“Six Strikes” Evidence Re-reviewed to Fix RIAA Lobbying Controversy

Ernesto
October 31, 2012
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The evidence review for the controversial “six strikes” anti-piracy warning scheme will be reexamined, it has now been confirmed. Last week the news broke that the“impartial and independent” technology expert that was initially hired had previously lobbied on behalf of the RIAA. With a second review by an independent company the Center for Copyright Information hopes to restore the public’s faith in the BitTorrent monitoring scheme.

evidence Starting next month the file-sharing habits of millions of BitTorrent users in the United States will be monitored as part of an agreement between the MPAA, RIAA, and five major ISPs.

The parties launched the Center for Copyright Information (CCI) last year which will be responsible for the implementation of the plan.

To guarantee the accuracy of the evidence behind the copyright infringement accusations the parties agreed to hire an impartial and independent technology expert. However, their commitment to this promise was questioned last week when the expert turned out to be Stroz Friedberg, a former RIAA lobbying group.

The CCI is clearly well aware of the sensitivities generated by this particularly unfortunate pick.

“Recent reports that a former employee of Stroz Friedberg lobbied several years ago on behalf of RIAA on matters unrelated to CCI have raised questions about the impartiality of Stroz Friedberg,” CCI’s Executive Director Jill Lesser now states.

The CCI is convinced that despite this history Stroz Friedberg is capable of delivering an independent review. However, to reassure the public that it was carried out properly, CCI will hire a new expert to go over the evidence review.

“We are sensitive to any appearance that Stroz lacks independence, and so CCI has decided to have another expert review Stroz’s initial evaluation of the content community’s processes. We will be selecting the additional expert promptly and will make that information available,” Lesser says.

Realizing that openness is in the best interest of all parties involved, CCI has also decided to make Stroz Friedberg’s initial review public.

“In addition, we believe that the report Stroz Friedberg has provided to us speaks for itself. Therefore, we will be releasing that report this week to enable interested parties to review it for themselves,” Lesser states.

The CCI is to be applauded for gradually improving its transparency. Thus far the group has been very reluctant to share information, fueling many conspiracy theories.

A lack of transparency is also at the origin of the current controversy as TorrentFreak learned that other than the RIAA, none of the CCI partners were aware of the link between Stroz Friedberg and the RIAA. It’s not unthinkable that CCI would have picked another company to start with if the RIAA had disclosed this relationship.

However, with their decision to hire a new expert along with a promise to make the original review public, CCI will hope to quieten most critics.

It will be interesting to see how Stroz Friedberg evaluated MarkMonitor’s BitTorrent snooping system. CCI previously concluded that MarkMonitor deserved a green light, but the review is still bound to provide a unique insight into the accuracy of the company’s IP-harvesting techniques.

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aleaway

Answer: end-to-end encryption.
- thedude321
  
  This might sound crazy, but they might even start banning high levels of encryption.
  - aleaway
    
    I believe you dude.
    Sadly, I believe you.
  - Anyone
    
    they tried that in the 90s
  - joexxx
    
    What’s a “high level” on encryption vs a “low level” vs a “mid level”?
    - AMAZING how stupid they are
      
      why the fuck they haven’t done such review before creating CCI with american’s money??? dafuq???
      
      This is a chicken without head running everywhere and grabbing everyone’s money in this.
      
      This is just freaking nuts, why americans don’t make a huge riot out of this???
    - thedude321
      
      High Level: 512-bit encryption key
      Mid – 256
      Low – 128
    - Danny
      
      What level does my 1-bit encryption key fall under?
    - Andrew Lee
      
      @Danny Government encryption. ;)
    - Scary_Devil_Monastery
      
      @thedude321
      
      “High Level: 512-bit encryption key
      Mid – 256
      Low – 128″
      
      Actually, no. That depends heavily on the algorhitm. For RSA a 4096-bit key isn’t unheard of. For AES 128-bit is good enough to still be considered completely unbreakable by any currently existing conglomeration of computing power. This is because the RSA protocol/algorithm allows a potential cracker to divide the task and “guesstimate” parts of the key, with a great deal of work.
      
