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Posted by giuliomagnifico 11/2/2025

Anti-cybercrime laws are being weaponized to repress journalism(www.cjr.org)
327 points | 98 commentspage 2
ugur2nd 11/2/2025|
Welcome to Earth! Some people really enjoy exploiting legal loopholes.

Two years ago, I was sued for $10,000 in copyright infringement for embedding a YouTube video on my website. They filed a lawsuit by describing the word “embed” as if it were “upload.” But they are two different things. I won the case. But I realized that others didn't.

I learned that the company filed lawsuits against dozens of websites, especially Blogspot sites. I even heard a rumor.

They share content on social media and community sites in a way that entices people, focusing on areas that remain in a gray zone and where few people know it's illegal.

For example, “Embed movies from YouTube and share them on your website. You'll make a lot of money. If I knew how to program, I would do it.” This is just one example. There are many different examples. By the way, my site wasn't a movie site.

They apparently file lawsuits like clockwork against anyone who triggers their radar with the right keywords via Google Alerts.

Cybercrimes are just another reflection of this. If I could, I'd share more, but I don't want to go to jail. Freedom of expression isn't exactly welcomed everywhere on the internet.

lunias 11/3/2025||
Did you file a countersuit? I always wonder when I hear about these situations, how these types of scams continue to operate?
ugur2nd 11/4/2025||
We didn't file a counterclaim. Because my lawyer said it wasn't necessary. Because even if we won the counterclaim, we would have earned very little money.

Since the other side may be doing this commercially, they may be thinking in terms of mass production. In other words, they file lawsuits and earn as much as they can. If they can't win, they keep filing lawsuits against others. They don't bother.

They might not be making it a matter of pride; they might just be thinking about making money.

retox 11/2/2025||
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cyanydeez 11/4/2025||
It is a paradox that laws can be abused by enforcement. Similar to who watches the watchers and turtles.
kristjank 11/2/2025||
>Well meaning

yeah, right

8sigma 11/3/2025||
I won't be surprised if governments start outlawing journalism.
terminalshort 11/2/2025||
> Across the world, well-meaning laws intended to reduce online fraud and other scourges of the internet are being put to a very different use.

If only someone, anyone, could have foreseen this /s. I read so many HN comments about the "slippery slope fallacy," back when the powers that be were censoring the people that they didn't like. I bet they'll be right back where they were next time the government is going after the "misinformation" they don't like.

ThrowawayTestr 11/2/2025|
Everyone is an authoritarian towards the other side.
hunterpayne 11/2/2025||
No, not everyone is like that. But plenty of people are.
taccal 11/3/2025||
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zkmon 11/2/2025||
Laws by definition are capsules of power. Some laws give more power to government and some laws give power to some sections of people, such as gender-based or cast-based laws, renter-vs-landlord rules etc. Such laws are easy to be weaponized by the party whom the law favors. Such laws actually increase crime through fake cases. In some Western countries, teen gangs create so much terror, only because they are immune to punishment by law.
SilverElfin 11/2/2025|
What’s the principled line between journalism and crime, if there is one that isn’t just opinion? Often journalists are not just protecting sources but guiding them or encouraging them. And those sources are sometimes committing crimes like leaking trade secrets or other confidential info.
croes 11/2/2025||
> Often journalists are not just protecting sources but guiding them or encouraging them.

Source?

burningChrome 11/3/2025||
The Rolling Stone scandal around "A Rape On Campus" article is a good example:

Rolling Stone’s investigation: ‘A failure that was avoidable’: https://www.cjr.org/investigation/rolling_stone_investigatio...

Last July 8, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, a writer for Rolling Stone, telephoned Emily Renda, a rape survivor working on sexual assault issues as a staff member at the University of Virginia. Erdely said she was searching for a single, emblematic college rape case that would show “what it’s like to be on campus now … where not only is rape so prevalent but also that there’s this pervasive culture of sexual harassment/rape culture,” according to Erdely’s notes of the conversation"

Forgeties79 11/5/2025||
This was one extreme case that was incredibly noteworthy (and not quite as sinister as you are implying, though definitely reckless and unethical). To act like this is bog standard is patently absurd.
Forgeties79 11/2/2025|||
> And those sources are sometimes committing crimes like leaking trade secrets or other confidential info

I mean this with all sincerity: So what? What bearing does that have on the journalist and what they are writing?

I am also curious about that claim the other guy asked you about, “Guiding” sources and such.

SilverElfin 11/2/2025||
I know it directly from first hand experience. And I liken it to jurisprudence on incitement to violence. Is incitement to theft also punishable? Does the motivation being journalism matter? Why or why not?
malcolmgreaves 11/2/2025|||
Journalists provide a valuable public service: publishing the truth. The position you’re advocating for is sullied up as “fuck the truth, bend the knee to the law.” Your opinion is incompatible with a free society.
Forgeties79 11/2/2025|||
Hold on, who said a journalist was inciting criminal activity? That is a completely different animal. Of course I am not saying that’s fine. That’s not even remotely what I’m talking about.
FrustratedMonky 11/2/2025||
So cajoling is a crime?
terminalshort 11/2/2025|||
Thankfully, no. But from reading comments on the internet it seems like "look what you made me do" is considered a valid excuse by a large percentage of so called adults in the US.
ThrowawayTestr 11/2/2025|||
Incitement of violence is a crime