In Germany at least, uploading even a single byte of content is illegal. We don't really have Fair Use here; there are only few, very narrow exceptions.
It is also not even required to show that that single byte was uploaded, your IP getting logged as part of the swarm suffices. The burden of proof is on you now. It was much, much worse than in the US.
While all this is technically still true today, a new law a few years ago luckily mostly blocked the path. It was badly needed, because the situation was horribly abused by law firms.
> It is also not even required to show that that single byte was uploaded, your IP getting logged as part of the swarm suffices
What if someone would release software that would connect to random swarms and not upload or download anything? Would they still be criminally liable? You could disguise the purpose by saying it's measuring swarm diversity.
In Australia it was determined that an ISP bears no responsibly to respond to allegations of copyright infringement by ISP users.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadshow_Films_Pty_Ltd_v_iiNet...
Of course Telco's can choose to be involved, perhaps accept payment to lookup and snitch, etc. but for the most part a number of ISPs in Au just wash their hands of devoting resources to play connect the dots for others.
Same in Japan. There's allegedly someone making big bucks going after bittorrent users, straining ISP abuse teams and judicial systems. Interesting that Germany has laws against that.
You comment shares bytes with copyrighted content, does that mean you broke the law?
> even a single byte of content is illegal
10010110
Watch out die Deutschen, that’s the first byte of Super Mario Bros.
Where is/is there a good source to read about this German uploading law?
Ideally in english but all is translatable.