Humans who run instances are real people who have jobs and mortgages and kids. I also like having piracy communities around to balance the greedy ass corporations trying to control media and copyright…I’m glad to know they are there if I need them or feel like screwing around with it. I just wonder if the people ranting all indignantly acting like instances are competing for their usership would feel the same if the most active instance was on a server physically sitting in their basement, or paid for by money tied to them in the real world. Yes it seems pretty unlikely that you’re ever going to run into issues with law enforcement, copyright claims, lawsuits…but how much would you risk for a fucking hobby you do for free? Would you risk your house? Your job? I would not. Grow up. No one cares what instance you use.
I get where your argument stems from, and I do agree with it when it comes to actual file hosting. But lemmy instances don’t host any files other than images. People are only talking about piracy. There isn’t anything illegal going on, risking liability by letting people discuss shit.
I find it far more compelling to focus on the argument against the whiny people that the community was in violation of the rules established by the instance the entire time it existed. The instance didn’t change the rules all of sudden, it just decided to enforce them.
It’s not the end of the world. Make a new instance. An instance specifically devoted to piracy. Then you can do whatever the hell you want because a pirate is free.