US ISPs Delay Rollout of "Six Strikes" Copyright Enforcement Framework 216
zacharye writes with an excerpt from BGR: "The new 'six strikes' anti-piracy policy soon to be implemented by a number of major Internet service providers in the United States will reportedly stumble out of the gate. The policy, which is set to be adopted by Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and other ISPs, will see action taken against users caught downloading pirated files in six steps, ultimately resulting in bandwidth throttling or even service suspensions. The system responsible for managing the new policy may not be ready on schedule, however, and the targeted launch date of July 12th may slip back as a result..."
A great solution for oversubscribed ISPs (Score:5, Insightful)
Users "caught" downloading? (Score:5, Insightful)
Bye Bye free Wirless at Starbucks, McDonalds.... (Score:5, Insightful)
and all of those other things. People will go where they can't be traced as easily and download all that they can, then local establishments will take the hit, and then when all those options are gone, some unsuspecting family will be hit next because I didn't configure their wireless connection to be secured.
I don't agree with pirating, but I feel this is also just going to backfire.
Re:Thanks for reminding me... (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't have to be affected by someone's ideals in order to be against them. I wouldn't make friends with someone who went out to beat up people of a certain skin colour, even though I'm not liable to be one of his "targets".
Why should it be any different for companies?
Re:A great solution for oversubscribed ISPs (Score:5, Insightful)
Wasn't the bulk of the fiber backbone they all plug into paid for by taxpayers in the 90's during the Dot Com bubble? Maybe the people should be charging them similar fees for the bandwidth running along those pipes that they charge their end users...
Don't delay TV Show DVDS (Score:3, Insightful)
More likely... (Score:5, Insightful)
There are two interpretations:
Dangerous Precedent (Score:2, Insightful)
The idea of "common carriers" is going out the window. Now, anyone who provides a network is going to be responsible for what their customers use it for.
That would be like holding government responsible for car accidents, since the government provides the roads. Obviously, this is a very different system, since the users of the roads are legally and financially liable for their use. It should be no different for any other infrastructure.
Re:Bye Bye free Wirless at Starbucks, McDonalds... (Score:5, Insightful)
Haven't you realized that's what they want? To shut down the Internet?
They don't say it outright, but they very much wish it was 1985 for the rest of us, when less than half the population had a home computer, and the hard drive, if present, was 20M, mp3 didn't exist yet and even if it had the hardware of those days couldn't decode it in real time, and what little data exchange there was happened over 1200 bit/s modems on local BBSes, a few of which participated in FidoNet. Music piracy was possible but limited and inconvenient, with the cassette tape being the best way. They themselves are quite happy to reap the benefits of modern technology, they just don't like the rest of us being able to do so too.
Don't agree with pirating? Futile, and dated of you. Might as well act disapproving of skirts above the ankle, and shocked over the licentiousness of 60's Rock and Roll. What do you think when you run into some senior who is still upset over Elvis the Pelvis? Who thinks the young are all depraved and they and the nation are going to Hell because of the music they listen to and their general disrespect for the traditions that made the country great. You roll your eyes at their cluelessness, that's what. And you ignore them. Dismiss them as a typical "get off my lawn" senior. No use talking to them.
Sharing is here to stay. No amount of force or cajoling will put this genie back in the bottle. Today, you still have lots of company. You and people of similar mind are why ISPs dare to even think of giving in to Big Media to engage in such idiocy as these 3 or 6 strikes efforts. You disagree with the means, but not the goal. That's enough of a green light for them. Often, means and ends cannot be so easily separated. 20 or 30 or 50 years from now, such attitudes will look utterly ridiculous to most everyone, like asking for sunshine without the heat and acting as if that's such a perfectly reasonable expectation that it need not be spoken aloud because that would be insulting to others' intelligence. "You know, something beggable but not leprosy, which is a pain in the ass to be blunt and excuse my French, sir." If you want to stay relevant, you'll have to accept piracy.