      The NSA has given clearance to 256-bit AES as being good enough to encrypt official government documents rated “top secret” – meaning that they believe there’s no way in hell 256-bit AES will be crackable within the next 50 years.
      
      People keep talking about enormous bit lengths without even beginning to appreciate just how complex even a 128-bit encryption protocol is.
  - Hogspace
    
    Unless The Man has the key, yeah.
    Similarly VPN’s may be obliged to log user activity.
    - Anyone
      
      then use VPNs outside such jurisdictions
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Ender-Wiggin/100000885624281 Ender Wiggin
    
    they’ve tried before, luckily it’s hard to ban math.
  - Revan343
    
    Should’ve kept it classified as a munition.
    - http://profiles.google.com/zerianis10 Christopher Kidwell
      
      Now that comic is hilarious. Quite true as well, they COULD have used the Second Amendment to justify encryption in that case. Right now however the First and Fourth Amendments are more than enough to justify regular people having access to encryption.
  - Scary_Devil_Monastery
    
    It does sound crazy. For a start, say goodbye to 99% of online banking and sales. Care to guess where that would take the economy of any nation?
    
    Secondly, encryption is, in essence, math. Banning math is a really hard thing to do. Enforcing it is even harder.
    
    Third…how do you tell if someone is using “high levels” of encryption? You have to start off by cracking the keys on whatever communication he is currently running. Yes, I can see that right there – mass surveillance conducted specifically on the bank transactions and card codes on every law-abiding citizen as an unavoidable collateral damage…
    
    No, seriously, in order to enforce such a ban you aren’t talking about police being able to monitor everyone at will – but that they MUST do so, all the time. At prohibitive costs. I daresay we will see some reaction to that.
  - xmichaelx
    
    All good encryption is based on open-source. There’s no “banning” it — it’s out there.
- Mat_t
  
  even CCI is being taken as a fool – focusing on “Experts” without even asking regular individuals.
- SOTF
  
  An answer to what, exactly? Encryption will do nothing at all to stop these companies from identifying you.
  
  Really, is the intellect of the average TorrentFreak reader here really that low now that people don’t even understand the basics?
  - Anyone
    
    of course it will
    if your traffic is encrypted they have no way of knowing what you are doing
    - Ophelia Millais
      
      Um, SOTF is right. As far as we know, they aren’t doing man-in-the-middle attacks, eavesdropping on your communication with peers, or traffic shaping; that would (ostensibly) require access to the ISPs’ lines between you and your peers. The monitoring, if done in the way that these things are normally done (I really doubt they’re going to reveal how it works), will instead involve the CCI’s operatives posing as normal peers. So if you’re running file-sharing software which answers anyone’s request to see what all you’re sharing and to download whatever they want, it doesn’t matter that the link between you and them is encrypted. They’ll flag you just for making-available (remember this is not subject to review by a court of law). And if you’re using BitTorrent, they just join the swarms and gather IP addresses of whoever is in the swarm, or maybe whoever actually sends them pieces. The fact that you’ve encrypted the communication between you and the tracker & peers doesn’t do anything to stop them from simply being one of the peers.
    - Glib
      
      At Ophelia: Remind me how you “man-in-the-middle” attack a VPN link. Every single packet leaving your computer is encrypted, meaning they need the key to decrypt anything (you know, the one stored on your computer). They can easily know that Joe is connecting to XXXVPN, and that XXXVPN is connecting to a swarm, but you could be one of ANY client on that VPN; if your VPN isn’t coughing up detailed link information, it ends there. Being a peer, it would appear that XXXVPN is connecting to them.
      
      Another option would be, as you say, to pose as the peer then watching the VPN link and guessing if the encrypted packet is the same as the ones coming from your PC. If you’re seeding only one torrent, CCI is the only peer, and your computer is doing absolutely nothing else, then it might be viable. However, this is an insanely unlikely scenario, one that would have been used many times before if it was even theoretically possible, ignoring the fact that it’s unbelievable technically unreasonable.
    - SOTF
      
      At Glib: No one here’s talking about a VPN, so why are you introducing it? This is about end-to-end encryption being the ‘answer’ to the problem of being monitored, which is bullshit, because it isn’t. Proxying is. Encrypted link, or otherwise, it doesn’t matter here, because the companies who are doing this are not doing MITM, they’re sat at the other end of the line.
      
