I don't know the specifics behind why the communities were (re-)removed but the reasons given in the modlog seem vague enough to apply to anyone linking to Google or YouTube as they reference or indirectly link to piracy:
Removed Community CrackWatch@lemmy.dbzer0.com
reason: facilitating piracy, referencing websites used for the distribution of copyright infringing material in images
Removed Community Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ@lemmy.dbzer0.com
reason: facilitating piracy, indirectly linking to websites used for the distribution of copyright infringing material
From the initial removal announcement post:
The discussions that have happened in various threads on Lemmy make it very clear that removing the communites before we announced our intent to remove them is not the level of transparency the community expects, and that as stewards of this community we need to be extremely transparent before we do this again in the future as well as make sure that we get feedback around what the planned changes are, because lemmy.world is yours as much as it is ours.
EDITED multiple times due to confusion over origins of the ban.
There are no ships, it's not reddit. You download one app to sync your instances, and you fucking join few to have access to everything you want. Or you just create your own instance, grant access to everything and use it by yourself. No lawyers will call you because they won't even know.
Lemmy instance admin can do whatever the hell they want, they could close Lemmy world tomorrow and I wouldn't care, because there are hundreds instances in it's place. Stop pretending that you matter to any of the instance owners.You are not a client here like on reddit, you are just a guest that costs them money.
EDIT: Probably should hold off on pitchforks and exit plans, it’s likely I’m misinterpreting the modlog and it wasn’t Lemmy.World that initiated the ban but the dbzer0 team that did.
lemmy.dbzer0.com has nothing to do with this. This was an action from the l.w admins. In the past @antik@lemmy.world was the one who argued to reverse this decision, so 🤷♂️
Ugh, I just can't win. I generally don't like to edit out (but just append to) stuff I've written but I'm really sorry about besmirching you and your instance due to another user causing me to doubt my interpretation of the modlog. Going to remove all mentions of dbzer0.
Without taking any stance on what the rules should be, I'll re-quote this for emphasis:
we need to be extremely transparent before we do this again in the future
Instead, we have communities banned without a public post or opportunity for community members to engage with the admins making the decision. I joined lemmy.world before it was the biggest instance or anybody's idea of the default because I was aware of mastodon.world and had the impression it was well-managed. I'm starting to lose that impression here, and I don't like it.
I didn't notice it was gone. Most of what I remember from it was links to torrentfreak articles, which were completely above board. So yeah the silent removal is lame.
Problem is, with an instance as huge as LW, it has some moderation obligations in many countries that may have opened them to be litigated for multiple millions €, considering its size. It is more a question of survival, not because of some power-hungry admin.
I can understand your point of view, but the TOS is clear about piracy and piracy discutions (see : https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/#41-piracy), and thus they are required to remove those communities if they break those terms (they are legally binding).
Anyone who doesn't want to comply with those TOS can, as you pointed out, move to another instance. It is one of the beauty of the Fediverse. In this case, the one who will be responsible in the case of a litigation is lemmy.ca, and not lemmy.world anymore.
A nice tip for you fellow .world users, your instance has been updated recently and supports exporting, so you can create an account somewhere else ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
Or you know... You can go back to reddit if you want those kinds of meme communities.
Anyone have a recommendation for a smaller (but not minuscule) instance that has lax piracy rules and doesn’t make political identity to be a lifestyle? Ideally hosted in the EU or Switzerland?
Shit, sorry for all the drama if this is just me misunderstanding the federation system. I wish there was more information provided in the modlog than just "admin", like at least stating the origin server that took action. I just assumed since those communities had been "supported" (or at least tolerated) by db0 for so long they were on good terms and in communication with each other - didn't even cross my mind.
EDIT: db0/dbzer0 had nothing to do with this ban, it was performed by a LW admin.
No, you're not misunderstanding anything. The communities were banned by lemmy.world, specifically @MrKaplan@lemmy.world, one of the new admins. At a guess he probably took action on his own without realising the consequences.