie is going to content themselves with the hashcode instead.
So hashes are always going to be in the clear. To the extent that Popcorn Time violates copyright by providing lists of hashes, that is because of a consideration of the Popcorn Time ecosystem generally, not because the hashes are violations in themselves. They aren't.