      Get it?
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IXEXH64S34XF2A2OHGO5C2IWII Timothy
      
      That’s called changing the argument when you’ve lost. There are no limitations on what he can introduce to this discussion. Previous posters already mentioned VPNs. BitTorrent, Encryption, VPN, Proxies, they all go hand in hand.
    - Rekrul
      
      of course it will
      if your traffic is encrypted they have no way of knowing what you are doing
      
      Load up your torrent program, start a download and then click on the PEERS tab. Congratulations, you’ve just monitored BitTorrent.
      
      For BitTorrent to work, it HAS to send your IP address to all the other people in the swarm. Your IP address is your computer’s “phone number”. Can you call me without knowing my phone number? Can someone call you without knowing your number? Of course not. Computers can’t send data to you, or download data from you without knowing your computer’s IP address. If the CCI joins a swarm for something you’re downloading, your IP address shows up on their end. Encryption won’t change that.
      
      The only way to keep them from seeing your IP address is to make sure that they see some other IP address instead. Such as using a proxy or VPN.
  - Scary_Devil_Monastery
    
    Yes, people keep forgetting that what is really needed is “anonymization”. Encryption by itself will only hide what you transmitted if the people listening aren’t capable of following the transmission from on end point, before encryption is applied.
    
    Which is why you need to obfuscate said link so that tracing the transmission becomes more difficult. And that means a proxy/VPN setup.
  - Rekrul
    
    Really, is the intellect of the average TorrentFreak reader here really that low now that people don’t even understand the basics?
    
    Unfortunately, yes, it really is that low…
Guest

I doubt anything will be done, just another whitewash nothing to see here result :(
http://torrentfreak.com/ Rob8urcakes

The United Corporate States of Fascist America strikes out at its populace yet again.

Bye-bye freedom.
Bye-bye democracy.
Bye-bye to your Human, Legal & Constitutional Rights too.

May the USA RIP. We’ll miss you. :( It’s been fun knowing you.
Bye-bye.
- Kevin Grech
  
  When someone is abducted for arrest they already don’t have rights anymore so the 3rd one is already being done.
- Furious Canadian
  
  USA was a great country when I was young, now I just see them as my enemies has a canadian. it’s obvious that they are throwing everything that the REAL first president of USA (george Washington) said in the past time.
  
  This is so sad, they can’t even remember their own history because it’s censored by stupid company that just eat more and more money from every citizens there. They’re all hungry for money power, and more power and more money.
  
  This is so sad. Even the VPN won’t be enough because I can bet all my gold that in few years, USA will raid every VPN providers in a campaign agaisnt VPN providers, they will probably say that VPN providers are terrorists just like how it threaten Julian Assange.
  
  The real terrorist, the real criminal is the USA.
  - CaptCosmo
    
    Love Thy Country, Hate Thy Government…….
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IXEXH64S34XF2A2OHGO5C2IWII Timothy
    
    Also, please don’t forget that Canada is far from perfect. Canadian citizens help the RIAA and MPAA, by giving them their money too. If you don’t think your politicians can’t be bought and this can’t happen in your country, you’re probably mistaken.
  - JerilynNighy
    
    I’m not your enemy. I’m seeding files to you right now. Get a grip. Your current PM is a conservative scumbag whose party is responsible for re-introducing Bill C-61, supported by The MPAA and RIAA.
- Anon
  
  Encryption and VPN’s will be licensed and users, mostly corporations, will be required to prove need and then be accountable to their application of the technology. That’s been in the works for awhile. Hiding online while you break the law isn’t going to last for much longer because organized society doesn’t accept that IRL either.
  
  As for the United States, Rob, accountability is a foundation to any decent civilization, online accountability or offline accountability, and we’re not going anywhere.
  
  Is accountability fascism to you? lol But thanks for saying bye. Are you going somewhere?
  - Fredrika
    
    > “Encryption and VPN’s will be licensed..”
    
