Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> ISPs demand record biz pays up if cut-off P2P users sue
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| ISPs are calling on the record industry to put its money where its mouth is
>| on illegal file-sharing, by underwriting the cost of lawsuits brought by
>| people who are wrongly accused of downloading or uploading music.
>|
>| [...]
>|
>| It's the latest public detail from long-running private negotiations that
>| have hit mainstream media headlines today. The lobbying campaign to have
>| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>| government force ISPs to disconnect persistent illegal file-sharers scored a
>| victory with a leak to The Times. The draft government document says: "We
>| will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action
>| on illegal file-sharing."
> `----
>
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/12/anti_filesharing_paper_leak/
>
>
So, what about data protection? And since when were the ISPs the
police? We're looking increasingly like a police state, when even
relatively benign organisations become the enforcement arms of foreign
big businesses.
> Yesterday:
>
> Illegal downloaders 'face UK ban'
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| The Internet Service Providers Association said data protection laws would
>| prevent providers from looking at the content of information sent over their
>| networks.
> `----
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7240234.stm
>
>
Ah, okay, so the ISPs are not quite so keen, then. And rightly so, of
course. This move will require the ISPs to actively lose customers on the
*suspicion* that those customers are violating copyright of a third-party.
I think we need to find out who's been lobbying, and who they've been
lobbying, and see what can be done to point out the incredible flaws in
this particular plan.
Other issues to consider: what if teenage kid is downloading something
which /appears/ to be illegal, and then Demon or BT or whoever
disconnect Daddy's ADSL line which he uses as a home worker every day
for work?
As the ISPs will be required to act *before* any facts have been legally
established, it is inevitable that there will be mistakes, some of which
could be bad enough to kill small businesses or lose people their jobs.
Of course, if the "media" companies which are pushing for this
particular piece of big-brother were to charge reasonable amounts of
money for their produce, instead of the amazing price-fixing and market
rigging which they indulge in, then most of this would go away.
It's not so long ago that music companies had several attempts to ban
companies from legitimately importing CDs from Hong Kong to the UK in
order to exploit the enormous price differential which the record
companies maintain using their cartel and market rigging (which that
was, of course).
So, how is it that the companies which indulge in all kinds of market
rigging activities are also able to force ISPs to attack their own
customers on the /suspicion/ that they could be doing something wrong?
This *has* to stop.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
