How Verizon's 'Six Strikes' Plan Works 505
An anonymous reader writes "With the 'six-strikes' anti-piracy plan set to begin in the U.S. soon, TorrentFreak has gotten its hands on a document showing how Verizon in particular will be dealing with copyright-infringing users. For your first and second strike, Verizon will email you and leave you a voicemail informing you that your account is involved in copyright infringement. For your third and fourth strikes, the ISP will automatically redirect your browser to a page that requires you to acknowledge receiving the alerts. They'll also play a video about the dangers of infringement. For your fifth and sixth strikes, they give you three options: massively throttle your connection for a few days, wait two weeks and then throttle your connection, or file an appeal with an arbitration service for $35. TorrentFreak points out that the MPAA and RIAA can obtain the connection information of repeat infringers, with which they can then take legal action."
Problem solved quickly.... (Score:5, Interesting)
If everyone runs their WIFI AP's open.
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Why would that be the case? I read in an european country (Germany?) customers are responsible for the traffic on their network. You have to secure your network to have any hope of a "it wasn't me" defense working.
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So, everyone has to sit outside, start naked, their hands in front of them where the police can see them, and speak clearly into the cameras forever... or they are guilty.
No.
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Wow! What a pure example of a strawman argument. Disgraceful that it got modded interesting.
How does the requirement to be responsible for securing their own network brought about your fantasy of an extreme police state?
Re:Problem solved quickly.... (Score:5, Interesting)
In another European country - Denmark - the courts have rules that you're NOT responsible for traffic that cannot be proved to originate within the household if you run an open Wifi AP,
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I figure it's as common knowledge to the average American which European countries have borders to which, as the knowledge of which American states touch against each other is to the average European. Some things just aren't necessary knowledge in your daily life.
Re:Problem solved quickly.... (Score:5, Informative)
You're allowed to use the open wifi defense one time. (And you have to pay $35 to defend yourself, which pirates are too cheap to do.) After that it's assumed that you learned how to secure it.
Re:Problem solved quickly.... (Score:5, Insightful)
And you have to pay $35 to defend yourself, which pirates are too cheap to do.
And I am absolutely certain that if you should be accused falsely/by accident, then someone will refund your money and compensate your time spent defending yourself.
Otherwise, there is no reason for Verizon to send warnings only to infringers. Occasional random $35 extra payment with no downsides/costs is a great revenue source!
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Sample size of 1: I defended myself in a lawsuit recently, or rather my lawyer defended me. The plaintiff claimed to have spent a little less than 1/2 of what I did on legal fees, yet their lawyer in more than two years produced absolutely nothing of value towards their case and they were presented with all of the evidence that they were wrong
Re:Problem solved quickly.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Occasional random $35 extra payment with no downsides/costs is a great revenue source!
It's nice how our legal system has the concept of innocent until proven guilty, but when we abolished class action lawsuits we allowed corporations to reverse that. Now you have to pay for the priviledge of being found innocent in a secret court with arbitrary rules you will not be told about until it starts, for which you are entitled to no counsel, and which has no appeal process outside of itself (the appeals are done by the same people who took the case to begin with). Arbitration should be illegal between corporations and individuals: It's like two foxes and a chicken deciding who's for dinner.
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It's nice how our legal system has the concept of innocent until proven guilty
Actually "innocent until proven guilty" (or: beyond reasonable doubt) is only for criminal cases.
In civil cases, like these, it's "preponderance of the evidence" which means they only have to show that it's more probable than not that you did it.
The sad truth is that a civil case can screw up your life more easily than a criminal case, financially speaking. But at least you don't rot in jail while awaiting trial.
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I have Verizon DSL with and open AP at my coffee shop for customers. What then?
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its pointless. The only thing to get the password is $1.95 of coffee? Its as easy to get as walking in and asking for it, and its as good as pointless, and just makes it harder for customers. Since EVERYONE has the key, its pointless.
Someone who is pirating movies at a coffee shop, just might pay for a cup of coffee even without a secure connection.
