July 12th - Policing of Internet Traffic Begins

[Lucradia]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/03/riaa-and-isps-to-police-your-traffic-starting-july-12.ars


Once an ISP has determined that you're accessing pirated material, there will be an "Initial Education step" in which customers are informed that they're engaging in an illegal act. A customer may get one or two of these education notices and, if the pirating doesn't stop, they'll be issued another warning. This warning will require acknowledgment of receipt, "along with a pledge to end infringing activity from the account," according to TorrentFreak. If that doesn't take, the ISP will issue a Mitigation Measure Copyright Alert, which could involve throttling or curtailing the connection, although it won't yet lead to a total cut off. (Here's Ars' rundown on how to challenge (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/07/the-six-ways-you-can-appeal-the-new-copyright-alerts.ars) a Mitigation Alert.)

[MisterGaribaldi]

Interesting. What, btw, is a "cyberlocker"?

[Lucradia]

Cyberlocker is a fancy word for "File hosting service" like Mediafire, Megaupload, upload.to (non-USA Only now), etc.

[duke.tim]

hmm, well it seems better than flat out litigation.

It is important that content is detected, not the technology, since I could see ISP's punishing the simple use of torrents and similar tech.

Also, if you own a license to the content, it is a bit bother-some if you are downloading a backup especially if the storage media of the original was damaged. Which seems legal and illegal at the same time.

[winh8r]

Simple outcome:

Slower internet speeds for everyone as the ISP's capture and check every torrent they "suspect" of being "illegal"

Lots of wealthy lawyers (again)

No difference to the actual sales of products.

Mass invasion of privacy/liberty on the grounds of "suspicion"



The companies and corporations behind these actions are clinging on to an outmoded and unenforceable business model.
It will soon be against the law to switch on your computer without letting someone know where you plan to go and what you plan to do when you access the internet at this rate.

[rg4w]

With Echelon and later Carnivore, policing of Internet traffic began a long time ago....

[synaptix]

..

And I wouldn't be surprised to hear about Microsoft jumping in on this to coerce ISPs that downloading Linux distros is illegal, with Microsoft "claiming" copyright patents on Linux.

This is a scenario, whether it happens or not, that is frightening and can threaten Linux. With that in mind, I contacted the EFF and FSF about it, and the EFF reported back that they are investigating this spy scheme and should have a blog post about it in a few weeks. Have not heard anything back from FSF yet.

[synaptix]

Also, check out this video of talk comic Rob Reid:

http://www.ted.com/talks/rob_reid_the_8_billion_ipod.html

[TeamRocket1233c]

I somehow doubt how well this will work, I mean Linux is free and open-source software, so it's perfectly legal.

[Lucradia]

A note, it probably will also work the other way too, not just USA consumers accessing pirated media elsewhere, but other countries accessing pirated media on servers here in the USA. This would mean slower speeds or strict enforcement of sites like YouTube, whose servers are in the USA, mainly.

[winh8r]

Strange though how some "big sites" are concerned about copyright yet certain "big search engines" still provide links to certain "sites" that host torrents and "illegally uploaded files". No one knocking on their door and limiting their bandwidth to dial up speed is there?

[Lucradia]

Strange though how some "big sites" are concerned about copyright yet certain "big search engines" still provide links to certain "sites" that host torrents and "illegally uploaded files". No one knocking on their door and limiting their bandwidth to dial up speed is there?

That is due to the meta-tags and spider bots. I think the feds should knock on search engine doors and tell them to literally turn off spider bots and meta indexing if it continues to be a problem.

[Andrew_P]

I once heard it said that sexually transmissible diseases could be eradicated from the planet if everyone on Earth abstained from sex at the same time for just six weeks. The theory behind this is that most diseases produce symptoms in a few weeks, and if affected persons were to seek medical attention, they could be treated and cured before they pass their disease to someone else.

Likewise, the solution with recording industry abuses of the legal process and hijacking government for their private purposes is quite simple (though probably unachievable in practice): Don't purchase, rent, or download any movie, music CD, or music MP3 file for a year. I can certainly survive without consuming any of the materials being produced by the recording industry, but it's a sure bet that the RIAA couldn't survive even six months if their sales crashed. I shut off my satellite television service nearly five years ago, so I know it can be done; I don't even miss watching television now!

:lolflag: