DAILY MANIFESTO

ISPs Destroy Open Internet to Stop Piracy, Invokes Facepalm

Posted on Friday, July 8 @ 05:07:45 Eastern by Nicholas Tan

Internet Service Providers AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast Verizon, and Time Warner Cable have come to an agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, and other organizations for independent filmmakers and record companies to create a uniform policy to fight digital copyright infringement.

In early 2012, these four ISPs will warn customers of infringement with a procedure of six graduated responses, from a simple warning email to "mitigation measures" like slowed connections or a complete block from appearing in Internet searches. Users must acknowledge these notices and can also contest the complaints. A Center for Copyright Information, with a board represented by media companies and the ISPs, will monitor this alert system and regulate these policies

However, this system of "guilty before proven innocent" will likely be an overwhelming headache for customers. If a major organization or company says that so-and-so has infringed on their property, do you really think that these ISPs will even care about for that so-and-so who has litle to no power (read: money) on their side? How much potential profits and effort do you think these ISPs will even use to verify a claim? How soon before we hear people whose Internet service they paid for is cut off for copyright infringement that they never committed?

Net neutrality is a hotly debated topic and those in favor of it can see this step as a legal Trojan Horse for ISPs to control the Internet by differentiating and discriminating against specific people and companies. If the ISPs don't like this story I'm writing about them, will Game Revolution soon suffer "slowed connections" for copyright infringement? Could this be the start of a slippery slope to over-monitoring and a complete lack of privacy, since everything you submit on the Internet is technically tracked through an ISP already? Should I consider using the post office more often?

I can also see hackers having a field day, not just hackers who are likely going to attack these ISPs out of their sense of justice, but also those who just enjoy pestering folks for the Lulz. While this will make our future news stories a lot easier to project, the worst part about it all this will hardly do a damn thing to pirates. As much as I feel sympathy for small copyright owners or victims of piracy who don't have much recourse, this will not prevent piracy. If anything, it will just make pirates more aggressive and encourage them to find ways around the new system. Why? Because they're pirates.

[Image Credit]

Tags: Piracy

Comments

tinymhg
Joined: Jun 2011

Posted: Jul 8th, 2011 at 6:46 am
Man don't be so paranoid I m...e...a...n... t...h...e...y... r...e...a...l...l...y... c...a...n...'...t... s...l...o...w... y...o...u... d...o...w...n... w...i...t...h...o...u...t... a... g...o...o...d... r...e...a...s...o...n...!...

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Josh_Laddin
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jul 8th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
I'm nominating this comment just because of how much effort it took.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jul 8th, 2011 at 7:30 am
the only response you need:
youtube.com/watch?v=ngGgcnJL5G4

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jul 8th, 2011 at 7:32 am
Also, as much as I hate to think that my service will be disturbed or my information leaked, I say to the hackers: have at 'em boys. Fuck these ISPs right in the ass.

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jul 8th, 2011 at 7:32 am
Yeah! Comment filter subterfuge at its best!

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tinymhg
Joined: Jun 2011

Posted: Jul 8th, 2011 at 9:00 am
…with a sandpaper condom.

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drathbone
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jul 8th, 2011 at 9:46 am
How can they prove this though? I've gotten warnings letters saying there was "suspicious activity" from my bandwidth usage, but that's because I lived with 5 people, who constantly streamed netflix, played wow or had nights turned to mornings of CoD/Reach ragers (that's right, 5 separate consoles). Not to mention we were all in college, so in addition to that we had 5 laptops/desktops in the house which at least had idle internet connections at all times. I bet our bandwidth usage was easily over 300gb a month.

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drathbone
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jul 8th, 2011 at 9:47 am
Oh right, all the porno that I'm sure was watched too. Probably at least a quarter of the bandwidth usage.

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daverabbit
Joined: Oct 2008

Posted: Jul 8th, 2011 at 10:46 am
Can I come live with you?

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sliverstorm
Joined: Jun 2007

Posted: Jul 8th, 2011 at 11:37 am
Jesus christ, nominated SO HARD for The People Speak. I literally choked on my drink.

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NickKmet
Joined: Jan 2007

Posted: Jul 8th, 2011 at 1:56 pm
With the way torrents work now, all the information is masked anyways. All they can go off of is your upload and download bandwidth really. And that's not good enough to get anyone into trouble, really.

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sandineyes
Joined: May 2008

Posted: Jul 8th, 2011 at 3:31 pm
Well, as far as I know, if a private individual is uploading more than a few KB/s for a prolonged period of time, they are either downloading a WoW patch or file sharing.

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TurinAlexander
Joined: Sep 2006

Posted: Jul 8th, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Even if they are file sharing, that in and of itself is completely legal. It only becomes illegal when copyrighted material gets involved. Now, I'm not saying that the vast majority of file sharing doesn't involve copyrighted material, but there are a variety of legitimate reasons for P2P and a lot times in these discussions that tends to be forgotten.

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Rinnon
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Jul 9th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Hey guys, correct me if I'm wrong here, but didn't the UN make a ruling declaring the Internet a human right, to protect against this kind of thing directly?

"While blocking and filtering measures deny users access to specific content on the Internet, states have also taken measures to cut off access to the Internet entirely. The Special Rapporteur considers cutting off users from Internet access, regardless of the justification provided, including on the grounds of violating intellectual property rights law, to be disproportionate and thus a violation of article 19, paragraph 3, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

I mean, I get that not following the UN doesn't have huge consequences... but can't they at least tell the MPAA to **** off?

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tinymhg
Joined: Jun 2011

Posted: Jul 10th, 2011 at 10:03 am
WOW! Do you have a law degree?

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pennpsu
Joined: Sep 2010

Posted: Jul 14th, 2011 at 12:30 pm
No one follows the UN directives, especially Americans.

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