This is just a bunch of monied stupid slobs gra
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Re:Problem solved quickly.... (Score:4, Insightful)
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MAC addresses are trivial to change in software. About the only thing on your list that would mean anything for a tech savvy person is the traffic patterns of the bittorrent protocol. Even when encrypted. I suppose even that could be mitigated with a special client that could create extra (possibly randomized) traffic to disguise the bittorrent pattern.
Re:Problem solved quickly.... (Score:4, Interesting)
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There is this little thing called the supreme court. They can declare any part of the constitution means anything they want.
"Not sure if you've heard of it. See also : net neutrality."
is that law? or is that just a rule of the internet the rest of the world is ignoring?
This is another case of big media, the US government, doing whatever the fuck they want to, then finding some excuses to justify it later.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Or stop being being a F-ing thief (Score:5, Insightful)
since when is sharing stealing
Everyone on Slashdot seems hung up on this idea that because it's not a physical good, redistribution means nothing. That's just not true.
Let me try a different analogy...let's say my job is doing really awesome SAT (or whatever) training courses. I have spent a long time developing the course so I can deliver you a two-hour course that will help you ace your upcoming exam, and as a benefit I record it so that you can watch it again after I leave. You think it's a great course. You turn around and, because you think other people will want it, you send the video I gave you to all your friends in high school.
Did I lose any physical goods as a result of your "sharing?" Nope. Can I still give my course? Yep. Were some of your friends never going to sign up for my course? Absolutely! But were there some of your friends who might have taken my course if you told them it was great, but didn't send it to them for free? Yeah, probably. And that's where "sharing" becomes "theft" - if I wanted my training to be free, I would have made it free. It's my training and I should be able to say what it costs, whether it's a physical good or not.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
No, you are trying to limit distribution of knowle (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is you are trying to limit the distribution of knowledge. It is the 21st century, and information is now free
No, people who create knowledge and entertainment are trying to create it and maximize distribution. Pirates limit it, by not doing their part. To seek out great talent, hire the best sound engineers, produce a hit song, and popularize it so you know about it costs about $3 million. Your share of that cost as a listener is $1. One measly dollar. By refusing to pay your $1 share, it's you breaking the system and reducing production.
I spent $80,000 creating some cool software. At least 34,000 people downloaded it. I wanted more people to download it, I want to increase distribution, not limit it. Problem is, exactly ONE person paid their share of the cost, $5. Software is NOT free in the 21st century, it cost me $80,000 to produce. Since you guys refuse to pay your $5 share of the cost, I can't create cool new software anymore. Now I have to create stuff for Homeland Security instead in order to eat. I'm just one more programmer no longer making cool shit for you because you won't do your part, pay the $1 or $5 or whatever your share is. Software isn't free, and I can't pay the $80,000 to make you more, so no new software for you leaches. Now DHS gets the software I write.
Ps - I'm also a Linux kernel contributor, and an Apache contributor. The private sector and OSS lost a pretty decent programer by refusing to pay the $3 and $5 share so I wouldn't have had to go work for the government.
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My DSL's only ~100-200kbps most of the time, but I share without impairing my family's ability to use the 'net (including my mother's habit of constantly streaming videos). Just install DD-WRT on the router & set up WPA2 for your household, then make a wireless VLAN (so you can have it open without turning off security for your household), turn on QOS and assign "Premium" priority to all of your household's devices.
Does it go both ways? (Score:5, Interesting)
Can I place copyright infringements with Verizon to get people blocked? We all know that the MPAA and RIAA use their internet connections for infringement, so it should be no problem for us to throttle their access.
Somehow I bet that only a select anointed few will be allowed to make these evidence-free complaints against the rest of us.
Re:Does it go both ways? (Score:5, Informative)
Can I place copyright infringements with Verizon to get people blocked?
Sure. 10 seconds of Googling found this [verizonbusiness.com] link. BTW if you want to report someone for child pornography, go here [verizonbusiness.com].
Anyone can report anyone else, that's how it works... so if you have actual evidence that "we all know that the MPAA and RIAA use their internet connections for infringement" then you can report it and give them a taste of their own medicine and we all win. Looking forward to it!
What's a strike? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is a strike an accusation of copyright infringement? Or does it need to be proven?
Re:What's a strike? (Score:5, Insightful)
No proof. No evidence. No names, just you gone. No penalties for lying - and who would you penalize? Some third party security company that won't name themselves?
What they've always wanted.
Re:What's a strike? (Score:4, Insightful)
No proof. No evidence. No names, just you gone. No penalties for lying
The latter is the biggest concern
I don't know if Verizon would even want you "gone". $35 fee every so often is nice extra revenue (maybe higher fines for repeat offenders?). I don't think that any of that money will be going to the copyright owner, even in the legitimate infringement cases.
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There is evidence though. This entire system is based around catching people using BitTorrent to pirate copyrighted works. That means the copyright owner (or their enforcement agent) has an IP record of the perpetrator participating in the swarm, and because this is a two-way data transfer that IP address cannot be forged or otherwise faked. Consequently the only way your IP address is going to show up in a swarm as transferring data is if your connection is being used to participate in that swarm; that's v
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There is evidence though. This entire system is based around catching people using BitTorrent to pirate copyrighted works. That means the copyright owner (or their enforcement agent) has an IP record of the perpetrator participating in the swarm, and because this is a two-way data transfer that IP address cannot be forged or otherwise faked.
Um...cannot be forged or faked? Really? Here's what you see as typical "evidence":
There, I just "proved" that Google infringed copyright. Unless the machine doing the monitoring has downloaded significant amounts of the torrent from that single IP, and kept that data segregated from data downloaded from all other IPs in the swarm, then there isn't even the beginning of proof that anyone at the listed IP eve
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If they can't handle delivering that bandwidth then they are oversubscribed
People on Slashdot seem to see oversubscription as some kind of evil - it's really not. It keeps your costs down in the name of accommodating real-world demands rather than peak demands.
Every single Internet Service Provider on the Earth is oversubscribed. To buy enough bandwidth and Internet transit to accommodate every Internet user at peak usage would likely double or triple your monthly cost. The POTS telephone network is oversubscribed - in most US areas, no more than 10% of users can make a phone call
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People on Slashdot seem to see oversubscription as some kind of evil - it's really not. It keeps your costs down in the name of accommodating real-world demands rather than peak demands.
I don't think so, people on Slashdot see oversubscription as an excuse to not expand your network as evil. To use your car analogy: It's perfectly fine to build a 4-lane highway instead of a 15-lane highway as the latter would be hopelessly oversized almost all day, except for peak hours. The problem is when you build a 2-lane highway and tell people "You can't take your car to work more than twice a week, or you are using an unreasonable amount of highway space".
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Proven? (Score:3)
Re:What's a strike? (Score:4, Insightful)
I dont think we know that, which is why the question was asked.
I mean I know its slashdot and its super hip to make wild assumptions and go off on a rant based on them, but lets humor the guy.
can someone please explain to me (Score:3, Informative)
why you would use torrent freak when there is Amazon, Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, and dozens of other ways to get video online.
unless you are trying to find some hard to find video -- (like Aleksandr Ptushko's 1972 Russian fantasy film, Ruslan and Ludmila?.. oh wait, thats on fucking youtube for free) -- what is the point of "avoiding paying for" transformers 3 or harry potter? I mean can you not afford the massive 4 dollar price or whatever that they charge you to watch this stuff online? Is 5 bucks going to break you?
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Informative)
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Insightful)
Because 5 dollars for every movie or episode of a show id like to watch will break me.
In other words, based on some undisclosed justification, you are entitled to all-you-can-eat entertainment.
Care to share what that reason is? Are you also entitled to free internet, free Office software, free MS SQL CALs, free vSphere enterprise licenses?
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Funny)
Yes.
