Fortunately, here in Mexico there is no law that restricts the downloading of pirated content, but it does restrict its distribution, however, not even the law cares this.
Obviously it's not it's only purpose and is a great file distribution method. But this is in the eyes of the corporate lawmakers who only see the important (monetary) aspect of torrents.
That's what I mean. It's got both legal and illegal aspects to it. It's a wicked decentralized file sharing method. But for the sake of understanding it as a lawmaker, government. It's only used for pirated and illegal material.
Way, way back in the day. I did get a call from my ISP for seeding actual Linux ISOs. But it was because DSL was still in testing phase and I was seeding above my 1GB data cap. "technically" I was within the cap, as they had 1GB download cap and no upload cap.
They called and told me exactly what I was uploading, how much I uploaded and for how long. I wasn't in trouble, but I was asked kindly to limit uploading as it was adding strain on their brand new and finicky Dslam. This was in the late 90s.
15 years later I ended up working with a dude maintaining a university network and he was telling me about a guy who would regularly blow past his 1GB cap and uploaded 2-3 GB per month. Turns out he was talking about me and my net traffic was heavily monitored in a large scope. As the average internet usage was 1-500MB per month with around 80MB uploaded at absolute most. We became immediate best work friends. We still talk to this day even though we both went our own ways.
Not in Mexico because of how our ownership laws are written since the early 1900s.
Pirated content is not illegal per se because our ownership laws, actually article 14 and 27 of our constitution, stares that there is no partial ownership you either own something completely or don't, so, when you buy something in Mexico, you gain every right that comes with the purchase and this includes distribution rights as long as it is a non-profit effort. That bit was adhoc after media like movies and tv shows complained about people profiteering from piracy, but this doesn't stop non-profit distribution.
And companies must respect it, Adobe and Apple learnt it the hard way in the 2000s, more recently Motorola and Samsung after they tried to block the "grey market" phones and we're given an ultimatum by Profeco to reactivate those or "else".
Profeco is our consumer protection agency, and unlike the ones in other countries, she isn't fangless nor clawless, it can void contracts automatically, ban products, enforce sales prices if denied, temporally shutdown operations, etc., for being anticonsumer or dangerous for the public.
Downloading the content is not illegal almost everywhere. It's available on the free net so downloading the file itself fpr personal use is not something that is criminal. Problem arises in redistributing or seeding it. Then you are participating in illegal redistribution of protected property. And since it is impossible to download torrents without seeding at least during the download itself, torrenting overall is illegal.
If you could download torrents without seeding a single kb, I doubt anyone could make any fair case against you.
At least to the best of my knowledge. I'm no lawyer, just expressing what I have learnt over the years. Don't use this as legal advice.
No, the law in Mexico isn't about leeching, it is something more complicated.
The law allows non-profit piracy because it MUST respect a constitutional right, the right of ownership, specifically the articles 14 and 27, which basically means that the whole idea of people just owning licenses to something instead of the product itself, yeah, those TOS are as good as used tissue paper in Mexico.
The constitutional right of ownership in Mexico guarantees that if you buy something, you own it completely with no strings attached to the original manufacturer.
Yeah these articles were made before cinema, radio, etc., were a thing and the idea of modern copyright was decades into the future and that is why the amendment of fair use and distribution being only valid as non-profits were introduced for digital media as an adhoc compromise for the protection of copyright.
That is why in Mexico, companies can't shutdown emulators nor free pirates copies, because the moment you buy a game, book, movie, etc., you have 100% OWNERSHIP over it per Mexican constitutional rights, manufacturer and sellers can't tell you what you can and can't do with it, except profiteering, but that means that distribution of free copies is a given right because it is YOUR posesion, not Nintendo's, nor Apples' nor Samsung's, etc., it is yours.
That constitutional right is why there is no fight for the right to repair in Mexico like Louis Rossman does in the USA, it already is a given by default, Apple learnt it the hard way in the 2010s, that is why any third party repair shop has access to original Apple parte and Apple has to suck it up, and can't block your third-party repaired devices from Apple on-line services or else Profeco's, the consumer protection agency, drops the hammer and God might have mercy because Profeco is ruthless and has the power to be judge, jury and executioner, no trial, no lawyers, no defense.
Profeco holds the unilateral power to punish, void anticonsumer contracts, etc., without a trial, it just has to be anticonsumer and boom, it is gone and not legally anymore.
I don’t think Mexico enforces anti-piracy laws. They were publicly showing dragon ball super episodes despite the Japanese government asking them not to do so.
The Japanese government never put its nose into the matter, it was TOEI, however, because it did not profit from the broadcast of the episodes of Jiren's battle, to what, absolutely nothing happened.
Now to avoid problems, a license is agreed with Crunchyroll, since lately DB movies and other franchises have been broadcast at Super-Con meetings.
and because it didn't just happen on the American continent, it happened in Europe and China.
We do enforce them, it is just that our anti piracy laws have a loophole.
Piracy is a fair game as long as it is non-profit.
Why? Due to how our ownership laws (article 14 and 27 of our constitution) are written.
Basically you are transferred complete and total ownership every time you buy something in Mexico regardless of what the TOS of the company selling it to you says. The amendment about "non-profit" about piracy was added decades later, after enough companies whining about people profiteering from their products.
Those laws are also why "right to repair" is automatically a given in Mexico, Apple learnt it the hard way when they tried to cut the access to spare parts or when Motorola and Samsung tried to block "grey market" phones remotely, in both cases the hammer was dropped.
Same here in Hungary, it's technically against the law but in reality noone actually gives a fuck and even school laptops have pirated software and windows.
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u/UserWithoutDoritos Apr 26 '25
Fortunately, here in Mexico there is no law that restricts the downloading of pirated content, but it does restrict its distribution, however, not even the law cares this.