RIAA/MPAA thinks you're stealing content? Then you could only be allowed to the 'top 200' websites

[Newsjock]

Source: CNet

Some of the country's largest Internet service providers are poised to leap into the antipiracy fight in a significant way.

After years of negotiations, a group of bandwidth providers that includes AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon are closer than ever to striking a deal with media and entertainment companies that would call for them to establish new and tougher punishments for customers who refuse to stop using their networks to pirate films, music and other intellectual property, multiple sources told CNET.

... Participating ISPs are given plenty of choices on how to respond to the toughest cases. They can select from a "menu" of responses outlined in the plan, such as throttling down an accused customer's bandwidth speed or limit their access to the Web. For example, a suspected pirate may be allowed to visit only the top 200 Web sites until the illegal file sharing stops.

... In addition to the NCTA, the White House was also instrumental in encouraging the parties to reach an agreement, the sources confirmed. President Obama has said intellectual property is important to the country's economy and has vowed to step up the fight against piracy and counterfeiting. His administration has lobbied Congress the past several years to pass new pro-copyright legislation while instructing federal law enforcement to make antipiracy a priority.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20073522-261/exclusive-top-isps-poised-to-adopt-graduated-response-to-piracy/

[Wilms]

1. Wow!

And I thought the cassette tape debate was pretty heated.

Oh, the simpler days of analog...

[Blue_Tires]

2. This country needs a better class of ISP

And I'm not gonna say the story is 100 percent bullshit, but it should be noted that there isn't one named source in it...

[leveymg]

3. Just like they got rid of the 4th Amendment, they will also eliminate the Open Web

It's already happening, but we need to speak out against it while we still can.

[lazarus]

4. file sharing panics have gone on since before the internet

http://www.cracked.com/article_18513_5-insane-file-sharing-panics-from-before-internet_p2.html?wa_user1=4&wa_user2=Tech&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=flashback

[KurtNYC]

5. the same companies that provide internet service provide cable TV

and cable TV is what their business model is centered on. They address illegal file sharing with this but their business is put more at risk by the larger trend of people shutting off their $75/month cable TV as more content becomes available on the internet -- HULU, Netflix, YouTube, Comedy Central's website, etc.

It is not just the cut from $75 (+ internet; $100 in many bundles) down to $22 to $40 for broadband only. It is also the shift from a world where they get to pick the 200 channels and give their content favored positioning to one with thousand of channels, 99% of which they make no money on and in a broad menu where nothing is favored.

I think it is interesting that a 200 channel universe is the proposed penalty box. It transfers their cable TV model to the internet.

[woo me with science]

6. Oh, there will be lots of interesting ways to determine that you are pirating content.

They will be monitoring your internet activities, have access to your computer, and have the technology to shut you down.

Once again, we have a push to implement an extremely intrusive, eavesdropping, and controlling system upon the consumer for what we are told is a greater good. Putting everyone in a database or under surveillance in order to catch a few bad actors is a strategy we are seeing implemented more and more, in every facet of our lives...


I am reminded of the lawsuits recently against DRM "piracy prevention" software on video games like The Sims. Floods of people who bought the games were enraged because,

1. They paid money for a game, but the company disabled it from running if a spyware progam on the game detected the mere presence of undisabled CD burning software on the computer. The mere presence of such software was considered evidence of piracy.

2. The company also interpreted repeated activations of the games on the computer as evidence of piracy and would disable the game after only three installations. As a result, if people reformatted their drive a couple of times due to viruses or something, they would find that the game they had paid good money for no longer worked. In essence, the game became a "rental for three times" rather than a purchase.

3. Instead of simply using a key code to verify purchase of the game upon installation, the company required each user to have internet access each time the game was loaded, so that the company could have access to the computer "in order to determine that no CD burning software was activated." Of course, the consumers began to wonder what else the company might do with access to their computers...

4. The presence/purpose of this "piracy prevention" software was not clearly indicated on installation of the game, and the software could not be fully removed by the consumer.

5. Many customers indicated that their CD drives were permanently disabled or compromised even after removal of the game.

[leveymg]

8. Has it occurred to anyone that most of the "piracy" is on the part of the corporations?

By granting remote access to some company in China, or wherever, you're also handing them a copy of your C-Drive and the data on any other drives you may connect with.

It isn't just NSA that's interested in mining your data and profiling you.

[woo me with science]

10. Yes, I have often thought about the fact that

most of our electronics, including computers, are manufactured in China. Who knows what could be built into them from the very beginning?

I have also had a dawning realization since owning a computer that, although human beings build these things, I have never once come across a single person who seems to understand everything about them. When I have a virus issue, I have to find a specialist in viruses, and that person often knows very little about hardware. If I am interested in network security, that is someone else. If I have a bios problem, I get referred to a different person. Nobody seems knowledgeable about the whole thing, and nobody seems entirely capable of determining that a system is, without a doubt, clean.

Who knows what is in our boxes, and who might have put it there.

:wow:

[Lance_Boyle]

7. thepiratebay.org is consistently in the top 100 websites

by access in the US.

Nice work there, MAFIAA.

[Dawson Leery]

9. "MAFIAA" indeed.

[ecstatic]

12. Are they being e-wiretapped?

Aren't they currently under investigation? I used to get stuff on there, but I don't want to be tapped!

[ecstatic]

11. They're still assuming that people will buy if the ability to download is removed

That's the wrong assumption to make. There will still continue to be hard copy counterfeits available.

On a side note, Pres. Obama's administration is really cracking down hard on all types of crime. A good and bad thing at the same time.

[Fumesucker]

13. Bush and Cheney remain uninvestigated..

So I would say that the Obama administration is hardly cracking down on *all* types of crime..