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Funny)
You didnt share your reasoning, I was hoping to present it to our VMWare sales rep and ask if they could also hurry up with version 6, and perhaps deliver it with a free cake.
Re: can someone please explain to me (Score:4, Insightful)
What about people like me, who pay for a cable subscription to all the major networks who air the shows we're downloading?
I just want to be able to access the content I've already paid for, commercial free, at my leisure. In a way that works well with my home network, and makes everything portable.
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:4, Insightful)
How about this - Prices on old movies are INSANE. Want to rent Ghostbusters in HD for your kids? 4.99 to view it Once.
The new stuff, yes I agree with you. Something released this millenium - 4.99 for HD isn't bad. For an 80's movie, they're all on crack.
Already paid (Score:3)
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WTF is wrong with you people?
I agree with all the "I don't want it if it comes with DRM, commercials, poor resolution and buffering delays" and "All the content is barley watchable crap anyway" comments. Except that I actually mean it. If you say that and then you pirate it, you obviously do want it and are willing to steal it. If you say that and then pay for it but bitch about it on the internet, you actually do want it and are willing to put up with the DRM and commercials. I'm not. I won't steal. I won'
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Game of Thrones, Weeds, Dexter, etc
Any TV programming that requires $30 / month for access to maybe 2 titles per month.
No, they are not available on streaming services ala carte.
I've tried Netflix. I get maybe 2 titles I care about and the rest is crap or available on cable to DVR.
Time shifting when a DVR only has a few receivers.
Watching shows you missed but have paid for access. Prior seasons of something if only you had happened upon it the year before (reruns can be hit or miss)
Just a few uses for torre
Real Time (Score:4, Insightful)
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Do they even make DVDs of talk shows like Real Time with Bill Maher?
Not in real time.
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http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones [theoatmeal.com]
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Maybe you just want to watch the film instead of battling with the DRM that all the legit formats have...
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, but ads and drm are showstoppers. I much prefer pirated content, as it is packaged nicely with attention to the details I care about: good file size and codec, no extraneous content, easily archivable, and no buffering delays.
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Insightful)
Well then sorry, you deserve to have your Internet shut off.
God forbid we pay money for things which have value
If it has ads and/or drm, it doesn't have value. The value was added by the pirates, who went to the trouble of removing those things. I'd be willing to pay them.
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Funny)
The piece of candy bar I put in the little cup on the mousetrap has value for the mouse. He just doesn't like what comes with it (a broken neck). If some kind soul were to offer him all the delicious food he could eat without the broken neck I think the food would have a lot more value for him. He also doesn't like it when poison is mixed in with his peanut butter. That doesn't mean he doesn't like peanut butter. A smart mouse (yes, they do exist) doesn't want anything you might want to offer him if it comes enclosed with food rights management in the form of a snap trap or poison.
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Interesting)
Because the world should not be a police state run for the express purpose of making sure someone isn't reading a book or watching a movie or listening to a song without permission. We did not build this world for that. The "copyright" crimes hurt no one. The police state... that is the ultimate evil, the last evil, the evil that eats all the freedoms we could ever have, because without the right, the ability to read, or think, or speak without Secret Father, Yahweh of the Internet, taking down your name and activity in the Great Book for use in any sort of case anyone might want to build against you, at any time, for any reason... without privacy, you are a fool and a prisoner and a joke of a human being, a toy for the tyrants that are here now and their successors, who will not be looking for your records of watching movies, but for seditious or anti-corporate, anti-authoritarian thought of any sort. Without that, no government, no corrupt cop, no black-hearted corporation or combination of all three will ever face a threat that they won't have warning of. Programs will monitor everything Johnny reads, watches, says, or hell, someday even thinks, and they will at their earliest ability set flags for those who watch so they can nip rebellion in the blood. Ask Occupy. They were monitored before they even existed.
With total awareness comes the total police state. The last one.
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Interesting)
why you would use torrent freak when there is Amazon, Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, and dozens of other ways to get video online.
Torrent freak is a news website. I expect you meant bittorrent - or more generally piracy in any form.
