Proposed Anti-Piracy Legislation is Flawed, ISP Says
Written by Ernesto on October 16, 2009In recent weeks there has been a lot of debate about the UK government’s upcoming plans to disconnect alleged file-sharers from the Internet. Now, ISP TalkTalk enters the discussions saying that the proposed legislation is unworkable and that it “contradicts fundamental human rights.”
Cheered on by the music industry, the UK government is desperately trying to tackle the issue of online piracy. This has resulted in a proposal from Lord Mandelson, who plans to disconnect alleged file sharers without any judicial process. These plans are said to cost more for the ISPs to implement than the total financial damages the music industry claims to suffer from piracy in the UK.
But the high costs involved are not the only problem the Internet providers are worried about. In a recent blog post, Andrew Heaney, Executive Director of Strategy and Regulation of the ISP TalkTalk points out that the new legislation will not only lead to numerous wrongful accusations, but it also violates human rights.
“It would put in place a principle of ‘guilty until proven innocent’ that contradicts fundamental human rights. But moreover the proposals will be totally unworkable – and today we’ve proved why,” Heaney writes.
To show how easily people might get disconnected for ‘crimes’ they did not commit, one of their Internet security experts went out to a residential road to see how many unsecured Wi-Fi connections he could run into. It didn’t take long for him to find several unsecured connections from which he could easily download whatever files he wanted to.
Under the new law, these unsecured hotspots could earn their unsuspecting owners a temporary Internet disconnection, and that’s not a good thing according to TalkTalk. “It is absurd to make people, in effect, legally responsible for the traffic on their internet connections and require them to prevent any unauthorised traffic,” Heaney says.
“TalkTalk acknowledges that there is a problem with illegal filesharing and that solutions must be found. First and foremost the content industry must develop new business models to make content more easily available and more affordable,” he adds.
So, instead of trying to overcome the piracy problem by flawed legislation, the entertainment industries should focus on innovation and develop new business models that will convert pirates to paying customers.
Until that happens, TalkTalk will do everything in its power to prevent the current plans from being signed into law. “We will continue to strongly resist any approach that does not protect the innocent,” Heaney concludes.
Previously: Pirate Party Condemns $5.4m Claim Against P2P Operator
Next: Pirate Bay Takes Bias Claims to Supreme Court
77 Responses
Nice, finally :)
“TalkTalk can only sell fast connections to people downloading content illegally. If they can’t sell fast connections they will go out of business. Nobody needs a fast connection for email and browsing the Internet. They could force their customers to have private wireless connections by forcing them to use their own router with encryption. (Yes, it can be broken even when encrypted.) The only reason people have fast connections si to download period. Everyone knows this. Just as everyone knows it is illegal. Just as everyone knows that this is why the quality of all media is tanking – because nobody wants to invest time and money to make a product that will be distributed in a way that makes them no money. Everybody knows the real facts. Am I the only one tired of all the false excuses from ALL sides?”
“TalkTalk can only sell fast connections to people downloading content illegally. If they can’t sell fast connections they will go out of business. Nobody needs a fast connection for email and browsing the Internet. They could force their customers to have private wireless connections by forcing them to use their own router with encryption. (Yes, it can be broken even when encrypted.) The only reason people have fast connections is to download. Period. Everyone knows this. Just as everyone knows it is illegal. Just as everyone knows that this is why the quality of all media is tanking – because nobody wants to invest time and money to make a product that will be distributed in a way that makes them no money.”
Everybody knows the real facts. Am I the only one tired of all the false excuses from ALL sides?
Nuts, double post. Sorry, it was unintentional… (I was trying to correct a spelling mistake!)
yeah.. we should shut the internet down. go back to good ol’ trustworthy plastic discs.
don’t forget dial-ups, too – we don’t need anything faster than 1mbit. even modems were fine. as the speed gets higher more pirates get involved in copyright infringement..
