Anti-Piracy Firm Offering ISPs Money For Outing File-Sharers 132
mytrip points out news that an anti-piracy firm called Nexicon has been offering financial incentives to ISPs in exchange for having the ISPs police their own networks for copyright infringement. Nexicon would offer their services (for a fee) to help the ISPs pinpoint users who are illegally sharing files, and then give the users an option to "settle" through their "Get Amnesty" website. The revenue generated by such settlements would then be shared with the ISPs. Jerry Scroggin, owner of a smaller ISP in Louisiana, is still skeptical, saying, "I would still wind up losing customers. I would also have to pay Nexicon for this ... I have to survive in this economy but I don't have the big marketing dollars that bigger ISPs have. I have to fund 401(K)s and find ways not to lay off people. Giving free rein to the RIAA is not part of my business model."
Huh, madness (Score:5, Interesting)
A small ISP could fake the logs and sell out some of their customers.
great business model there jim (Score:4, Interesting)
Interestingly... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:they pitch an interesting plan (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm betting NOT. Suing (or extorting, threatening to sue and selling "protection") your customers has never been an effective business model. You'd think they'd have learned that by now.
True, but the average customer might never know or figure out that it was the ISP that sold them out.
Monopoly broadband providers (Score:2, Interesting)
making money from illegal activity? (Score:5, Interesting)
Apart from the highly dubious moral position, this sounds like either a protection racket or entrapment, or both.
[1] although it won't ever get to court - they'll hope people will just roll over and pay up. So the legality of this "sting" won't ever be tested.
dns info for nexicon (Score:2, Interesting)
nexiconinc.com. is in Abuse.net Contacts as 0.0.0.1
* "postmaster@nexiconinc.com"
74.220.215.80 is host280.hostmonster.com.
host280.hostmonster.com. is in Abuse.net Contacts as 0.0.0.2
* "postmaster@hostmonster.com"
* "abuse@hostmonster.com"
74.220.215.80 is in Blars Block List as 208.43.232.224
* Hosts spamers web sites
* Hosts spammers email dropboxes
* breakin attempts
* Knowingly supports spammers
* attepted mail relay
* attepted formmail exploit
* carreer spammer support
* provides connection to rogue isp
74.220.215.80 is in lagengymnastik as 127.0.0.2
* "Please refer to http://groups.google.com/group/news.admin.net-abuse.blocklisting/msg/9fc547194276c164"
74.220.215.80 is in they.com spambait as 209.198.142.156
74.220.215.80 in ASN11798 74.220.192.0/19
IPQuery: 74.220.215.80 Server: whois.arin.net
OrgName: Bluehost Inc.
OrgID: BLUEH-2
Address: 1215 N. Research Way Q-3500
City: Orem
StateProv: UT
PostalCode: 84097
Country: US
NetRange: 74.220.192.0 - 74.220.223.255
CIDR: 74.220.192.0/19
OriginAS: AS11798
NetName: BLUEHOST-NETWORK-2
NetHandle: NET-74-220-192-0-1
Parent: NET-74-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS1.BLUEHOST.COM
NameServer: NS2.BLUEHOST.COM
Comment:
RegDate: 2007-01-09
Updated: 2007-11-05
I'm sure they have more ip addresses "laying around", however as a starting point:
deny from 74.220.192.0/19
in at least everyone's
Re:they pitch an interesting plan (Score:3, Interesting)
The ISP also has a duty under the DMCA Safe Harbor provisions to assist in copyright enforcement. Their responsibility to their customers not to reveal their illegal activities is not so clearly documented.
This pretty much means that a case can be made that if the ISP doesn't assist in enforcement, perhaps even to this level, that they can lose their Safe Harbor provision and suddenly become a party to every enforcement action against their customers.
So I think you have it a little backwards. Now maybe the ISP can argue that their requirements for Safe Harbor do not include this plan. Sure, but this is going to be argued at a federal court level and cost millions of dollars to do so. Are their any ISPs that want to get into this that deep?
Re:they pitch an interesting plan (Score:3, Interesting)
The RIAA loses little to people who use Limewire to download a 128kbps mp3 of a single coyrighted song weeks after its release date. It is possible to utilize private bittorrent trackers to download music in a format that sounds as good the real CD. It would make little sense for the RIAA to target hundreds or thousands of people who downloads a few random, low-quality audio files rather than seeking the few people who download hundreds of perfect-quality albums.
Those who pose a real threat to the RIAA already keep their tinfoil hats within arm's reach; many bittorrent users use SSL for browsing private trackers and use protocol encryption for bittorrent transfers.
It would ruin the RIAA's attack model if the average customer was sold out and made aware of the copyright pyramid scheme onto which the music industry clings.
Re:they pitch an interesting plan (Score:3, Interesting)
All the encryption in the world won't stop you from getting a DMCA notice. In America, you can sue anyone for any reason. All they need to sue you is an IP address. So if they join a tracker and see your IP address, they'll send your ISP a note.
Most people find it easier to just pay their extortion fee than go to court.