US ISPs Become 'Copyright Cops' July 12th 409
An anonymous reader writes "Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon are among the ISPs preparing to implement a graduated response to piracy by July, says the music industry's chief lobbyist. ISPs, including Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable, have officially agreed to step up efforts to protect the rights of copyright owners. From the article: 'Supporters say this could become the most effective antipiracy program ever. Since ISPs are the Internet's gatekeepers, the theory is that network providers are in the best position to fight illegal file sharing. CNET broke the news last June that the RIAA and counterparts at the trade group for the big film studios had managed to get the deal through — with the help of the White House.'"
The excuse I needed... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:5, Insightful)
The excuse I need to drop Verizon and... wait, my only other option is Comcast? Damnit...
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:5, Insightful)
Same here. Verizon DSL has sent me 3 emails (about 2 years ago) where they caught me downloading movies or tv shows. I'm curious what they will do to me next time I'm caught. One thing's for sure:
I'm not going to go out and buy Hollywood's crap, unless it's something I've already seen and liked -- such as Battlestar Galactica. This past year I downloaded about 200 movies and liked almost none of them. TV shows were a little better percentage but not by much.
Instead I'll just read science fiction in books and magazines. Or watch free TV (the 45 channels I get over the antenna). Or free hulu. Or cheap games ($20 for 40+ hours is a good bargain). It makes no sense to buy movie/show DVDs when they have no return policy for the crap, and there are so many other options.
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:5, Informative)
Same here. Verizon DSL has sent me 3 emails (about 2 years ago) where they caught me downloading movies or tv shows. I'm curious what they will do to me next time I'm caught.
How about using a P2P friendly VPN such as BTGuard [btguard.com] or Mullvad [mullvad.net]? (Mullvad accepts payment in Bitcoins, btw)
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:4, Interesting)
or if it's bittorrent you must, maybe a seedbox :)
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:4, Funny)
There you go :)
Seedbox with SFTP. Unless they are good enough to crack the encryption per connection and obtain "evidence" to discontinue service or forward that information for the MAFIAA lawyerpults it will just result in a lot of expensive DPI with no results.
I say bring it on. Anything that pushes people to Darknets, Onion networks (let it reach critical mass), and more encrypted connections, all the better.
Besides, public torrent sites and crap like MegaUpload are beyond ridiculous and a you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Moving people off those sites to private encrypted trackers and ditching DHT and peer exchange will make it nearly impossible for the MAFIAA to get any headway, even with ISP support.
Re: (Score:3)
Someone pissed in your post toasties, didn't they? Civil disobedience to the application of increasingly draconian and oppressive regulations, bought and paid for by the corporate cronyism that completely bastardizes the free market into a conglomerate oligarchy bent on making you pay for everything it deems "theft" of intellectual property is what liberty is all about. ("Intellectual property" is an oxymoron in the first place. No founding father envisioned copyright to be a property right.) Shackle that w
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Isn't if funny how places are profiting off of the business model that the **AA should be using? There is a demand for a pay service to get unencumbered content at high speed. All of those profits could be going to them, but they continue on their path.
Just set up your own trackers with client side certificates. Charge a monthly fee for the cert. Done. OHhhhh, but people might share their certs! So what. You still profit off of something where you already realized your the intended profits in the the
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait... somewhere after movie #150 that you didn't like you kept thinking "maybe the next one will be awesome!"?
I guess at least you watched every single one of them yourself to form your own opinion, but surely it can't hurt to start with some reviews?
Figure out what reviewers you usually agree with and weigh their reviews more heavily, before you download 200 movies the majority of which you could probably have guessed you wouldn't like.
It would have saved you from bad entertainment, and freed your time for the books and magazines (presuming you don't just download the ebook versions of those, too, of course).
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:5, Informative)
Figure out what reviewers you usually agree with and weigh their reviews more heavily
I swear I'm not affiliated, but Criticker [criticker.com] is awesome for that. The interface isn't all shiny, but the algorithm is solid.
