All the people saying just change instances, I would and will but this being the biggest instance and calling itself the front-page of Lemmy. This sets a precedent for banning things capitalism doesn't support with out even talking to your user base. And I disapprove.

Why is this not called "copyright infringement" anymore again? Where did the sea pirate association start?

I don't think this is a lemmy.world problem as much as it's a Fediverse problem. Assuming that the only reason to block these communities is legal safety, we should figure out what is legally unsafe and see if that can be enforced on the piracy communities, or everyone in the Fediverse could also be at risk and should block these communities.

I know that the piracy communities themselves are already taking these kinds of measures to make sure they are not unsafe, so if anything is found we should solve it together. If push comes to shove, I suspect that piracy communities would rather restrict themselves than risk taking a stand and endangering others. It's not that big of a deal to skirt legal concerns while still being a useful piracy resource - /r/piracy existed in much the same state.

Personally, I think this was a terrible decision and I think it's abundantly clear you will lose users for this. I used this as the reason to self host my own instance. Good luck.

Absolutely understandable decision. I would have done the same.

I have an idea. How about all of the complainers go and start your own instance and allow whatever you want. When you have 100k users good luck sleeping.