back to article It begins: Six-strikes copyright smackdown starts in US

Five of the biggest US internet service providers will begin rolling out a Copyright Alert System (CAS) this week as part of a new six-strikes policy of restricting internet access designed to "educate rather than punish." Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, Cablevision, and Time Warner have all signed up to the plan from the Center for …

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  1. Charles Manning

    Where does the carrot go?

    I see a lot of stick in this, but not much carrot.

    1. ShadowedOne
      Mushroom

      Re: Where does the carrot go?

      Where does the carrot go?

      I won't answer that directly, but I will say that it's required that you bend forward...

  2. Bill Neal
    Devil

    That must be it

    Surely these people are downloading illegally out of simple ignorance. Who could possibly deal with piracy on their conscience? Right

    1. TheVogon

      Re: That must be it

      Yes it's only illegal to download if you also upload. If they switch to FTP sites, Usenet and File Lockers then they can pirate completely legally....

      I expect VPN subscriptions to also rise dramatically....

      1. S4qFBxkFFg
        Joke

        @TheVogon

        "Copyright Alert System" - Sponsored by Kim Dotcom

  3. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Joke

    33 seconds in shows what strike six looks like.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJUV-ZXQO3o

  4. banjomike
    WTF?

    copyright alert is then automatically pinged ...

    ... how do you ping ANYTHING other than with an ICMP packet? Presumably the ISPs will identify the alleged user and email them thus saving them time when the movie police ask for that info.

    1. Ru
      Meh

      Re: copyright alert is then automatically pinged ...

      The term 'ping' predates ICMP. Sonar springs to mind. One could almost believe that the network utility was named in as some sort of allegory.

      Perhaps it might also refer to the attracting of someone's attention, as if by a bell. Tricky things, allegories.

    2. OrsonX
      Thumb Down

      it's worse than that (he's dead Jim)

      "can u ping it to me?"

      Is (in our office) the new (ammoying as hell) busnessies way of saying

      "can you email it to me?"

    3. Steven Roper
      Thumb Up

      And don't forget

      you have to have The Machine That Goes 'PING!'

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Devil

      Re: copyright alert is then automatically pinged ...

      Look up this file:

      Windows 7:

      EntriqMediaTray.exe

      The process known as Media Server Tray Application belongs to software Entriq MediaSphere or MediaSphere by Entriq (irdeto.com).

      Description: The file EntriqMediaTray.exe is located in a subfolder of "C:\Program Files". Known file sizes on Windows 7/XP are 360,448 bytes (33% of all occurrences), 368,640 bytes or 372,736 bytes. http://www.file.net/process/entriqmediatray.exe.html

      The file is not a Windows system file. The program is not visible. The program is loaded during the Windows boot process (see Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run). EntriqMediaTray.exe is able to monitor applications. Therefore the technical security rating is 35% dangerous.

      In case you experience problems using EntriqMediaTray.exe, you can remove the entire program using Windows Control Panel.

      Which feeds data off your windows system to here:

      http://irdeto.com/

      And they do this shit:

      http://irdeto.com/anti-piracy-services/tracking-and-enforcement.html

      Blah blah blah blah................. sun shines out our arses etc. Blah blah blah blah.................

      Irdeto Intelligence is the industry-leading solution to identify and track unauthorized digital content across all major Internet protocols including user-generated content (UGC) hosting sites, cyberlockers, peer to peer networks, IRC, Usenet groups and public FTP sites. On average Irdeto Intelligence processes 950 million detections that create over 35 million actionable events each month for its clients.

      Irdeto Intelligence tracking services include:

      P2P chart

      Sample P2P report

      Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Monitoring - the industry’s leading P2P platform for monitoring, reporting and enforcing copyright

      Scans leading P2P networks, including: Bit Torrent, eDonkey/eMule, Ares and Gnutella to identify individuals who upload client content

      Collects identifying information on the first uploaders, tracks propagation and can provide data for evidence packages in the event of possible litigation

      Includes tracking by asset, file source, language, user origin and breakouts by unique users and downloads.

      Compliant with MPAA file verification standards

      Blah blah blah blah.................

      Infringement Notices - Irdeto sends more than eight million Takedown Notices monthly on behalf of clients and monitors for compliance, providing reports to copyright holders on who has and who has not complied.

      Microsoft's entire history is of spying on all people, through a whole range of methods.

      Microsoft - the Peeping Tom Software Co.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Intractable Potsherd

        Re: copyright alert is then automatically pinged ...

        Nothing matching that description at my HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, (Vista Business). I know the original post only mentions Win7/XP but it seems likely that Vista would have the same thing, doesn't it?

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: copyright alert is then automatically pinged ...

        dir /s entriq*

        File Not Found

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: copyright alert is then automatically pinged ...

        How is MS responsible for some 3rd party software?