Re: You downloaded about 200 movies (Score:4, Informative)
You are, in their eyes, The Problem.
"Who said we get to download first and decide at our whim only that we like it?"
Re: (Score:3)
Please sir, may I have some more gruel?
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:5, Insightful)
This past year I downloaded about 200 movies and liked almost none of them
If you're obviously this difficult to please, why on earth would you keep downloading movies? Once you're on to movie #47 and it's still not to your tastes I think it's time to do something else. Like go for a walk.
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:5, Insightful)
Go for foreign films. The MAFIAA doesn't give a damn about piracy of non-MAFIAA products. So get used to reading subtitles and get the added benefit of a brand new perspective on cinema. South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan all have some great filmmakers - and Europe is full of them too. Plus you will get to see the really good stuff years before Hollywood can figure out how to remake it.
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:5, Informative)
Another alternative is dialup. Folks like napisypl distribute nice small 70 or 150 megabyte rips. You can download 6 episodes per day (like I'm doing right now in my hotel) (Tudors season 1). AOL/Netscape's never sent me any warnings.
Re: (Score:2)
Consumers don't get a fucking choice of carriers in most of the USA.
I hear this all the time. How come there is so little choice in the US? Is there some legal reason that stops a company opening shop and selling bandwidth? I mean even in Australia there is a LOT of choice when it comes to who you get your internet from. Here, I can have my phone with one company, but have DSL on the line with another company - is that not the case in the US?
Having said that, Cable is very limited, due to the low quantity of physical cable connections, most pay TV here is sold via a satelli
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:5, Insightful)
Cable is limited because the providers hoodwinked municipalities into giving them limited monopolies under the assumption that running multiple sets of lines would cause problems for the consumers including increased costs passed on as high prices. This is a lie, of course, but that's what we have at the point.
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:5, Informative)
Here, I can have my phone with one company, but have DSL on the line with another company - is that not the case in the US?
Nope. Phone companies are not required to lease lines to other providers.
They were required to from 1996 til 2006 until the supreme court declares cable providers provided "information services" rather than "telecommunication services" and were exempt from such requirements and the FCC reclassified phone company's DSL services to match in the interest of "fairness"
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:5, Informative)
You hit the nail on the head. In Australia:
- The ACCC forced Telstra to allow competitor ISPs access to its copper lines and telephone exchanges/COs. This means that any ISP can come into an exchange, install its own DSLAM, connect Telstra-owned lines to it and provide internet access to customers, regardless of who that customer's phone service happens to be provided by.
- Additionally, Telstra (and Optus) also wholesales their own DSLAM ports to competitor ISPs who don't/can't have their own DSLAMs in an exchange. They charge port fees for doing this (and thus these Telstra wholesale plans are usually more expensive than equivalent plans using a providers own DSLAMs), but it basically means that even relatively small ISPs can offer services nation-wide, even in remote areas where Telstra is the only company with equipment.
In most areas of the US though, companies that owns the lines aren't forced (as far as I know) to grant access to competitors. So your choices are usually:
- The local DSL monopoly (i.e. the telco that owns the lines in your area); and
- The local cable monopoly (i.e. the company that owns the cable in your area)
In some areas you might also be lucky enough to have FiOS or another third or fourth option here, but vast areas of the country really only have one or two choices. Even worse, most DSL providers are still ADSL1 only (whereas in Australia, ADSL2+ up to 24 Mbps is pretty much ubiquitous).
I'm Australian but have lived in Wisconsin for an extended period, in a reasonably-sized city, and only had the choice of (very overpriced) cable, or AT&T ADSL1 (capped at 6 Mbps/768kbps). I chose the DSL as frankly, I don't want cable TV (and the provider didn't allow you to get JUST internet without TV). I much prefer the situation in Australia where I have 20+ ISPs to choose from and they all offer much faster speeds that AT&T DSL had.
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:The excuse I needed... (Score:5, Informative)
Sonic.net is probably the only ISP where first responses to technical questions commonly come from the CEO.