    First of all, encryption licensed? You are aware of the fact that encryption can be hidden in open information fully undetectable, as in plausible deniability?
    
    Had you had any technical knowledge you would have known this. 14 year old’s do. But someone who’s main argument is just because i guess is closer to five years old.
    
    Secondly, license VPN’s? Please remind me, when exactly was the last time that every single country in the world agreed on any legislative measure regarding anything?
    
    Ooh, it never happened before?
    
    But now it will happen, to protect the profit of some weak failed US entrepreneurs that can’t handle themselves on the free market, despite the fact that IP is damaging to the economy? All the countries in the world will damage their own economy to protect some weak failed entrepreneurs in the US(which isn’t the strongest economy in the world btw)?
    
    Ok then. But then there’s the problem that there already exists next generation filesharing technology which doesn’t require VPN’s, technology that the entire earth’s population can use to fileshare illegally, in a manner that no legislative or technical countermeasure can stop.
    
    So your misinformed and ignorant prophecy is already irrelevant. Had you lived in reality you would have known this.
    
    > “..and users, mostly corporations, will be required to prove need and then be accountable to their application of the technology. That’s been in the works for awhile.”
    
    Yeah, and remind me, how did that work out? Last time i checked the worlds strongest economy, the EU, said bye bye to Acta, just because of the parts of accountability, that were supposed to obstruct encryption and VPN’s.
    
    Maybe you missed that as well?
    
    > “Hiding online while you break the law isn’t going to last for much longer..”
    
    In reality, again where you don’t seem to live, there already exist next generation filesharing protocols that will guarantee that people can do just that. A fact that you seem to be to afraid to comment on.
    
    > “..because organized society doesn’t accept that IRL either.”
    
    Organized society? Is that another world for a small minority of some fascist idiots that don’t accept reality? Because in reality, again, where you don’t seem to live, non-profit copyright infringements isn’t anything that society or the people living in it has any problems with.
    
    And in the worlds strongest economy, which dictates the rules to weaker economies, such as the US, the only growing parliamentary assembly group is already pushing for legalisation of filesharing, so on the contrary to what you claim, acceptance for non-profit copyright infringements is actually growing everyday to a point where it’s almost fully accepted, to the degree where it’s about to be legalised once and for all.
    
    > “As for the United States, Rob, accountability is a foundation to any decent civilization, online accountability or offline accountability, and we’re not going anywhere.
    
    Last time i checked accountability is definitely not a concept used in the US, and in addition to that the US is owned by China and the US economy is collapsing at a rapid speed. Going anywhere? Oh indeed you are, downhill that is.
    
    > “Is accountability fascism to you?”
    
    No, but dismanling of human rights, such as the right to anonymity, privacy and due process, to protect the profits of some weak failed entrepreneurs is fascism.
    
    So your rant about accountability is just another dishonest straw-man, again trying to ignore what the discussion actually is about. You know the discussion that you’re to afraid to participate in?
    - bunnies
      
      The EU is not the worlds “strongest” economy by any measure. BY ANY MEASURE.
      
      They have never dictated policy to the US, and they likely never will. EU unemplyment hit a record today, and the debt crisis will sink it in the next 18 months.
    - Fredrika
      
      > “The EU is not the worlds “strongest” economy by any measure. BY ANY MEASURE.”
      
      They are, both according to comparison by GDP or GDP(PPP) and have been so for many many years.
      
      Did you not know about this well known fact? Ask the CIA, the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund if you don’t believe me.
      
      > “They have never dictated policy to the US, and they likely never will.”
      
      First of all just because you are the worlds strongest economy that doesn’t mean that you have to be so arrogant that you actually do dictate the rules to others, as the US often arrogantly try to do.
      
      Secondly, it’s fully possible to dictate the rules in a less obvious way than the arrogant manner that the US often resorts to. In reality the US have no say any more, they are directly or indirectly ruled by EU and China, a fact that the US work hard trying to hide from their citizens.
      
      > “EU unemplyment hit a record today, and the debt crisis will sink it in the next 18 months.”
      
