On: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ ...

[lostcolony]

Generally speaking, it's uploading/transferring content to others that is illegal, not downloading it for yourself. At least, de facto if not de jure.

[humanistbot → lostcolony]

In most jurisdictions, copyright infringement isn't a crime, it is a civil tort, meaning you can be sued by the copyright holder for damages. Most big media copyright holders (MPAA/RIAA/etc) have a policy of only going after uploaders because it just isn't cost effective to go after downloaders for damages. A downloader can only be sued for the retail value of what they downloaded, while uploaders can be sued for the retail value of what they uploaded times the number of downloads. But this isn't codified in law, it is just corporate policy.

[AussieWog93 → humanistbot]

>A downloader can only be sued for the retail value of what they downloaded

Is this the actual law?

I remember hearing about people being sued for $100k+ just for downloading a few albums back in the Limewire days.

[ramchip → AussieWog93]

Most likely they were also distributing (uploading), not just downloading.

[AussieWog93 → ramchip]

Reading the EFF's history (and thinking about how the technology works for one second!), it seems this was how the lawsuits were put forth.