If you live in Northern California, look them up. They are already providing 1 Gbps / $70 in Sonoma; let's encourage them to roll out to the Bay and see what actual competition does to the market place.
Re: (Score:3)
The land of the free... (Score:5, Funny)
The home of the brave.
Re:The land of the free... (Score:5, Insightful)
Land of the Foreclosed, home of the Banking Gangsters.
Re:The land of the free... (Score:5, Funny)
Land of the Foreclosed, home of the Banking Gangsters.
The correct term is 'Banksters'.
Re:The land of the free... (Score:5, Funny)
Land of the Foreclosed, home of the Banking Gangsters.
The correct term is 'Banksters'.
Straight up bankster, yo.
Re:The land of the free... (Score:5, Funny)
I prefer bankstas: http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2952 [sinfest.net] ... ;)
Re:The land of the free... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The land of the free... (Score:5, Funny)
Hell, I'd buy Disney DVDs for mod points right now...
Re:The land of the free... (Score:4, Funny)
I'd kill for some mod points right now. Hell, I'd buy Disney DVDs for mod points right now...
No need. I have a 7 year old daughter so I buy Disney DVDs on a regular basis. The sad thing is one look at her bedroom proves that if they never got a dime from thier movies they would still make a fortune on merchandising.
Vote with your wallets. (Score:3, Insightful)
Stop buying music and movies. Very simple!
Re: (Score:3)
Stop buying music and movies. Very simple!
But Congressman, my revenues are down! It must be piracy, people don't take principled stands!
counter lawsuits - entrapment (Score:2, Interesting)
If the ISP can detect that I am accessing stuff I should not they can just slam the door shut so I don't get it.
If the ISP detects I am getting stuff I should not and does not slam the door they are complicit in the action since they are sending it to me knowing that I should not have it.
Anyone fingered by an ISP should sue them entrapment.
Re:counter lawsuits - entrapment (Score:4, Interesting)
I believe only agents of the government can be guilty of entrapment.
Re:counter lawsuits - entrapment (Score:5, Insightful)
Be an adult, and take responsibility for yourself.
Re:counter lawsuits - entrapment (Score:4, Insightful)
Can you also sue a bar for entrapment, when you get nailed for driving drunk, when the bar could have simply stopped serving you after one drink?
Under normal circumstances, of course not. But if the bar has worked out a deal with law enforcement to call them if you have more than one drink, then they might be acting as an agent for said law enforcement agency. If the bartender encourages you to drink more, knowing that you're gonna be driving home, then calls the cops, while acting as an agent for those cops, then that could be entrapment. I'm not saying it's an exact analogy...but just pointing that out.
Now..a better analogy might be a BYOB bar, where they take a sip of everything you drink to determine alcohol content, then report you to the cops if the alcohol content is too high. It's the sampling of my drink, whether or not it was alcoholic, that I would have a problem with. The difference is that if a bar did that, I simply wouldn't go to that bar, and I doubt many other people would either. With Internet access, most of us don't have the luxury of options.
One thing I want to know is: What methods are they going use to determine if somebody is pirating?
Not entrapment, tortious interference (Score:2, Informative)
A third party interfering with a business deal made by two others is tortious interference [wikipedia.org]. You would have to have pretty deep pockets to prove it, and it would have to be a pretty clear-cut case where there was no harm being done, say, a Bittorrent stream of a Linux distribution.
Re: (Score:2)
But it's not actually about ISPs detecting whether or not you're doing something that some group or another believes you should not be doing.
I know it's out of fashion to actually RTFA, but:
That's not about the ISP accusing them - but those groups that are involved with the program.
It may make it easier for tho
Entrapment - no (Score:2)
No, its not entrapment, but they are an enabler.
The transformation is almost complete (Score:5, Insightful)
The internet was once thought of as a digital library and commons. Now it is little more than an interactive television.
Re:The transformation is almost complete (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
You think the content cartels have finally won, eh? You really think so?