Actually, the opposite. If you had to wait 10 hours for a movie to download you probably wouldn’t bother. But the same speed connection is fine for browsing. If you can’t admit that, well…
The thing that makes me laugh about the UK, and no doubt elsewhere, is that you pay more for an internet connection than you do for your food, then you winge about the price of food but barely notice the connection fee as it goes higher and higher and higher.
lol, I fileshared on irc on a 56k…
@3
This is the UK – you’ll need a fast connection if you want to watch, say, BBC iplayer.
Especially if you want to watch it in HD.
Especially if you have a house of multiple people (for example a house of 5 students is not uncommon), all wanting to watch different things at once on one connection.
Another requirement for fast internet access is (obviously not going to apply to many people, but it still applies to some) would be downloading various Linux distributions – with virtual machines and the like it is very easy for me to download a new version of whatever distribution, put it on a virtual machine and try it out, without having to mess around with installing it on an actual computer.
Jane, I use p2p to shift large music editing files regularly between me four other band mates. Some month’s bandwidth might exceed 50gb from this alone. Should I have to suffer a prohibitively slow internet connection because of your assumptions?
@ Jane
Following your logic, all cars sold in the UK should have a restricted top speed of 70mph. After all, going faster breaks the law.
Question to Torrentfreak (Or other with information) :
Is there anyone knowing why TPB is down since more than 12 hours ?
/ BigSwede
Laws don’t apply on the Internet. Enjoy your pirated content.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8305379.stm
Interesting comments from the BPI.
“The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) remains confident that its “robust” evidence-gathering system will not allow innocent people to be caught in the net in the same way as has happened in the video game industry.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
BPI Spokesman
“But ultimately, householders will be held to account for what happens on their own networks, he added.
“The responsibility for ensuring that an internet account shared throughout a household is not being used for illegal filesharing clearly lies with the account holder,” he said.”
In other words, we’ll have our pound of flesh regardless of how any alleged infringement happened.
“First and foremost the content industry must develop new business models to make content more easily available and more affordable.”
I doubt there is a need to make “content”, as they disgustingly call works of art, more available – how can something be more available than it already is? I am two clicks away from basically any movie, music or software.
It is also affordable, as you only have to pay for your Internet connection.
From this I draw a conclusion – the guy in his blog did not want to say what he really thinks – that all these publishing companies are simply not needed anymore.
Living in the UK I know this government has very little regard for our human rights. We can’t even put rubbish in our bins without it being analysed by a CCTV operator. If its not the right type of rubbish for that particular type of bin we get a fine through the door.
Sorry to rant a little but do you really think the UK government gives a hoot what ISP’s or us as individuals think? They will do what they please just as they have always done.
@11: Erm…yes! Are you saying that breaking the law by going >70mph is a good thing?! Because that’s one step away from saying having one over the limit is a good thing..
@Jane…
Utter rubbish. People like you are stuck in the past. You clearly haven’t experienced any of the rich content available online, such as VOIP, HD streaming, gaming, FTP – the list is endless.
Don’t summarise everyone into your own limited category, based on your own limited experience/knowledge. If you even know anything about internet protocols and how they work, you’ll see a clear increase in demand for more bandwidth (such as HTTPS or SSL).
I notice everyone avoided admitting they are illegally downloading stuff when replying to Jane!!!
fitmein: I notice everyone avoided admitting they are illegally downloading stuff when replying to Jane!!!
Why should anyone admit anything to her? Or you for that matter?
@fitmein
You can admit something only when it was brought up. In this context I do not see why someone had to admit something he wasn’t asked about.
If you ask me personally – do I download files, considered unlawful under the current juridical system – I will say a firm Yes, a response which I do not find shameful. However, I do find the current juridical system shameful.
@2 Jane
‘The only reason people have fast connections si to download period. Everyone knows this.’
This is so since that is the design of the internet, but even more so. See in some more developed countries the transition to a minimum of 100 Mb up and down is under way, by law.
‘Just as everyone knows it is illegal.’
That’s rubbish. Try some legal service for streaming HD with 5.1 surround sound, or even just SD, when some of the family members want to play internet games at the same time. A mere 10/10 connection doesn’t exactly cut it.
Actually, HD streaming and other bandwidth-consuming stuff emerged after HDs started to be pirated – when AACS got cracked around 2007 and blu-rays started to be ripped. Average consumer who pays for HD stuffs in market – streaming, blu-ray, hd dvd and shit – is very likely to be actively engaging in “piracy”. And they’ll only pay for these High-Def bullshit if they can’t find it on one of those filesharing networks.
For movie and record companies, the method of distributing junks they’ve created won’t matter. as long as they have copyright they can sell anything in any medium they want, at a fixed price – you know what i mean.
Conclusion? shut the internet down. no more filesharing. wait, we can’t abolish filesharing. so while nerds are busy pirating over 56k, make an average joe pay for the plastic discs we’ve manufactured at almost zero cost.
Admitting to illegally downloading files is not the point. A logically fallacious argument has been put forth by Jane stating the only reason large bandwidth internet accounts exist is to facilitate illegally download files. She has nothing to attest to this claim other than her say so, coincidentally the same burden of proof apparently required by the UK legal system.
@Jane…
For my work, I regularly edit and upload large video files.
All my offsite backups are incrementally uploaded stored offline.
While I work I stream spotify (a paid music service), and frequently purchase video and other media over the internet.
My kids love playing online video games which I also do. We have an ip telephone, and often stream movies from our internet providor.
Without a fast internet connection, none of this (all legal and paid for) would not be possible, and I would not be able to do my job.
Why is it that a fast internet connection is associated with piracy?
Using this logic, if you talk on the phone a lot are you a drug dealer or terrorist?
If you drive a lot are you a smuggler?
How could I prove my innocence if I am accused of downloading?
Frequently we need to reboot routers as dynamic ip address change in this neighbourhood often.
So you could have a log showing an IP that downloaded an album that has been assigned to me, but if I am innocent how can I prove I don’t have it?
It’s impossible to show evidence that I didn’t do this, which is why guilt has to be proven and not the other way round.
Hi Jane, being in a country like mine would immediately contradict your statement. Download speeds are hardly fast. The fastest in third-world countries like over here would be below average speeds over there in the West. Still piracy is rampant. I wonder why…and we have an “exclusive” source of pirated content as well, China, or at the very least, Chinese, like “Ha Jung Kao productions” or “Shun Chiak studios”. And those are mostly sold by Muslim merchants, here in a Christian country. Would you look at that, even those different cultures are pirates!
10 things I use my internet for that require high speed (other than pirating)…
1) iPlayer
2) Remote desktop work
3) Google Earth
4) Youtube
5) Video Conference Calling
6) Gaming
7) Online backups
8) Browsing (Most sites are now into several hudred Kb per page)
9) VPN to work / transferring files between work and home
10) Downloading updates / service packs etc – A typical clean install of Windows + Office requires over 400Mb of updates these days!
@Jane
It’s well known that BT hate the BBC iPlayer due to the amount of bandwidth it sucks up. Therefore, at peak usage you need a fast, low-latency link to make full use of the streaming functions.
Last time I looked, iPlayer was legal
First I think you guys should ask what she meant by downloading LoL
She is right you know. Every single one of you got broadband to download something and if it was not for better downalod speeds I would never get broadband.
By the way,56 k modems are not ok even to download webpages today, have you guys tried to download a webpage full of flash apps and images lately?
I doubt very much anyone would enjoy the experience.
Editing text online would not be possible, google maps and similar services would be painfully slow. I would hate to be stuck in the pre-historic ages like the U.S. is right now LoL
What’s the downstream/upstream ratio for your internets connection?
For me it’s 16. I’m not sure but for TCP it would probably be impossible to maintain full downstream usage if the ratio was over 50.
This cable ISP is a fracking joke, their obsolete hardware can’t even make DOCSIS 3.0, not to mention goodness like IPv6.
I’m watching F1 Brazilian GP Friday practice live streamed from the BBC website.
I’m glad I have my terrible evil fast internet connection.
Lets see:
ISP’s are responsible for illegal downloads, and are quired to carry the costs for preventing it.
People are responsible for securing their own connection against intrusion from the outside or they can be charged and fined.
Sorry, but where is the entertainment industry in all this? It is their content. If i leave the door to my house open a thief stealing is guilty, but not a single insurance will repay me because of neglect. Also, i cannot charge the company the thief hired the van from because it happened to transport stolen property.
Seriously, why does the entertainment industry assume everyone is responsible for making sure their content remains secure? And even worse, why does it think everyone else should pay for it – while they don’t invest a penny?
PS: Now i think about it… If I’m responsible for my connection, it would technically mean that any computer owner can be charged for damages if his or her computer is infected with a botnet that sends out spam or DDOS attacks? Utter madness.
[quote]“TalkTalk acknowledges that there is a problem with illegal filesharing and that solutions must be found. First and foremost the content industry must develop new business models to make content more easily available and more affordable,” he adds.
So, instead of trying to overcome the piracy problem by flawed legislation, the entertainment industries should focus on innovation and develop new business models that will convert pirates to paying customers.[/quote]
I wonder if “TalkTalk” has been reading TF??, LoL..I have seen *exact comments/replies to allot of the articles here…
Up until now if your car was spotted breaking the law you’d get a visit from the local cops or a letter summoning you to court (depending on the offence). This was your opportunity to prove innocent.
With this proposed legislation you are guilty immediately. How stupid! “Guilty until proven innocent” is 100% correct!!!
@ 12 – BigSwede
TPB isnt really down, just being blocked again, use this http://eircombay.com/
You cannot login to the site wwith it but you can browse/download if you want…
Xcel
Thanks a lot ! (also for the link) !
/ BigSwede
In Asia there is already services for 1Gb connections.
http://asahi-net.jp/en/service/hikarione/home.html
Optical networks are a beautiful thing :)
Hmmm…guess they download much more there LoL
ps: The 1Gb service also comes with options for VoIP($5) and TV over the fiber($25) no caps, no throtiling and all you can eat buffet for more or less $70 bucks.
@Xcel – eircombay doesn’t work for me.
http://www.guardtunnel.com works perfect.
“… and all you can eat buffet for more or less $70 bucks.”
How the hell do they get food down a fiber?
@38 Oct 16, 2009 at 16:42 by Rabbit80:
Here have some LoL
http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/MiscCakesPhotos/PirateCake.jpg
@38 Oct 16, 2009 at 16:42 by Rabbit80:
Please don’t forget to get your cake printer also.
http://www.deco.uk.com/
@2/3 I’m sure that fast connection is completely useless for anything but piracy. After all, nobody plays games, downloads movies legally (Have you heard of NetFlix? Have you heard the term “indie?” Have you heard the term “documentary?” How about “Creative Commons?”), downloads WoW patches, EVE patches, AoC patches, War patches, Cities XL patches, Linux distributions, Windows updates, or anything like that.
@40 Anon
Thats pretty spooky – my mother does that in her spare time!
@37, thanks for the link, im afraid TPB has gone completely black as I cant seem to get any proxy to work at all anymore,,,,,
Hopefully TF or somebody will inform us all whats up this time…
Grrrrrrrrr!
TPB right now seem totally blocked in Sweden …
/ BigSwede
I have to admit, since BBC IPlayer became available, ive downloaded way less “illegal” material.
I pay my TV licence, and bbc Iplayer is just more convienient, even if it only takes 5 minz to download the new…Doctor Who for example. I also stream BBC news quite often.
Its just a shame i cant stream American TV shows.
I pirate ALOT of stuff…but it just goes to show, if the entertainment industry changes they’re business model, id also be willing to change.
I dont want to break the law, but if i want to watch the new LOST on the day of release…ive got no choice.
People will always do what people do, there seem to be alot of parallels to the “war on drugs”. Stop persecuting the people for being human, and give them real options.
yup and heres the bbc “stealing” and cracking a old gits wifi.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8305379.stm
I guess you have never had to overtake another car travelling close to the limit then… =/
@23 Reasoned Piratecrusher
“Actually, HD streaming and other bandwidth-consuming stuff emerged after HDs started to be pirated – when AACS got cracked around 2007 and blu-rays started to be ripped. Average consumer who pays for HD stuffs in market – streaming, blu-ray, hd dvd and shit – is very likely to be actively engaging in “piracy”. And they’ll only pay for these High-Def bullshit if they can’t find it on one of those filesharing networks.”
I don’t have a Blu-Ray player, nor do I intend to go looking for one and installing it in my computer, yet I still want full HD movies, how else could I possibly watch a HD movie unless it’s available online?
“For movie and record companies, the method of distributing junks they’ve created won’t matter. as long as they have copyright they can sell anything in any medium they want, at a fixed price – you know what i mean.”
Yeah, they can go back to selling a CD for $24 each at Sanity (only place around that I can buy any form of metal music.) And you know what, they’ll still sell it, even if they no longer hold the copyright on the music. I wouldn’t even be willing to spend $10 on a 12 track CD. iTunes, which is the only online store I could purchase money from, sells tracks at $1.69 each, which equates to $20.28 for 12 songs. What kind of fucked up world are we in where music costs so much to buy? Plus we all know where most of the money goes to, Record Labels.
“Conclusion? shut the internet down. no more filesharing. wait, we can’t abolish filesharing. so while nerds are busy pirating over 56k, make an average joe pay for the plastic discs we’ve manufactured at almost zero cost.”
They’ll go back to the tried and tested method of giving it to their friends using physical distribution. For those who have such little quota for the month, ie all Australians, we will hardly be affected. I leave my computer running 24/7 when I’m on 8k and need to update the games I purchased on Steam, half of my games it is impossible to buy a physical copy of, such as Garrys Mod.
Having broadband speed throttled is no different than using an old 56k modem. At worst it adds a bit of inconvenience. Piracy was rampant long before the internet came along and I don’t think cutting people off completely from it will work either as there are always alternatives. In fact the only thing cutting me off MAY succeed at is forcing me to cancel all the other services I pay for thanks to the internet, as well as put an end to my online shopping. I can also guarantee cutting me off won’t cause me to magically pay for any of the crap the content industries spew. If anything, all the money I could save thanks their actions would probably go towards my debts lol.
Have Mr Mandelson and his peers payed back the money they have stolen from the taxpayers?
No, but apparently the law doesn’t apply to them, even if haven’t been elected.
I will not support nor listen to fraudsters in charge of this country
piratebay.org 100% down i have pinged 194.71.107.15 time time time just have to wait and see
WEP For the Win !!!!!
TalkTalk are shite ISP to be with. However they rise a very valid point that no other ISP have or are willing to do so kudos to them for that.
Does any pirate here really give a toss? Cos I know I don’t…. Music & movie industries are getting crushed and they know it…They only got themselves to blame now that they are getting left behind with the cavemen…. Personally I never used to buy music, films or games anyway so they not losing a dime off me and I bet the same is true for the majority of us…
I’m a Pirate and Proud of it…..
Tell us something we did not all know. None of the ISP could take the financial hit they would face if the government brought in such legislation. Join the UK Pirate Party. It would cost them billions if such legislation was passed and the ISP are at last seeing on which side their bread is buttered . Ours we pay the piper so we call the tune. And they are the first to want us to sign up for faster and faster broadband connections once again. We pay the piper so we call the tune
That’s completely ridiculous. It’d be like blaming someone running a TOR relay for what goes through it. It’s not their fault- sure, they could have avoided it, but it still isn’t their responsibility to make sure everyone else is a good boy or girl. I may be everyone’s neighbor, but I am not your mother.
jane@2
The next thing Jane will want is for a person with a red flag to walk in front of our cars. And for her partner to slow down.
no pirate bay is back this is so not right! *stomps away*
@58
TPB has almost always been up and running. It’s pretty much question of accessing it through censor free pathways. ;)
It’s just a shame it wasn’t one of the big ISP’s, rather than TalkTalk.
“Actually, the opposite. If you had to wait 10 hours for a movie to download you probably wouldn’t bother.”
Most of us wouldn’t even notice a 10 hour wait, I’m sure most large downloads are done either automatically or while the downloader is sleeping or out for the day.
I’ve been obtaining “things” via questionable means since the mid-80’s when we marvelled at the speed of our 2400baud modems and the fact that we could through circuitous means just about send emails around the world.