I've got two problems with all those "legitimate" sources:
1) Privacy - I believe it is fundamentally unfair to require that a person's viewing habits be tracked in a profile in a database somewhere that he has no control over or even the right to see the contents of -- especially when combined with all of the other cyber-stalking that corporations do nowadays. Bittorrent at least only identifies you down to an IP address and other forms of piracy are even less trackable.
2) Copyright Business Model - I belive people do deserve to get creative works for free (both cost-free and freedom to tinker-free). That doesn't mean I think the creators need to work for free, I just think that a policy of digital scarcity neuters the potential of the internet to benefit humanity as a whole. We need to be working towards methods of compensation that do not rely on distribution fees, but as long as digital scarcity is a money-maker for the entrenched interests there is little incentive to explore alternatives. I don't think any individual pirate is going to make a difference in that regard, but in aggregate it can.
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We need to be working towards methods of compensation that do not rely on distribution fees, but as long as digital scarcity is a money-maker for the entrenched interests there is little incentive to explore alternatives.
It is very unlikely that you will ever come up with a system that is better than, "Those who enjoy/use the work, pay for it."
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Insightful)
If I pay for it, I expect it to be DRM-free. If the pirates can figure out how to publish a quality product, I'm sure the real distributors can do so as well.
My home media distribution injects weather/sports/gcal alert tickers into video streams that get sent all over the house. I've put quite a bit of time and effort and money into building a nifty system. I'm perfectly willing to pay for my content, but if you demand I use HDCP and disable useful features that my family has enjoyed for years, then you can go fuck yourself.
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why you would use torrent freak when there is Amazon, Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, and dozens of other ways to get video online.
1. because it does not work on linux
2. because you are not allowed to save the media
3. because some of them do not allow movies licensed under CC
4. because not everyone is entitled to a credit card
it is like saying you can only walk when green light is on. problem is that red is constantly put into your eyes. this is how fucked up this system is.
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Insightful)
I want to watch my local NHL team, the Vancouver Canucks, online through the NHL's own streaming service, NHL GameCenter, as I don't have cable. I am perfectly willing and able to pay the approximately $20 per month to do this. I want to pay the NHL to consume their content.
However, the NHL has imposed geo-IP lockouts for local games, meaning I can't watch my local team play on the service I'm paying for. There's two ways around this - use a VPN/proxy (which is expressly forbidden in the GC ToC [nhl.com]) or watch an illegal stream.
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Insightful)
Is your collective Puritan hatred of freeloaders really worth turning the entire internet into a police state?
Yup.
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Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:4, Insightful)
Because i have adopted a very corporate attitude about it all. Which means i'm going to rip off everyone i can, in any way i can, until they stop me. Then i'm going to do the absolute minimum to get around it. And continue doing it anyway.
It's what i was taught to do. Fuck anyone who doesn't like it. They are free to vote with their wallet and not do business with me.
Maybe i need to take one more page from the corporate handbook. Create a shell corporation to buy my isp connection with. When i get that last strike, dissolve the company and create a new one doing the exact same thing.
Corporations are people. But my corporation is kind of a dickhead guy.
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A legit question, and one that deserves an honest answer. I like to think of myself as a moral pirate. I try to buy books, music, and movies from artists I respect, when I can afford it. When not, or when it's something where I don't feel the artist(s) or creator(s) particularly needs my money (an entirely subjective and problematic scale, I know) I pirate it.
I feel justified, able to sleep at night, because Big Media (music, movies, TV, books, etc) have failed to hold up their end of the copyright bargin
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Insightful)
... Having a Samsung phone is like having a nametag that says "hello, i'm a cheap fucker" on it.
Or maybe it says "I want a phone with a bigger screen than 3.5". Maybe is says "I want a phone with features I want rather than what Steve Jobs thinks I want"...
Re:can someone please explain to me (Score:5, Interesting)
No, my phone says "hey, I'm cheap". It's an old LG dumbphone on a very low-cost plan.