Well, fear not. They haven't. It's an unwinnable war. They're stubborn old men who are incapable of understanding that piracy is unstoppable, and that sharing is good. Tell me how you think they can stop sneakernet? Several movies can be traded in an instant with the hand off of a flash drive. Or encryption, how will they stop that? The most tragic part of all this is that they've wasted millions on this "problem", on trying t
Re: (Score:3)
I'm just surprised it lasted this long.
The fight is far from over. All this move will do is spur further innovation in darknet technology.
The copyfight battles will ebb and flow, but in the long run the MAFIAA can't win - they can only get old and die. It is in our genes to share, without an innate desire to share cool stuff with other people our species would never have developed civilisation. You can fight human nature, but you can't win.
SSL? (Score:2)
Assuming people use SSL or something similar, how will ISPs know when someone is violating copyrights?
Re: (Score:2)
Assuming people use SSL or something similar, how will ISPs know when someone is violating copyrights?
All they need for suspicion of violation is your DNS lookup records, routing table history, and protocol volume history.
There's a LOT of data that gets passed through your ISP that's below/beside the TLS layer.
They'll look for things like: Spewing torrent connections but not connected to an OSS or MMORPG server? You're getting investigated.
Re: (Score:2)
RIAA, MPAA, etc, will connect to bittorrent trackers that share files they have copyright on. They will see who is seeding, note their IP, contact their ISP, and begin this process.
Re: (Score:2)
That's not particularly useful since all of the modern trackers inject random fake IP addresses as seeds. They are going to at least try to connect before sending a warning and any good blocklist will stop that.
Re:SSL? (Score:5, Informative)
The whole point of an SSL Diffe-Hellman or RSA key exchange is that any eavesdropper (including the ISP) can't figure out the session key, even if they hear the entire negotiation.
Re: (Score:3)
Would these so-called "magnet links" protect torrent downloaders? Or are they mainly to protect Piratebay and other websites from prosecution?
Does turning-off PeerExchange or DHT: help a downloader stay hidden from Studios?
Re:SSL? (Score:5, Insightful)
Magnet links do not protect you at all. Torrents as they currently are, contain all available data to get you in trouble.
Torrents are not encrypted. You can route torrents through an encrypted VPN service, but many VPNs do not like you doing that, and the speed is never as good.
The solution to avoiding the ISP and legal troubles will come in the form of encrypted sharing networks, where data is randomized, anonymously, either through small groups of people making friends networks (Retroshare look it up) or larger pools of people. The trick is, when do we start setting these encrypted sharing networks up, and how do we all meet, and how do we keep the cops from joining. And if they do, is it really an issue?
Retroshare and similar programs will allow you to give the big "fuck you" to the RIAA. The trick is, we have to stop using torrents and start forming encrypted communities.
Re:SSL? (Score:4, Funny)
The trick is, we have to stop using torrents and start forming encrypted communities
Or, just go borrow the DVD from your buddy and be done with it.
Everyone, just cancel your service for 2 months... (Score:2)
Re:Everyone, just cancel your service for 2 months (Score:4, Funny)
No slashdot for 2months!? C'mon now!
Why do you think your workplace has an internet connection? For business purposes?
Liability? (Score:4, Interesting)
Aren't the ISPs signing themselves up for a great deal of liability here? If they have the equipment and manpower to monitor for someone downloading Metallica songs, that also gives them the capability to scan for a great deal of other legally questionable content. Doesn't this make them responsible when someone, say, transmits illegal imagery over the ISP's service? They could have stopped it, so they should be considered accessories to it. Am I missing some legal loophole here, or is it simply a matter of "wink wink, nod nod, the people in charge only care about MP3s"?
Re: (Score:2)
There is a whole lot of difference between having the ability to detect it, and *ALWAYS* being able to detect it.
Basically, you'd be rolling the dice, and hoping you don't get caught if you are going to break the law in this way. All this means is that your chances of getting caught may be slightly higher... but by no means certain.
