I understand why they did what they did and it makes me think of how db0 and other admins are saying fuck all and taking a very big liability for making and supporting a free internet and i want to say all the work you do is very much appreciated. Also shoutout to lemmy.ml admins for running a similar community on their own .
Links for supporting the db0 server and do consider donating as it is running behind on expenses.
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| Ko-fi | Liberapay |
Legally I think they’d probably be exempted from liability as a common carrier, similar to how your email server isn’t going to get sued if you mail someone a link to piracy. I doubt they’re interested in testing that theory though.
That’s a stretch to call any new website, especially with the market share of Lemmy, a common carrier.
By that reasoning, narcotics mules are common carriers. “I didn’t know it was H in that bag in my bum! I thought it was a recipe for oatmeal cookies! Don’t blame me!”
Edit: I should add that I would love a broad classification of simple facilitators like email and Lemmy etc. as common carriers. Just doesn’t seem likely with the lobby man-hours working to prevent even true common carriers from getting that classification.
I don’t think comparing a federated message board to smuggling drugs is as fair a comparison as say email or Usenet, also federated services which have both been granted common carrier in the past, but go off I guess.
Fair. I picked another activity that’s illegal on its face that stood out for its absurdity. Now I’m researching when Usenet or email were ever classified as CC, hopefully benefiting from this discussion.
In fairness I may be mistaken. It seems ISPs were extended common carrier protections in relation to hosting Usenet and email and I conflated that with the protocols themselves. Either way it was a long time ago and I doubt they’d extend those protections to generic web platforms these days, but I’d sure like someone to set a precedent for it.
It would be great to see the public good placed far above corporate good. Alas…
The US would rather try to pin mass shootings on social media platforms than address the core issues that might destabilize their status quo sociopolitical puppet show, which could set an incredibly dangerous precedent. I wouldn’t be surprised if some money happened to find its way into the right pockets to try the same thing on behalf of the poor poor megacorps’ “lost sales” in the near future.