Sooner or later you'll hopefully grow up and realize that some people use a phone as a phone, and some people are willing to pay for a high tech phone with all the bells and whistles. Neither are necessarily bad, but if you're running around judging people on a phone, you're pretty dumb. It's like judging people based on the computer they have or the car they drive or where they live.
One day you may have the maturity to realize items you purchase should serve you, and not the other way around. That includes the cost of obtaining and maintaining those items. I've splurged before and I'll splurge again when it comes to buying stuff that's important to me. But I'm not going to sink money into a phone just to raise myself a notch or two on the public coolness meter.
For some people, they find a high-tech smartphone useful enough or desirable enough to justify the cost. More power to them. I'd rather spend my money on something else, or save it in a bank.
So. Proxies and VPN's - will they get around this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Deep packet inspection, volume of data, targets and returned IP addresses... will a securely tunneled and encrypted connection to a proxy service thwart this monitoring - or will they simply use such as indirect evidence of torrenting, since the standards of such evidence are set by the MPAA/RIAA?
As for commercial proxies - how probable is it that such services are more-or-less instantly compromised - as in a visit from FBI agents conscripted to work for movie companies ? Whom do you trust to manage connections?
How does one pay for such connections, if the act of using a credit card automatically locks down your identity? Does the use of pre-paid money cards such as Vanilla work (if you buy them from someone who doesn't care much about taking your real name down)? I understand that many say they do not, but other posters have mentioned that one merely has to provide Vanilla a zip code on the registration page to make them usable to pay online services.
I'd do all the above just to watch Netflix. I'm that much of a bastard. We managed to use the postal system and phones for over a hundred years without a spy system reading our every word and listening to every call, and I don't see why we need to start now. Especially now that ATT is about to shut off the old phone system and go completely IP, which means the old laws mean nothing.
And for the generation who never knew privacy, I preemptively say: yes, it matters. It is sad you may never care or even understand why it does. Your are happy goldfish, exhibits in a zoo. Think about who is outside your bowl, watching. You've spent your lives being told to be afraid of strange adults and white vans - yet you let actual, secret versions of those kinds of people follow your every move and listen to your lives? Think about it. The creeps you've been told to fear your entire lives aren't really real, for the most part. The creeps who are locking down human existence, building the last and only secret police the world will ever need - they are real and they are here and you need to fight them.
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Which generation would that be, exacty?
Re:So. Proxies and VPN's - will they get around th (Score:5, Insightful)
The current one. And the next one.
Schools are basically jails, and train kids to accept prison conditions - look at it objectively. Tracking devices in the phones. Recorded calls, recorded messages, emails. Soon, tracking built into the computers in cars, unkillable. Ebooks recorded, times, dates. Anything that flows in packets, recorded. Your movements, recorded, even if you ditch a phone and a car, 'cause cameras will watch you - and listen, too. The cameras and trackers and mics are shrinking, and with zero societal will to stop it, will be everywhere.
Yes, this generation. It starts in the schools, the acceptance of strip searches, phone tracking, drug searches, notebooks with cameras that watch the student... come on, the new crop of adults have been in jail since they were born, figuratively, and have been trained to accept it.
The next generation? Just keep exponentially increasing the surveillance, and the acceptance. Police states are not, historically speaking, unwelcome. People trade freedom for safety all the time, always have, if they are scared properly. The few who become bullied and targeted by the people behind the cameras and trackers are not interesting to people. "They" are by definition criminals, anyway.
I ain't afraid of evil bastards half as much as I am afraid of a population that doesn't understand what freedom actually means, and what they give up to be "safe". They has been zero effective backpush against this era, and it will get worse.
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Jails for some, yes - but they were designed to prepare people for working in factories.
But factory work isn't that much in demand any more - creative work is [sethgodin.com].
Little weasels... (Score:5, Interesting)
Little weasels...
I noticed that there is no mention of a complete disconnection--leaving the door open for continued billing even though you have an almost useless connection for two weeks. Me thinks Verizon is afraid they will start losing customers permanently if they disconnect them, even for a short time. There is no discussion of a 7th strike, or an 8th...what happens then? You get another two weeks of shit connection. Will they charge you less? Doubtful.