Don't download this song (Score:5, Funny)
Just don't [youtu.be]
Government, meet your corporate OLs (Score:2)
How delightfully efficient of our corporate overlords. Those 'people' are so clever! Personal anonymity is so 20th Century
In case you didn't get it... (Score:5, Interesting)
Pardon me, but even if I'm not doing a damned thing wrong, I don't want or need my ISP to be monitoring my activity, any more than I would want a phone company listening to my telephone calls.
I find the idea ethically and morally repugnant, and, for that matter, on thin ice legally.
I should also point out that my cable contract contains none of these provisions. Maybe it's fine for new accounts, but I will hold them to my existing contract.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
They probably have a clause buried in said existing contract that gives them the right to change it whenever they damn well feel like it, so I doubt you'll have much luck trying that.
Re:In case you didn't get it... (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing in this article indicates any sort of traffic monitoring on the part of the ISPs. It only sounds like a standardized way to keep track of the C&D letters they've been sending out for years.
Don't get me wrong, this is bad too as there's no accountability for sending faulty C&D letters, and I doubt there's going to be much of an appeals process. But it's bad in a different way than deep packet inspection is.
Re: (Score:3)
Contracts (Score:2)
Look closely at your contract and you will find you are SOL.
Even if it doesn't explicitly say they can monitor and take actions to "protect the integrity of their network" like most all do, they left a clause in where they can change the terms at any time. Your only recourse is to be able to cancel without penalty.
Re:Contracts (Score:5, Interesting)
"Even if it doesn't explicitly say they can monitor and take actions to "protect the integrity of their network" like most all do, they left a clause in where they can change the terms at any time."
To the extent that they have such a clause, it's not a contract!
Let me clarify that: generally speaking, especially in my area, where we have one of the major cable companies but no real competition, the contract in the first place is very one-sides, with the big powerful cable company on one side, and the consumer (who has few choices) on the other. Combine that with the fact that it's a "boiler-plate" contract -- that is to say, there is no real opportunity for negotiation -- and what you end up with is what the courts call a "contract of adhesion". Contracts of adhesions are WEAK contracts, and sometimes courts will not honor them at all.
The reason for this is really the whole historic foundation of contract law, which goes back to common law beginning far earlier than this country even existed. Some things about contract law must be kept in mind. First, a contract is a VOLUNTARY agreement between 2 or more parties. Voluntary means without coercion, and it implies that you can negotiate your terms. After all, if the other party is stipulating all of the terms then it's not really very voluntary on your part, is it? It's "take it or leave it". Which is somewhat coercive, especially if you don't have other choices.
The second big issue to keep in mind is that in order to have an agreement at all, you have to know what you are agreeing to IN ADVANCE. Otherwise you can't really be agreeing to it, can you? Informed consent is an essential part of a contract.
So pardon all the theory. We know that in recent years many courts have tended to be corporate ass-kissers. Nevertheless, technically at least, a contract can't really say "we reserve the right to change the terms of this contract". Because then there is no informed consent, and to the extent there is no informed consent, there is no contract.
I am well aware that as a practical matter, some judges might honor such a contract (the assholes!). On the other hand, some would not. But if they tried to do it to me in this case, they'd have a fight on their hands.
goodbye internet (Score:2)
Better when it was a law, at least then you'll notice when they silence dissidents and have it on record.
Really folks. (Score:3, Interesting)
Why doesn't someone simply go up to the guys who propose this crap and simply SHOOT THEM IN THE FUCKING HEAD!?
Re:Really folks. (Score:5, Funny)
Because violating a copyright is 5 years or $250k fine (or whatever it's up to these days) while 1st degree murder carries a slightly stiffer sentence up to and including becoming a stiff.
Re:Really folks. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Really folks. (Score:4, Insightful)
If you're going to violate TWO copyrights, though... the murder rap is definitely the better deal.
Re:Really folks. (Score:5, Insightful)
The same reasons you don't.