      Your attempt at a prophecy is completely irrelevant, and it has no relevance whatsoever to any of the claims in my previous comment.
      
      However, what do you think the EU will do if their economy starts to suffer? Protect the profits of US monopoly holders? Logically that would be the first thing that goes out the door, and in fact that is exactly what is happening.
      
      The US and it’s copyright and patent pawns can keep up their self-denying disillusion if it makes them happy, but their imaginary property will be gone within a decade or two. No sane nation would ever protect something so illegitimate and harmful as IP monopolies these days, when everything indicates that it is directly harmful to the economy to do so.
  - Guest
    
    Are you seriously arguing for accountability when your heroes, the RIAA, have been anything but accountable since they began their sue-them-all campaign?
    
    - Unverified IP-harvesting technology
    - Unverified statistics-gathering technology
    - Doesn’t actually pay the artists who were stolen from with their settlement money
    - Doesn’t reveal statistics about how much money has been received from people scared enough to pay up
    - Edgar Bronfman Jr. of Warner Music admitted that he believed that his kids had downloaded music, and insisted that he “was sure they knew it was wrong” but has never been confirmed to punish them on an appropriate scale like other kids that have been demanded to pay up
    - The RIAA used to boast, monthly, how many settlement letters they sent out until they realised it was bad PR and they stopped revealing this juicy statistic
    - Until they were caught red-handed, the RIAA was going to use the SAME monitoring company for six strikes, with their impressive history of collateral damage
    
    Yeah, the RIAA sure looks accountable all right. Have you asked them for your daily dose of industry white chocolate, Anon?
    - sandyaj
      
      I’d still like to ask, who is gonna pay for this implementation…
      The Cable Companies/The Maafia/or as im sure it may turn out…The customer in a form of added fees or increased service cost. We didn’t sign up to be treated as criminals on probation. Who in thier right minds would pay into something like that?
  - Ophelia Millais
    
    Accountability is a two-way street. What relief and remedy will you contractually and legally guarantee to the innocents who get caught in your dragnets? Turning their Internet back on or refunding their challenge fee is cold comfort; the damage is done, you’ve still got them in your files, and you have no incentive not to repeat your mistakes.
    
    As it stands, you can be completely wrong in your allegations of infringement, but you have shielded yourself behind multiple layers of contracts so that no one can be held accountable for any mistakes, and it is extremely cost-effective for you even if you do make mistakes. Commissioning multiple seals of approval on MarkMonitor and whatever other secret surveillance methods you employ is just a PR stunt; if you were serious, you’d get the public’s seal of approval, and you would pursue your claims of illegal activity through the American judicial system, where you would have numerous obligations to right your wrongs and spare innocents from undue burden.
    
    Why doesn’t the CCI publicly release the details of its agreements with ISPs? Why does the leaked agreement with AT&T contain numerous provisions requiring the utmost secrecy? Why are the methods of evidence gathering secret?
    
    You see, you are moving in the shadows, whispering behind locked doors, saying “well, it’s OK because you’re the ones who should have nothing to hide.” Well, two wrongs don’t make a right. And the harm done to copyright owners by unfettered file-sharing is trumped by the harm done to a civil society when it is gradually transformed into a surveillance state. You are on the wrong side of history, here.
  - Guest
    
    Hahahah, another bullshit prophesy from Anon the MAFIAA asskisser.
    
    Yes, encryption and VPNs will be licensed soon! Just like how SOPA and PIPA will destroy piracy soon. Just like how HADOPI will destroy piracy soon as well. Just like how The Pirate Bay will be taken down soon.
    
    Just like how you’ve been claiming every year, for years, that the end of piracy is just around the corner. Soon.
    
    Well, here’s a prediction for you: NOPE.
  - Scary_Devil_Monastery
    
    One more slew of blatant and rather transparent lies from you, my dear “Anon”.
    
    China already tried this. It doesn’t work.
    
    Let me clarify. The only way of banning encryption and enforcing it is to make every normal citizen unable to perform ANY confidential transaction online. At a very minimum, it means that every online shop and bank gets to close. You will no longer be able to file tax returns online. iTunes will be no more.
    You have, for all intents and purposes, completely abolished the online commercial sector.
    
