Australian ISP iiNet Walks Out of Piracy Warning System Talks 120
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Torrent Freak: "A leading Australian Internet service provider has pulled out of negotiations to create a warning notice scheme aimed at reducing online piracy. iiNet, the ISP that was sued by Hollywood after refusing to help chase down alleged infringers, said that it can't make any progress with rightsholders if they don't make their content freely available at a reasonable price. The ISP adds that holding extra data on customers' habits is inappropriate and not their responsibility."
Re:Good on them. (Score:5, Interesting)
These guys have been doing this for years as well. I actually have kept overbuying my broadband allocations (I use probably 20% a month) simply because they have been so honest and decent. Good service... and they have gone to bat for my rights every time. iiNet is changing the shape of Aussie ISPs, doing a wonderful job keeping Telstra/Optus and co. honest. The others see iiNet back out, and suddenly realise you can say no to the media industry on unrealistic or overly power-hungry requests.
I don't work for them... just a very satisfied consumer of their services.
Congratulations (Score:5, Interesting)
My congratulations to Australians for having an ISP that stands up for the interests of its customers.
I wonder if we could ever get something like that in the United States? Haha, I'm just kidding... I know we can't.
However, I wish you all the best in keeping iiNet—particularly, resisting pressure and bullying tactics from my country's government and its corporate controllers.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
To the coming onslaught of obnoxiousness.. (Score:5, Interesting)
If you don't live here, in Australia - you don't understand.
We get gouged, delayed or denied on a lot.
Last week I bought a Steinberg Cubase 7 upgrade. A DOWNLOAD product - I paid $199. It's $149 to US customers. That's a typical situation for us. It's always the same story in this country. The distributors/retailers (whether they be television channels, bricks and mortar sellers or whatever), they control the price through publisher->retailer relationship and that means we get it when they want, for the price they want and fuck you if you don't want to pay for their shitty overheads.
If I want games off steam, often,I have to pay up to 90 US for a release title. Not steam's fault.
If I wanted to watch the final season of sopranos legitimately (and believe me, I tried), I saw something like 2 episodes, then it went away for about a month, came back for another couple of episodes and it was gone again. Typical television patronage, here. My response? What am I supposed to do? Hang out for the tv guide, every week? Sorry, you created my desire to watch your program and I'm now going to watch it.
If I want to watch English Premier League games online (because I can't afford the $70-80 a month for all inclusive pay tv) - I'm only able to watch a few games of someone elses choice through their online service because like so many things online, currently, the content just goes to whoever will front for it. Telstra own the rights to online rugby league coverage in this country - they do next to NOTHING with it.
I could go on with hours of fragments of information and complaints on the situation and I'm sure the grass is green here in many ways - but it is a little frustrating to have to constantly circumvent the legitimate purchase method (whether it be through downloading the product for free, or buying it at a grey import seller) - just so I can't feel like a chump for paying twice the price everybody else on earth does.
And let's get something straight - I PREFER to buy. Steam completely and utterly destroyed piracy for me. I love it. But what I don't love is how the shitheads running unprofitable stores contributing fuck all to my gaming life necessitate that I can't buy a game for the price retailers in the rest of the world sell it for.
Sign me up (Score:4, Interesting)
It isn't a voluntary exchange of money (Score:2, Interesting)
It isn't a voluntary exchange of money because the seller sets the price and therefore there is no negotiation.
If you want to claim "They didn't have to buy it", then piracy is just the free market managing to find the route that gives a price close to the percieved value of the product. If you can't negotiate the price, piracy is the next nearest acceptable price on offer.
Remember, the don't have to make the movies. They could just decide to do something else instead. Nobody is MAKING them make music/movies/whatever and it's not like piracy was sprung on them out of the blue: it's been known about for decades.
Re:Good on them. (Score:5, Interesting)