All U.S. Internet Providers will be policing downloads by July 12, 2012

[shadowkat]

I don't tend to download anything from the net. But I know others on my flist do - so here you go:

Originally posted by lk737 at All U.S. Internet Providers will be policing downloads by July 12, 2012

Please repost this? I have never begged for one of my posts to be boosted. I am just so worried for my friends and want you to know.

According to this article, dated March 15, 2012:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/webnews/major-isps-turn-into-copyright-police-by-july-says-riaa/

"File-sharers, beware: By July 12, major US Internet service providers (ISPs) will voluntarily begin serving as copyright police for the entertainment industry, according to Cary Sherman, chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The so-called “six-strikes” plan is said to be one of the most effective anti-piracy efforts ever established in the US."

The article goes on to give details. After six notices, internet providers will decide to throttle a person's internet speed, or cut it off altogether. I don't know if they will crack down on torrents only, or if it is up to the internet provider. I get the sense it is up to the internet provider. So some people could get away with downloading non torrents, while others might get their internet service cut off. I urge you to click it and read, as we all know people who download.

No more downloading eps of your favorite shows for vidding, gifs, or fanfiction art. No more downloading screencaps possibly. I'm so sorry my friends. I don't even know if BT Guard will work to protect you, but I would google it if I were you. It is a professional service that supposedly can protect you from the invasive eyes of your internet provider.

Just, my friends, please make each other aware. Please be aware of the date JULY 12TH. Mark your calendar and double check with your internet provider by then. If you start receiving notices of downloaded activity, this is why. And your internet service could be throttled or cut off.

Fox news confirms this:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/03/17/us-isps-become-copyright-cops-starting-july-12/

Youtube video explaining this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5OG0R-yS-c

Comments

[flameraven.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. I will definitely be looking into this, but like commenters on the first article, I'm skeptical this will catch anyone. There are just too many ways to avoid detection-- from going to free, public wi-fi spots to using proxy ISPs to options I'm probably not even aware of. Most other countries that have attempted to set up a "strike" system have pretty quickly given it up as pointless.

Still, it's worth keeping an eye on, and I appreciate the heads up.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

More or less of the same opinion...it's a lot harder to police than it looks.

I've been watching corporations and publishers attempting to find ways to police copyright infringement since the 1990s. The first attempt was "a digitized watermark". There are actually companies specializing in finding ways to prevent copyright infringement.

The internet is the wild west, and the copyright owners are settlers trying to tame it, while the internet geeks are the gunslingers who don't want it tamed.

They've gotten better at it than they were in 2002-2003. Used to be if your IPO was in Germany or another country - a US corporation couldn't do a thing. Now, they can.

[flameraven.livejournal.com]

Well, last I heard they tried a "three strikes" program in France... and then they found multiple people within the policing agency guilty of piracy, including somebody near the top of the government, if I recall correctly. And of course, Anonymous did something and basically flooded the agency with so many requests it was impossible to function. I think at that point they basically gave it up as a lost cause and either repealed the law or are planning to do so.

Copyright certainly needs to be modified to better work with the internet, and I agree that copyright should be protected, but honestly it seems most of the attempts to "police" copyright or to "catch infringers" do absolutely nothing in either case. The pirates are savvy enough to work around any protections, and it makes life harder for everyone else. Unfortunately, the people currently in office don't seem to understand how the internet works at all, and don't seem terribly interested in listening to the experts who do, so I'm not sure how much we can do to change things.

On this particular issue, I haven't seen BoingBoing report on it yet, so I'll wait until they post something before I freak out and work on installing Tor.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I remember watching copyright owners freak out about it in the 1990s. I was on two listserves back then, one copyright holders/lawyers/professionals, the other librarians. They were amusing - the librarians worried that the new copyright laws and protections in place would infringe on fair use and derail free speech, while the copyright owners were worried that the internet and the technological advances would erode their copyright protections.

Neither knew how to deal with the internet.
All of it reminds me a great deal of how humanity dealt with the Industrial Revolution back in the 1800s - 1960. Took a very long time for people to figure out how to adjust and handle it. Some still haven't. Al Gore warned everyone about it back in 1994, but everyone ignored him. Gore is turning into a regular "Cassandra" foretelling future problems that everyone keeps ignoring him on.
It's hilarious. First the Information Revolution, now Global Warming.

So, I agree...it's going to be a bit of a mess for a while. Might want to take a wait-and-see attitude.

[flameraven.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the ebook companies that are trying to limit libraries to only 25 downloads of ebooks. I've tried to do legal ebook downloads myself from the library and they're far too complicated. I also found myself puzzled that most of the ebooks were on "waiting lists." You couldn't check them out until the return period for the other person had expired. This baffled me. The benefit of ebooks is they can exist everywhere at once-- why on earth would you hold it to the same standard as a physical book?

It's true people have a hard time adapting to change, and the internet has brought a lot of change very very fast, so it's that much harder to adapt to the original changes, much less the ones that happen every few years. Only 7-8 years ago not that many people had cell phones, and now I feel out of the loop because everyone else has smartphones.

I do enjoy living in "the future", and a lot of the tech being developed is really exciting, but I agree it is all a bit of a mess.

[rose-griffes.livejournal.com]

I'll be curious how this actually works once "enforcement" begins.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Agreed. It's not as easy as it looks. There's all sorts of work-a-rounds. Also on private social media sites with friends locking, it might be harder. The government isn't as organized or tech savy as people think. Nor are large corporations. Haven't worked for them...this I know. I was amazed how stupid Oberon was about this stuff - an international video game company that distributed over the net.