    And your statement regarding “accountability” is sheer moron on many levels – because what you are saying is that two people communicating with one another must be accountable for what they converse about to the government.
    
    I can imagine the supreme court having a ball with that one as it is hard to think of a more obvious and total annihilation of the first amendment.
    
    Seriously, do you even realize what sort of paradigm you painted in a few short sentences? I hope you are getting paid to word such nonsense…
  - Galapagos
    
    Accountability !!!!
    There is no such thing when you can buy a law…
    
    I’m flabbergasted to see that ‘lobbying’ as become so mundane that nobody see it as THE big faking bug !
  - ScrewEwe2
    
    What kind of ditch weed are you smokin’ Anon? NORML-E I’d say “where can I get some of what you’re smokin’?”, but I’m sure what I’m tokin’ is better than what you’re smokin’.
Janelle

Time for a vpn if you don’t already have one!
- CraftyZan101_1
  
  And if you can’t get one, for whatever reason, put a sock on it.
  - Danny
    
    I assume you mean socks?
    - CraftyZan101_1
      
      A Sock5. I get mine from BTGuard.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOCKS
    - Danny
      
      @CraftyZan101_1
      
      Saying yes would have been less words.
      (It is SOCKS5 not Sock5, hence why I asked if you meant socks)
JordanKratz

Already on a VPN for now.Until the next great Tech is ready and then that is where we all will be.
MAFIAA you are never getting even a Dime out of me.I won’t do Netflix, iTunes, AMZ, ETC as I really mean it when I say you are not getting a dime out of me.
And since the so nice A-HOLE SCOTUS is deciding a Court Case that can affect your ability to Re-Sell your Used Stuff I am watching that Case and if it is decided in favor of Corporations over us then I also will extend my Boycott to all Music, Books, and Film……………..I will never buy any since I won’t own it.
FUCK YOU ISP’s who Caved into this 6 Strikes Bullshit.Consider my VPN Bill the money I would of spent on Entertainment Somewhere.
I am never going back to you MAFIAA A-Holes.
- joexxx
  
  Using correct grammar will add a lot more credibility to your posts.
  Right now they read like a problem child’s ramblings.
  - Who
    
    no one uses correct grammar any more. so y eve complain about it?
    - Magnum
      
      But it is true, and rather than be looked upon as a complaint, could as much be seen as honest advice offered for the benefit of the recipient.
  - Guest
    
    Ironically, by implying that proper grammar equals credibility, joexxx has just discredited himself.
  - Jame Eral Joho
    
    This is the internet, not a college term paper. On the internet, we overlook minor typos, misspellings, awkward sentence structure. It just might be better for everyone if you just leave the internet and just go read some books.
  - ScrewEwe2
    
    STFU grammar Nazi.
  - JerilynNighy
    
    Prescriptive grammar in English is merely arbitrary and voluntary (and often based upon political oppression and class discrimination). There is no governing body of so-called “correct” grammar. Grammar in linguistics is simply described as word order. In English, it is SVO.
  - JerilynNighy
    
    Prescriptive grammar in English is merely arbitrary and voluntary (and often based upon political oppression and class discrimination). There is no governing body of so-called “correct” grammar. Grammar in linguistics is simply described as word order. In English, it is SVO.
  - Qwerty
    
    Your username should have a capital J, yoo pedantick dikhed. lol
  - Charliehorse
    
    And you’d have more credibility as a Grammar Nazi if your username didn’t make you come across as an Emo Kid.
Who

“BitTorrent monitoring scheme” key word here is “scheme” isn’t this illegal to. just like bait and switches and so on and so forth. LOL
DO NOT LET THIS SCARE YOU!! STAND UP FOR YOUR SELF!!
- Mike
  
  In the United States, without a warrant, this IS illegal. Highly illegal. However, they can hide behind the PATRIOT Act or some $hit like that.
Mike

These laws should just be done away with all together. The United States government has absolutely NO responsibility to protect a private company, much less their products. It’s not the fault of downloaders that the copyright holders can’t protect their products.
Anonymous