Make their fears a reality.
The solution is to drop them the moment they throttle you...and never come back...and NEVER COME BACK. Trust me--when they start seeing ANY loss of revenue, they will rethink this. Verizon is obligated, by law, to act in the best interest of their shareholders--how long do you think shareholders will put up with lost revenue?
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Re:Little weasels... (Score:4, Interesting)
"It's a fairly safe bet that there won't be enough people doing what you describe to really make a significant difference."
Nice to see some optimism.
A lot of people said that about SOPA and PIPA, as well. I am willing to bet your opinion on the matter might change if you were to try streaming Netflix over a 256k connection...and knowing that it isn't getting better for two weeks (also realizing that you are still paying full price to Netflix, but not able to access it for two weeks). And then realizing that they are essentially increasing your cost of internet access anywhere from 1000% to 20000% (depending on your previous connection speed). How long do you think you could sit through that before you'd had enough?
Re:Little weasels... (Score:5, Informative)
I noticed that there is no mention of a complete disconnection--leaving the door open for continued billing even though you have an almost useless connection for two weeks. Me thinks Verizon is afraid they will start losing customers permanently if they disconnect them, even for a short time. There is no discussion of a 7th strike, or an 8th...what happens then? You get another two weeks of shit connection.
For fuck's sake, stop jerking you knee and take 2 minutes to read TFA dumb ass or, if you did, learn how to read.
It's a 2/3 *day* slowdown after strikes #5/6:
Alert 5 and 6:
“You can: Agree to an immediate temporary (2 or 3 day) reduction in the speed of your Internet access service to 256kbps (a little faster than typical dial-up speed); Agree to the same temporary (2 or 3 day) speed reduction but delay it for a period of 14 days;
And after strike #6:
If more infringements are found after the sixth alert “nothing” will happen. The user will receive no more alerts and can continue using his or her Internet connection at full speed.
However – and this is not mentioned by Verizon – the MPAA and RIAA may obtain the IP-addresses of such repeat infringers in order to take legal action against them. While the ISPs will not voluntarily share the name and address linked to the IP-address, they can obtain a subpoena to demand this information from the provider.
What's their definition of "piracy"? (Score:2)
Does most of YouTube qualify?
If you think this is bad (Score:3)
there won't be a Chinese wall in the world big enough to keep the isp departments from ratting you out to their big content departments and to the MAFIAA
and they will probably use this to crack down on Linux
-I'm just sayin'
So, Will This Apply to Corporations, Too? (Score:2)
If, say, six Verizon employees cut-and-paste web images into corporate PowerPoints, will Verizon go by the book and shut itself down?
easily fixed (Score:3)
I have a "One Strike" plan. If an ISP threatens to interfere with my use of the Internet without illegal activity on my part having been proven under due process, then I will never, ever do business with them.
The list of corporations to whom I pay no mind continues to grow, apace.
Re: (Score:3)
And you will never, ever use the internet without going to a library or a friend's house.
Common carrier (Score:4, Interesting)
I started using BTGuard (Score:3)
for my torrents and i already use encyrption on my usenet. BTGuard is quite slow, but I'm apparently safe. Thinking of maybe going VPN instead of BTGuard, but I need to find one that is fast, and doesn't keep records.
So I'm paying an extra $6 a month to be safe, seems fine to me.
Re: (Score:2)
I think they have people in India reading scripts.
You have no idea what you are talking about. Neither Verizon nor Verizon Wireless have any call centers outside America.
Re: (Score:2)
"I wonder what they are getting out of this deal???"
After the first strike, the customer strikes a new deal with another company.
Re: (Score:3)
Back pockets filled by media companies funding the entire operation I suspect.
Re: (Score:3)
Bzzt. Sorry. No one from the 16th century would understand that explanation. Try again. First you'll have to explain to them what a bit is (yup, the old digital vs. analog thing). You might start by first describing what a switch is. Then you can move on to how you want to sell information without also keeping that information secret.
One way to describe it to them might be with a cooking analogy. You come up with a great recipe for a nice fluffy golden butter cake. You don't want to be in the cake selling b
Re: (Score:3)
So, basically, Verizon is saying if some kids go there and hack my wireless router, they'll shut me down forever?
Seriously?
Good thing I encrypted it ... but most people don't know how to do that.
Most people DO know how to encrypt their wireless traffic.
Most routers come with that set ON out of the box.
Most routers are now forcing password changes and or have unique passwords (serial number embedded).
It takes more effort to run a modern router wide open, without encryption these days than to run it correctly out of the box.
Re:I live a few hundred feet from a coffee shop (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, because Verizon would never setup their FIOS routers with an easy to crack password [dylanmtaylor.com] by default that many people may leave in place. Never.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:I live a few hundred feet from a coffee shop (Score:4, Informative)
Where the hell do you live? Back woods of Kentucky or some place?
I use a War Driving app (WiGLE WIFI) on my android on my rides and walks around my area, and open WIFI is a rarity in residential areas.
I mean like one house in a hundred. In my subdivision of 75 houses there isn't even one unencrypted router. Not one.
(There are several routers with Guest accounts, but even these require a password after you get an IP).
There are some facts an figures about this gleaned from users of this app posted here: https://wigle.net/gps/gps/main/stats/ [wigle.net]
Unencrypted wifi is on a steady downward trend, now down to about 18% over all areas that WiGLE users visit.
When you allow for those that are open on purpose (coffee shops restaurants, libraries) you are probably down to 12% of residential
users leave their wifi open.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:I live a few hundred feet from a coffee shop (Score:5, Insightful)
My experience is that it's damn hard to find an open Wi-Fi router these days. That tells me that in fact, most people DO know how to do it (or at least get someone else who knows how to)
Re: (Score:3)
Verizon FiOS routers are installed, by the installer guy, to not be open.
However, they use the Verizon version of WEP. My installer, 18 months ago, was really shocked when I informed him that WEP was a completely broken protocol. Most of my neighbors on FiOS, however....
Re: (Score:3)
Next step: encryption violates terms of service.
This is about power, not movies. To monitor the internet is to control everyone, eventually. We will have to be Good Children, for ever and all.
Re:Getting off easy (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree. Because this would require them to provide evidence and a sworn statement under penalty of perjury.
As it stands, any unsubstantiated claim by anybody or any automated process seems to convict you in Verizon's eyes, and even to contest the claim costs you money.
Question: Do those making such claims have to put up money up-front?
Re:Getting off easy (Score:4, Interesting)
Question: Do those making such claims have to put up money up-front?
Almost certainly not, and that's where the trouble is.
If, say, anyone claiming a video I uploaded to YouTube had to deposit $10 which gets sent to, say, me as a "sorry for the trouble" if it turns out that his claim is bullshit, I'm very sure the number of copyright notices on YouTube would drop dramatically - but the serious claims would still be made.
Re: (Score:3)
And they would wipe their asses to the reports, since personal file sharing is not a crime (in the US).
Re: (Score:3)
And unlimited usually means well over 4 billion, but telco's have a different understanding of numbers than the rest of us.
Re:strikes? (Score:5, Funny)
Aren't there only 3 strikes in baseball?
You can get 12 in bowling...
Re: (Score:3)
Those pirates will never go away, and wouldn't buy your stuff if it was cheap, so stopping them from pirating doesn't accomplish much. It's much better to use pricing and convenience to compete. I can buy a very large amount of songs without drm in a convenient fashion. I can listen to internet radio legally to discover new music. Why can't they do something similar for video?
Re:Better option (Score:5, Insightful)
Where did you get the idea that one would have to do something illegal to be abused by this policy? One need only be accused, and that without any objective, public standard of evidence or significant opportunity to rebut, and no penalty for reckless or even deliberately false accusations.