…trust me, I don’t mind waiting.
The Goverments just cutting off its own nose to spite its face cut us off then lose my tax money and vat money from the ISP in question we’ll bein recesscion for longer if you keep making stupid laws like this.
@Jane
Wow sweeping generalizations much?
My wife does online backups of her important files (works from a home office) that easily takes up 40G a month. And since she works in advertising just sending all her files (large tiffs usually) eats up just as much again.
That’s just 1 person in the house. Add in my porn and the kids porn (who are we kidding right?) and we are easily nearing 200G a month before I download a single movie/tv show/album…
You know. I see this moralfag shit on these things and think, hey that troll got banned from 4chan and is posting on torrentfreak.
For fucks sake. Free information.
Why pay for the corporations continue to lead your country with useless DATAZ?
All of you who say all you need is dial-up speeds….You are F***ING RETARDED! absolutely, without a doubt, RETARDED!! Did you ever think about youtube (legit, legal, homemade videos), or video games, or other streaming content such as netflix. Or while I’m at it explaining things that do not work with dial-up…..Online college classes, picture uploads and other content for people who have REAL jobs at REAL companies that work from home. If I had more time to show you how dumb and retarded you are, I would list more. But I cannot waste anymore time on you retards.
We all know piracy can never be stopped, but how about a credible legal alternative? I use a napster subcription to stream music and have only bought 1 cd in the last few years because I have access to all I need. I would welcome a similar subscription based system for movies, but realistically the movie studios are far too greedy to offer such a service at a reasonable price.
Just wanted to add that the industry’s lack of proper torrents and p2p material causes piracy (best deal for a customer’s buck atm) and is pretty much their fault.
They could havve EVERY tv ep, movie, and song /w ads in them, websites to show streaming p2p similar to Youtube where you can’t just right click and save (although smart ones would still save, rip, release).
Least they’d get their partial market on OUR bandwidth. I’d happily watch tv shows on the Internet or movies a day after release WITH ads providing it’s a good kwality movie.
If they are losing advertising money then it’s their fault in my eyes.
I mean, piracy? I pay 100/month for UNLIMITED Internet.
Sueing for non payment? I pay 1200 bucks/year. That’s GOTTA be 1200 songs @ 1 bucks each….
They want proof of payment, bring up the ISP bill and show the money invested in Internet Entertainment!
Since the ISP’s won’t share their cut they should add ads in their content so least they make money from that. I mean, Mininova does a better job then anything they ever put out…..and they’ve had YEARS to put SOMETHING, ANYTHING decent for the masses to consume.
Ignoring the millions of potential ad viewers is retarded on their part imho.
Blaming customers, SHAME on them.
Also I wonder how long before normal law obiding citizens from around the world start throwing rocks into the homes of these scum… I mean they ARE putting people into financial ruin. They start cutting Net access and they’ll get bored and want to do real life stuff… ;)
“Just as everyone knows that this is why the quality of all media is tanking – because nobody wants to invest time and money to make a product that will be distributed in a way that makes them no money.”
Don’t even try to talk for everyone, you stupid b17ch from MAFIAA. They quality is low because all that media companies want is easy money.
I suggest you go and tell them that the age of easy money is over. Either they’ll start providing us something that’s worth our money and stop make us angry by trying to take away our basic freedoms or they’ll go the way of dinosaurs.
The latter is much more likely and you’ll sink with them.
Actually disregard my previous comments because I suck dicks.
I’d like Jane to load this on her beloved dial-up http://www.goarmy.com/home/vw/index.jsp.
All they have to do is cut peoples upload speed to 1 kb/s if they find out they are sharing illegal files. They wouldnt be able to switch ISP until the six month cap or whatever is given is lifted.
ISP’s can easily do this if it was enforced to any customer.
With no upload speed,torrenting would become so frustrating.
No prison,no fines,just no illegal files to share for the culprit.
> No prison,no fines,just no illegal files to share for the culprit.
And the prize for missing the point goes to …
The problem is that if draconian measures such as this are brought in then the pirates will just hack other peoples WiFi and use that meaning that you may be the person with the nobbled broadband.