Stroz Friedberg should be dismissed completely. using another company to check their results just makes the whole process even more expensive and makes me more suspicious as to why Stroz Friedberg are still employed. you can bet the RIAA and MPAA are insisting on this company remaining because it is going to be to their benefit. MarkMonitor’s BitTorrent snooping system has already been proven to be flawed, that’s why that is being used. anyone that thinks the entertainment industries are going into this without having the dice loaded in their favour is a bloody idiot!
That_Anonymous_Coward

“Recent reports that a former employee of Stroz Friedberg lobbied several years ago on behalf of RIAA on matters unrelated to CCI ”

How is lobbying to change copyright law unrelated to the mission of CCI?
Violated0

It is nice they are now more open and transparent but let us recall they are now only doing this due to being forced into a corner when their independent review was not at all independent.

The real telling sign here is that the CCI did not fire Stroz Friedberg when all they are doing is to have another expert review his initial findings. So once that is done this former RIAA lobbyist will continue on as the independent expert. We can of course hope he is independent but the key test there is if he strongly and fairly criticises the tracking system would not the RIAA and others insist he is replaced?

The best news here is that they are making public his “green light” findings which means other truly independent experts can examine the facts and to judge if he did do a good job or not. That would then make good evidence if Stroz Friedberg is flawed.
- Anyone
  
  since his report will become public now I’m sure this scheme will be exposed
  - Ophelia Millais
    
    Mark my words, the report will be fluff; it will not disclose any details of the system. They do not want to risk people poking legal holes in it or figuring out ways to circumvent the surveillance.
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Escapee

If they’re really that interested in finding someone who’s truly capable and honest enough to review the system in an open and transparent manner, then they should probably just ask the EFF. Hell, they will even do it for free…
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foff

I am not rushing out to get a vpn just yet. I will when and if I feel it is necessary. I am thinking the seedbox route might be the way to go but that adds another step in the dl process.

I hope there will be a major class action lawsuit against this six strikes scheme. I don’t expect isp’s to quietly eat the costs of this program, I am sure they will pass the costs on to their customers. Why the hell should the average consumer have to pay to help the mpaa and RIAA supposedly protect their clients. Fuck that! As it is the average joe in the US pays more for slower crappier internet then most developed nations and now we will have to pay more for no benefit to the average person. Fuck that!

Putting aside the legal and constitutional issues here some enterprising lawyer or lawyers ought to sue hell out of the isp’s the mpaa and the Riaa for making any client with a connection to the internet pay for this. If I see some sort of surcharge on my bill for this scheme I will be really pissed and happy as hell to join a lawsuit.
- Mike
  
  Sounds good, but people are dumb and will blindly just keep paying. Besides, who is going to bring a lawsuit against the MPAA or RIAA? The MPAA buys influence in Congress through Chris Dodd – who is a former Congressman and a piece of crap.
  
  But the way it will go is you will either pay, or you will not get the services. Simple. The courts don’t care.
- Mike
  
  Chris Dodd and his pal Barney Frank should be in prison.
- Anyone
  
  use a seedbox with transmission, get transmission GUI and use it just like a regular torrent client
  
  the only extra step is getting the file from your box to your PC
  if you have a good connection you could also just mount the seedbox and have it like a network drive on your PC
  
  it might take some extra steps to set up, but once it runs it will be just as comfortable as before, just faster and more secure
- Ophelia Millais
  
  Sadly, you can’t file a class action lawsuit anymore, because your contract with any large service provider, employer, lender, etc. has most likely recently been updated to force you to use arbitration (a private kangaroo court) and these contracts increasingly are banning class actions (and class arbitration) entirely. It’s all legal thanks to a couple of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the last decade; contract law trumps constitutional rights, so long as you weren’t deceived, had time to review the contract, and the contract’s terms are very carefully worded.
  
