RIAA: ISPs to implement anti-piracy measures by July 12

[Jos]

Internet service providers are set to launch a new anti-piracy scheme this summer designed to alert and eventually punish suspected copyright infringers. The new policy was unveiled last year when top ISPs including Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon announced their participation in a "graduated response" program to deal with illegal file sharing, bowing to pressure from the RIAA and MPAA with help from the U.S. government.

In a panel discussion in front of some of the biggest U.S. publishers yesterday, the head of the RIAA Cary Sherman announced that the policies will come into effect July 12th.

Under the program ISPs will be required to monitor their users' online activities for illegal file sharing. Those caught downloading copyrighted materials would receive a series of escalating warnings, starting with one or two "educational notices" informing users that what they're doing is illegal and asking them to stop.

If these warnings are ignored a new tier of notices kicks in where the customer is required to acknowledge receipt of the warnings and sign a "pledge" to stop pirating. Finally, those who are caught yet again can expect to receive an alert informing them that a "Mitigation Measure" has been applied to their account.

The program is reminescent of France's three-strike system, although it's not quite as harsh. France's HADOPI law requires ISPs to give alleged infringers two warnings before being disconnected and/or fined. In contrast, U.S. ISPs will issue more warnings before implementing a mitigation measure, which only includes things like throttling of upload or download speeds, or altering your landing page to "remind you" not to pirate.

There's no uniform system for ISPs to use in order to catch downloaders. Instead, each of them will have to develop their own and establish a database to keep track of repeat infringers. The number of warnings at each level is also up to the ISPs, as is the specific nature of the so-called mitigation measure. So far no participating ISP has agreed to cut off a customer’s internet service permanently.

Although the measure feels less draconian than initiatives like PIPA/SOPA, it's hardly an ideal solution considering it relies on IP addresses as proof of guilt and the fact that the courts aren't even involved.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/47819-riaa-isps-to-implement-anti-piracy-measures-by-july-12.html

 

[Guest]

Money can obviously buy anything. It is absolutely absurd that they are now determined to undermine the human rights of its population. Makes me embarrassed to be part of the human race.

This sis absolutely ridiculous and absurd; surely you are joking Mr. Feyman.

RIAA is complete sh!t. A bunch of inhumane and greedy me gustas; do they even have a heart beat?

Maybe it is about time Shepard came and went medieval on their rumps.

Loved the ending of Mass Effect 3 by the way! I thought it was beautiful!

 

[Mister_K]

Sounds fair.

As long as you send Warnings and after X strikes you're busted then I think that is a fair deal.

*cough* VPN + Peerblock

 

[Guest]

Someone will take this to court. IP Address evidence has been disallowed in court cases prior to this. If all they have is an IP address, they may have a very hard time standing on legal grounds. An open WiFi hot spot may be the source of such downloading without the subscriber even knowing it.

 

[Guest]

*cough* VPN + Peerblock

While an ISP will not be able to see the content using a VPN, all the ISP will be looking for is a high traffic volume. If their traffic thresholds are exceeded, customers will be assumed guilty of illegal downloading. There is no way to keep the ISP from discovering which subscribers have a high traffic volume.

Its no wonder the ISPs agreed to this since most of them want caps on traffic volume; this gives the ISPs an "excuse" to apply those caps.

 

[RzmmDX]

So, would i have to pay my isps more for them to develop this new system which in no way benefits me?

 

[IvanAwfulitch]

I'm not ignorant enough to suggest that my habits aren't being viewed already, but giving ISPs license to implement a punishment system as well as lawful ability to invade my privacy so openly is ridiculous.

What if you're an artist who chooses to upload a torrent file of your own music to promote sales? There are innumerable artists who have chosen to do just that. How does this help them? Clearly it's another case of more for the haves and less for the have-nots. It's not even about piracy, and it never was.

Net neutrality is in tatters. The tyranny of the rich is flaunted again, and the indifference of the masses allows it to flourish, as always. The public will protest, but their lack of action will welcome this new legislation with open arms.

Artix, it isn't about if you think their punishment system is fair or not. It's about letting them implement it in the first place. And the RIAA shouldn't be allowed to do so. It doesn't matter if you think you can circumvent it. You give them power by allowing the law to pass, and you're giving up more and more of your personal liberties in the process.

 

[JayT1803]

Yea, and how are they going to find out if a person is illegally file sharing?? By simply discriminating against people who use a lot of bandwidth?