Re: (Score:3)
I keep asking myself the same question about the Greeks. Millions protest against the selling-out of their country to Germany and the bankers, but the people in charge (like the unelected prime minister) don't get shot. It makes me think our ancestors had more balls than we do.
this means nothing (Score:3)
Re:this means nothing (Score:5, Interesting)
Except for those that are *part* of the "dying media industry" (think Comcast/NBC Universal and TimeWarner). Same kinds of internal conflict that Sony has for being a provider of devices that can infringe on copyright and a producer of copyrighted content. Guess which side wins (have a look at Sony's crippled devices)?
Re: (Score:2)
It's a token effort that only large ISPs are making. My guess is that they are doing this in exchange for something... cheap deals on digital content, or something of the sort. In reality they will do very little to enforce this. The second this starts costing them customers they'll drop it like a hot potato. Remember, they have absolutely no incentive to help the dieing media industry police their content.
Dunno about where you live, but where I live I think they'd love excuses to reduce bandwidth usage. TFA mentions they'll be issuing various levels of warnings. I'm sure they'd love to stop customers using P2P to download and serve movies, since they're already over-promising speeds. I can download a big file fast or stream a Netflix movie at good quality at 1am, but god forbid I would want to watch a Netflix movie (which I'm paying a subscription fee for) at 8pm when everyone else is trying to do the sam
Re: (Score:2)
>>>they have absolutely no incentive to help the dieing media industry police their content
The ones like Comcast and Verizon that profit by selling a separate TV service have incentive to make sure you buy their 100+ channels at ~$60 a month, rather than simply download the shows directly and save money.
Re:this means nothing (Score:5, Insightful)
Given the Obama Administration's involvement [wired.com], I suspect they're doing it under some kind of threat. It's part of a growing trend: regulation without legislation and enforcement completely divorced from the process of law,
How can I get caught? (Score:3)
All of my content at home is purchased and legal. What kind of suspicious behavior can I do to make Comcast flag me as a pirate (without having to actually download pirated content)?
Re: (Score:2)
Torrent stuff, I'd wager. Linux ISOs is the obvious one, though there is free & legal music out there.
What counts as copyright infringement? (Score:2)
I can't wait to learn what they consider to be "copyright infringement." Watch a video on YouTube that wasn't legally licensed? Have someone post a picture on your Facebook wall that wasn't licensed from the photographer? (That's more likely than it might seem at first - think "wedding pictures.") Read a forum that has links to pirated material? Want to jailbreak your phone?
Say goodbye to Internet access.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, they are talking about infringing torrent content only, so youtube, et al, would be entirely unaffected.
I think that the only potential problem that might arise is if you happened to be using bittorrent legtimately at the same time that somebody fingers your IP address as accessing infringing content via bittorrent.
Time for change... (Score:2)
I'm glad I have TDS Metrocom's sweet wireless service at the office.
Goodbye Time Warner at home, though!
How is this even legal? (Score:2)
Participating ISPs can choose from a list of penalties, or what the RIAA calls "mitigation measures," which include throttling down the customer's connection speed and suspending Web access until the subscriber agrees to stop pirating.
The only reason why I could see them doing something like that is because they may be held liable. Oh wait, DMCA gives them Safe Harbor. So what exactly gives them the power to stop the service that I pay for because I may be using it for something illegal. It's like my phone getting shut off by T-Mobile because I may have used it to call a dealer to buy some pot. I see class action lawsuits in the future for these companies.
Re: (Score:2)
They own it. I'm pretty sure that they have no legal obligation to offer their services to everyone unconditionally.
Your recourse, of course, if their terms are unsatisfying to you, is to take your business elsewhere. This creates a system of checks and balances that keeps it from spiraling hopelessly out of control.
This will not improve sales. (Score:5, Interesting)
The best part about this is, they will not increase the sale of any of these products at all.
If you cant afford it in the first place, you wont be buying it.
All this does, is actually hurt our entire civilization, especially those who cant afford these things. Things that are so easily copied and hurt no one by allowing poorer people access to them. There is no loss of sale and it only benefits the poor. Especially those burdened by health issues who pay 15k a year for insurance plans, who barely scrape by in todays world with min wage jobs, people who dont have a say at all in this country... people who try to just better their lives through knowledge using free programs, and perhaps building a future they can one day afford buy these "THINGS".
The benefits of piracy have outweighed the negative.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, made 2 billion dollars in 2 months. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 made a billion dollars in 1 week. Avatar made over a billion dollars world wide in ticket sales alone, not to mention blu-ray sales, netflix etc on top of that. These 3 items were ALL readily available through piracy. They were also pirated heavily. Did it actually negatively impact the sales? Perhaps a tiny bit, but c'mon. The amount of money those 3 items generated, prove that no matter how much something is pirated, it makes a FUCKLOAD of cash regardless.
Without piracy, ITUNES would never have existed. iTunes is a very profitable buisness for music, and apps. ALL of which are still pirated today.
Trying to end piracy, is basically denying the poor of things they otherwise could never afford. How will that ever benefit humanity?
Re: (Score:3)
Stuff that I took from CD's that I legitimately owned. Private copies of audio works are not infringing on copyright, having an explicit exemption in Canada, which is where I am from. In the USA, I'm pretty sure that's covered under "fair use".
Re: (Score:3)
Once upon a time, you went to these places every neighborhood had called "record shops"... where you could sample a recording (perhaps even listening to the whole thing) before you decided to make your purchase. The crushing of the local record shops by the conglomeration of the distribution channel brought along a reduction in the ability to sample purchases... which resulted in a fall in sales.
Napster came along, and people could sample music before buying it again... CD sales soared upward.
Not happy with
Awesome. (Score:4, Insightful)
With US ISPs playing copyright cop, darknets and other anonymizing techniques will be active by default in all P2P clients by the time my country rolls out similar laws.
Being a step behind the US means workarounds will be mature and widespread by the time I have to deal with this...
How long will collapse of music industry take? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
I'll take a guess that it will take less than a year for the total collapse of the music industry due to sales falling to near zero
In other news, VPS and VPN providers located outside of the US have a record year. Low End Box [lowendbox.com] is a good place to start.
Bound to happen (Score:5, Insightful)
The free, unmonitored, unfiltered, open internet we know today will be unrecognizable ten years from now, mark my words.. Bottom line: the internet as we know it is incompatible with controlling, big money corporations. Period. They fear it like the plague, and will never stop at trying to break it, or control it. And they have the resources to do it.
In places like china and the middle east your internet access is filtered and monitored due to fear of upsetting the government's rule.
In this - supposedly free country- your internet access is filtered and monitored due to fear of upsetting corporate profits.
I just can't see the difference.
Re: (Score:2)
This is correct.
Sadly it is the corporations that run the internet as well. They have had the power all along to crush the public and oppress the masses.
Better than RIAA lawsuits (Score:2)
Not too shocking... (Score:2)
After all, right off the bat. Comcast and Time Warner -are- two of the big media companies and copyright holders now. Of course they're more than willing to police their ISP networks looking for copies of their content.
Due process (Score:2)
Where is the due process? Just who (MPAA,RIAA vs Comcast,Verizon,etc) is making the determination that there is a violation to be acted on? We already know MPAA and RIAA have been getting it wrong in a lot of cases. Would Comcast, Verizon, and other ISPs be in any better position to get it right?
I hope they are not so stupid as to ass-u-me that torrent protocol connections automatically mean copyright infringement. What I download is GPL and other free license software.
I suspect there will be more use o
Re: (Score:2)
We are talking a corporate entity and their contracts for service to the private sector, not the legal system. Due process doesn't apply here.
the most effective antipiracy program ? (Score:2)
No, its the most effective bandwidth reclamation program, as it will drive people away from these carriers, and for those that stay the ISPs will use the program to get rid of their heaviest users by falsely claiming they are violating.. and cut them off.
Crap like this is why (Score:3, Insightful)
my internet provider isn't a big media player.
Fuck them and the lobbiest sluts the senators fucked to get us to this point.
Common Carrier (Score:5, Interesting)