  On that note, eBay users have 9 days left to opt out of that company’s arbitration clause, and PayPal users have 39 days left; both require mailing signed documents. Since most people won’t opt out, any class action won’t have much leverage, but you may want to do it on principle. Also, both of the opt-outs have clauses requiring you to file any legal disputes in courts in the companies’ home districts, where they employ a lot of people and tend to get decisions in their favor. So like I said, opting out is pissing in the wind.
  
  Links:
  PayPal arbitration opt-out info & forms
  eBay arbitration opt-out info & forms
  - http://profiles.google.com/zerianis10 Christopher Kidwell
    
    Ophelia, I will say it again: Those binding arbitration agreements are NON-binding because they violate state and federal law. They are just put in there so the stupid think that they have to adhere to the arbitration procedures when they don’t.
- sandyaj
  
  I totally agree with you. Its never been stated who is paying for this new level of “Spy on Everyone’s Connection”,
  
  If the ISPs are covering the costs, then shame on them for letting the MAAFIA force them to spend thier own funds on the agenda of those twits.
  
  If the MAAFIA are covering the costs…which im pretty sure those tightwads never will do..I hope this venture bankrupts them for good for the sheer magnitude of how much monitoring they are going to need to pull off on something of this scale.
  
  If the ISPs are shoving the costs to the customers, the customers SHOULD rage against them, and Sue the living hell out of them. It was not a cost included in their initial Terms of service, and should not be grandfathered into existing accounts. Especially if the funnel the costs to those not infringing at all.
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Brandon

These people are morons… So they warn you six times…. So Fucking What……Just a scare tactic……
- Guest
  
  If you’d read the agreement, you’d know that the ISPs may give your information to the MAFIAA after 5 or 6 strikes. So we could start seeing a return to suing people for more money than their lifetime earnings.
IPurchased iT

Dont they get it…once i buy it it belongs to me not them anymore….duh
- Ophelia Millais
  
  That won’t work in court. It should, but doesn’t.
DunFooo

lol, I think its gonna take a LOT more than that to fix anything lol

http://www.io-anon.tk
Dreamer

so what are our options which vpn dont keep records?!!
Arielle Smith

While the choice of a former lobbyist is regrettable, I don’t think it invalidates the concept of the “six strikes” rule. We can’t lose sight of the overall objective which is to curb copyright infringement and piracy that has run rampant in the last decade. The CCI is increasing its level of transparency, making a good faith effort to rectify the damage done by selecting a less-than-impartial individual. By recognizing their mistakes and hiring a new expert, we should glean that not only do they regret the error but also that they have faith that their proposal will pass any inspection by any expert. Mistakes happen and as the article mentioned, is probable that the CCI was not even aware of the bias in the individual they chose. Lets remember that their overall intention is good and they are doing the best they can to resolve the situation while staying true to their objectives.
- Guest
  
  They’re not just hiring a new expert; they’re also keeping the same one that is clearly aligned with their interests. Not only that, they’ve only done so when they’ve been caught red-handed – and who’s to say they won’t eventually claim, “Oh it’s too hard, we’ll stick with what we have?”
  
  That’s completely counter-productive to “increasing its level of transparency”, and should worry anyone with any degree of intelligence. They’re not regretting the error; they’re regretting they were caught. The RIAA had years to prove their “overall intention is good”, and ended up leaving a path of destruction in their wake. If the law decides to treat us like criminals before anything is decided, exactly why should we trust in it?
GoAwayObama

My main problem with this whole scam is the fact that you are assumed guilty by the mere fact that your IP address shows up in some torrent swarm. Which, by the way, federal judges have repeatedly said is not pure evidence of guilt under the law. So, they couldnt prove guilt in a court of law, so they scheme with the ISP’s to come up with this new system which operates outside of the courts, so we all have ZERO rights now. And to even fight a charge you must pay a $35 fee. so it’s guilty until proven innocent – of which there is no way to prove your innocence. They do not have to show you what evidence they have against you. And it costs money to even do that. That’s why the ISP’s finally got on board. Its just another fee they can charge us.
Nickster

“Quieten”? Is that even a word?
Range Extender FTW

Crack your neighbor’s wifi and torrent away. :)
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“Six Strikes” Evidence Re-reviewed to Fix RIAA Lobbying Controversy

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