 

[Guest]

Assuming this 'scheme' actually works out for them, you would still get away with file sharing through public wifi, i.e. at McDonalds or a coffee shop, would you not?

 

[Xclusiveitalian]

"program ISPs will be required to monitor their users' online activities"

Serious invasion of privacy.

 

[Guest]

Time to get into the VPN business.

 

[soldier1969]

Vpn service and using peerblock so go ahead monitor my downloading and good luck, been at it for years. Have to me smarter than the man is all.

 

[Guest]

good thing i installed backtrack a few days ago, now to crack my neighbor's wifi to get those damn rednecks busted. maybe that'll stop em from making tracks in my lawn :/

 

[Guest]

I guess they want me to downgrade my plan from the expensive 250GB package to the simple 25GB package. Oh well, their loss.

 

[Tygerstrike]

OMG you ppl act as if you have any rights on the internet. You have the same expectation of privacy on the internet as you have on a cellphone. NONE! You have to go through an ISP or in the case of a cellphone a provider. They have been snooping your info for years. The only right you have is to annonimity to the general web browsing public. You had to register your name and address as well as any information they require with a ISP.
Think on this......Eventually all that lovely information you have registerd with the ISp will come back on you. Its called being BlackBalled. SO they determine you are a offender to their new policy. They then start blocking you from having your own internet provider. Eventually some of the smarter sheep will try and get a family member or freind to setup the web for them. And in the usual fashion, they will ruin that family members or freinds ability to get internet.

 

[Gars]

i dont understand for what is the fight
we all need:
better speed
better content

if im wrong - sorry

 

[Mister_K]

artix said:
Sounds fair.

As long as you send Warnings and after X strikes you're busted then I think that is a fair deal.

*cough* VPN + Peerblock

That is in terms of the strikes / warnings.

 

[oldikes]

someone better damn take this to court.
I mean, seriously. First they are trying to take away religious freedom (requiring catholics to serve contraceptives to employees) and this is the next in numerous attempts to invade privacy. So many basic american rights being violated.

 

[Guest]

Blah, VPN and Peerblock are the way I do it. They can't monitor for bandwidth usage because that would discriminate against my legit services that I also use, Like, Hulu, Itunes, Netflix, YouTube, Etc... I use much more bandwidth from those services than I do on my pirating. Besides, Torrents, Usenet, IRC, etc... aren't only used for illegal sharing, there are legit purposes, So you can't really even monitor for protocol, ISP would need to monitor for traffic itself, Otherwise I imagine they would be putting themselves in a liability situation for discrimination (Like that ever stopped them).

 

[PinothyJ]

Guest said:
Blah, VPN and Peerblock are the way I do it. They can't monitor for bandwidth usage because that would discriminate against my legit services that I also use, Like, Hulu, Itunes, Netflix, YouTube, Etc... I use much more bandwidth from those services than I do on my pirating. Besides, Torrents, Usenet, IRC, etc... aren't only used for illegal sharing, there are legit purposes, So you can't really even monitor for protocol, ISP would need to monitor for traffic itself, Otherwise I imagine they would be putting themselves in a liability situation for discrimination (Like that ever stopped them).

Man, ISPs in your country are DICKS.

I feel for you…

 

[Guest]

well , glad they send thew names of the isps, so time to change to another one !

 

[Zeromus]

Welp better pirate as much you can.

 

[Per Hansson]

Well, torrent traffic are used for allot of legitimate purposes, like for example in World Of Warcraft to deliver the patches.
So if ISP's really want to do this it comes down to watching exactly what traffic flows, for each customer.
The cost of doing that must be tremendous.
It's one thing to switch a few packets of data with routers and then complain when X ammount of data have been transferred (We don't have bandwidth caps here but that's what I refer to)

But to actually analyze every single packet, for every single customer.
And then compare that to a list of known illegal distribution schemes, my god just getting my head around the complexities of doing this makes my head hurt!
And exactly what do the ISP's get in return?

 

[captaincranky]

Just a quick count, but with my blazing fast 1 meg DSL, I'd have to be downloading 24/7 to hit maybe 125 GB a month. With normal usage, would I even be a blip on the radar....?

It seems like you guys with the high bandwidth will beat me, hands down, in the race to get into trouble....

 

[Guest]

I wish I had the courage to take to the streets and protest against this corrupt regime.