Copyright Alert System To Launch Monday 224
An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from the Daily Dot:
"Starting next week, most U.S. Internet users will be subject to a new copyright enforcement system that could force them to complete educational programs, and even slow their Internet speeds to a crawl. A source with direct knowledge of the Copyright Alert System [said] the five participating Internet service providers will start the controversial program Monday. The ISPs — industry giants AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon — will launch their versions of the CAS on different days throughout the week. Comcast is expected to be the first, on Monday."
Of course, there are many ways around the Copyright Alert System, so it probably won't be terribly effective.
Good News (Score:5, Informative)
For VPN providers.
I'm partial to AirVPN since they accept Bitcoins for payment and let you connect via Tor if that's what you want.
I have a one strike system (Score:2, Informative)
one notice and I use a swedish vpn and verizon's marketing department doesn't get my data....oh well
and since a year of vpn costs less than 2 new blu ray disks i come out pretty far ahead
Re:To be fair. (Score:2, Informative)
Only it will now be used IN CONCERT with lawsuits, not instead of.
Re:Download Linux (Score:3, Informative)
I got a nasty letter from my ISP telling me "No peer-to-peer". I called them, and said "WTF guys? I download Linux distros and OpenOffice ISOs via torrent, all kinds of 100% legal and legitimate content." "We don't care. No peer-to-peer."
So I signed up for a VPN, of course.
I wonder if they also go after all the folks that are just trying to download the latest WoW patch. Seems like most MMORPGs these days use P2P updaters.
Re: force violators to take educational courses (Score:3, Informative)
...it would bankrupt all these corps...
And they'll come back at you with, "You're putting people out of work!"
Meanwhile, company officers will simply shift their portfolios, and write down the losses onto the smaller investors and the taxman.
Re:Download Linux (Score:4, Informative)
Not everyone gets the luxury of choice.
Re:To be fair. (Score:5, Informative)
Nah, they already got Tor's number. They'll just arrest all the node operators on child porn charges [redorbit.com].
Re:For who is this? (Score:2, Informative)
Producers do own the copyright if they put out novel content, although that rarely happens outside of megacorps for the following reasons :
It's useless to be based outside of major metro areas as all the crew talent is there. Major US cities and surrounding ares cost a lot to live in compared to the mid-west or anywhere else except western Europe ; that implies that crews have to get paid a minimum of $30k/year. As a US business, one MUST have all software licenses to operate without getting squashed by a lawsuit from media software companies, and depending on the type of artist and production a SINGLE licensed computer can cost anywhere from $10k to $25k+. Add network and server costs on top of that as the volume and size of the databases prevent them from being decentralized (see here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3355921&cid=42465107 [slashdot.org]). Compared to the rest of the world, cost of living and licenses here make production costs the highest of everywhere else.
So, in conclusion, piracy has two effects on my line of work : artist and technical crews get paid shit, have no benefits and will be quickly replaced by younger personnel in time because income gets eroded by downloads. And, on top of that, no-one else in the world has to worry about running unlicensed software, reducing costs by at least 50%. As a small upstarting digital media producer, I can't compete with that. Now, if fellow ./ers don't have a problem with megacorps and lawyers being the only people who can afford a living in the US, then by all means, keep pirating your content and software!