You may have the right of appeal but the onus would be on you to prove your are innocent.
As for moving to WPA2, this prevents you from using a lot of kit that doesn’t support WPA2 .. XBox 360, PSP, Nintendo DS, Laptops that are a few years old, alarm systems, surveillance systems, music streamers.
This is without even getting started on Zombie PC Networks (BotNets), if you get infected (and yes it can happen with Anti Virus installed) then you are responsible for whatever your PC is asked to do remotely. Again, guilty until you attempt to prove yourself innocent.
And the prize for omitting the point in his own post when trying to be sarcastic and failing goes to … ME ! DOH !
The point is that they do not know who is doing the downloading. Is it the account holder (presumed guilty) or someone else in the house, or someone next door hacking the WiFi, or a friend of their children who popped round after school ?
Perhaps its someone in Zagreb, Zurich or Zanzibar, or someone in Scunthorpe. Who is it ?
There is no effort made to find the criminal just a cheap shot at the BB owner.
There is already a process for this. Its called prosecution. If the music industry think they have enough evidence to prosecute then they can go ahead and take that person to court and prosecute. Unfortunately the “we have your IP address” evidence just doesn’t hold up in court.
The music & film industry has been heard to say that they don’t like taking people to court for downloading as its bad publicity yet they are perfectly prepared to let someone else do their dirty work and take the flak !
So, these comments are an entertaining read. The same arguments were repeated many many times against what appeared to be a couple trolls. Or idiots. Either way.
Its fairly obvious that anyway the entertainment corporations or governments try to target the end-user pirate will fail and hit more innocents than anything else.
There is no viable option to target the end-user, just as there is no real viable option to target the hosts unless you break the law.
Personally, I live off of a 768kb connection, which is slow by todays standards, and I still pirate whatever I choose to. Mainly because I have no way to obtain said games, movies, or songs where I live. The only option is to buy it off some online store and have the CD/DVD shipped to me, which would most likely be damaged or something.
@62
That just amused me to no end. I thank you.
@70. You CANT limit the upload speed, especially not to 1kbps, lmao. Guess what now I can’t play online games cause I’m taking waaaaay too long to upload data to the server/players. This wouldn’t just apply to computer games either, XBox or PS3 games online play would suffer hugely.. meaning the gaming industry would suffer. Try upload a photo to facebook lets say a nice quality one of around 1MB and wait like 20 minutes while it does it (btw you wouldn’t be able to browse at the same time..)Upload speeds right now need to be improved more than download speeds in most areas and this is not for illegal download reasons..
You wouldn’t be able to enforce a global upload limit either..
@70
There are so many problems with this.
1) You don’t need to upload anything to download things off Usenet/Direct Connect/HTTP sites/FTP servers/etc
Only torrents would be effected.
2) This can only be applied to residential users, as servers in datacenters upload a LOT more than they download.
If that’s the case, an easy way to get around your problem is to rent a seedbox for £5 a month, and let the server do all the torrenting. Once it’s downloaded to the seedbox, download it via http from your server and you’re done.
The real problem with trying to prosecute people who do naughty things on the internet is that:
a) An IP doesn’t relate to an individual or even an individual PC.
b) Why should I be responsible for the things that are sent to my IP address? I don’t own the internet, i don’t even own the cable in my house – the ISP owns it. I literally own nothing, but they want me to take all the responsibility? Get real.
They only said the obvious. The media industry needs a new model.
I went to the US these days and you can find several open wireless connections wherever you go. Even in the neighborhood I stayed, with people I know, I could find several unsecured spots. I mean, you can’t just go and disconnect a person because you saw the IP somewhere, there are several factors that make it impossible to prove whether it was that person downloading or not.
But as I said and the ISP above said, the problem could be solved by changing the way MAFIAA and merry friends act, by working together with the consumers they are currently attacking…
Well, they are idiots so they’ll only see their mistakes in the future, just like Nokia noticed years after they couldn’t use mass production models everywhere and got their butts kicked in the US ;D
“…First and foremost the content industry must develop new business models to make content more easily available and more affordable…”
Cutting ties with record sellers and DIY selling should be the first move.
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