        From the first part of your quote: "The file is not a Windows system file" and looking at my machines, it isn't

        If you chose to install that nasty bit of spyware, that's your choice. However looking at it it does suggest you can remove it from add/remove programs, so it's not exactly as stealthy as some.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So when they eventualy stamp out all "piracy" (even assuming that is possible) and surprise, surprise sales of DVDs etc don't increase who will they then blame for their ever decreasing profits?

    Most people I know of who do acquire music/videos through slightly less than legal channels would never actually buy this shite - but DO pay for the music and films they like.

    1. beep54
      Devil

      Effed to start with

      This is so well known it isn't funny any more. But then, I must recommend you read Elmore Leonard's 'Get Shorty' and 'Be Cool'. His meditations on the music and film industry (respectively). Now, THAT'S comedy :)

  6. Tom 35

    So how long before

    Hacked websites start sending people to fake "your a pirate" website where you can enter your credit card info? Once people hear about this on Fox News the fake AV scammers can branch out into fake piracy warrnings.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So how long before

      Too late. I had to remove one such virus from a friend's computer already.

      1. Blain Hamon
        Trollface

        Re: So how long before

        Did the virus then start to bittorrent movies?

        1. auburnman
          Unhappy

          Re: So how long before

          You joke, but if it's not out there already the black hats are working on it. If victims actually find a downloaded movie on their PC around the same time as the 'ransom' the thought of accidental guilt might just be enough to stress them into caving and paying the 'fine' without thinking it through.

  7. Khaptain Silver badge

    Deflating cash cow

    Consumers have a limited budget.

    High end telephones, laptops, tablets, internet subscriptions account for a reasonable part of disposable income.

    Where does the RIAA et al imagine that their "lost" billions will be recovered from ? Consumers certainely don't have endless quantities of cash. So, either Apple and Samsung etc lose out or the record industry loses out....

    The cash cow is not expandable and at the moment it's actually shrinking..... The RIAA are not employing a very clever strategy here.

    1. phil8192
      Big Brother

      Re: Deflating cash cow

      The RIAA didn't have a clever strategy even before the world economy tanked in 2007:

      "We keep suing the b*st*rds and they STILL refuse to buy our products!"

    2. beep54

      Re: Deflating cash cow

      I don't think you get it. The RIAA (among others) think that there is an infinite pool of money out there waiting to be dived into. I'm actually hoping they'll crack their collective heads open when they hit bottom.

      1. g e
        Go

        Slight refinement on the infinite pool

        They think they have infinite entitlement to whatever cash is available.

        I seriously hope Netflix's approach with stuff like House of Cards brings about a paradigm shift in entertainment creation that gives the MAFIAA a fatal agonising (and preferably humiliating) stroke. Assuming the MAFIAA gets no dibs on the revenue if it's a totally private-funded production. Maybe 'membership' of the MAFIAA is compulsory to be able to trade in that industry, hope not.

    3. Intractable Potsherd

      Re: Deflating cash cow

      I'll carry on doing what I always have done - wait until a dvd I want is reduced to a price I'm willing to pay (usually about £5) at the local supermarket. I picked up "Inception" for that price last week (and I'm almost sorry I didn't see it at the cinema now). I'm waiting for "Prometheus" and "The Dark Knight Rises" (which I did see at the cinema) to do the same.

      Also, I discovered that there is a great bargain at Cineworld cinemas - my wife has an Unlimited card (she will go and see a film on spec and walk out if she doesn't like it - I'm more discerning), and I can use my Orange Wednesdays with that card so that we effectively get both of us in for approximately £3.50 (depending on how many films my wife has been to see that month). That's a bargain!

      1. OrsonX
        Alert

        Prometheus

        You saw it and you still want to buy it?!!

  8. Vector
    WTF?

    Learning has not taken place

    ...and so, the movie industry ignores the lessons learned in the music industry and goes running off to attack their customers.

    My impression is that music piracy is well down now that easily accessible, reasonably priced legal alternatives are available. Not gone, surely, but greatly reduced. There certainly hasn't been much rhetoric from music camp of late.

    The online video world, on the other hand, has become this byzantine mishmash of rights and exclusions which lead to some of the weirdest inabilities to consume their content. For example, Hulu Plus won't let me stream their content from my Android tablet over an HDMI connection because they aren't licensed for that type of connection from a "mobile" device. My tablet's not particularly mobile, being wifi only. In contrast, a Windows laptop, regardless of it's network radios, can run that content out over pretty much any video port it wants.

    Then there's the content that's just not available online at any price from anywhere or which has been given exclusively to one source or another.

    I suspect that quite a bit of the piracy that's currently going on right now is because consumers can't get the content they want where they want it for reasons they just consider absurd. Fix that and much of your problem disappears.

    1. Tom 35

      Re: Learning has not taken place

      Being in Canada I can't even watch Hulu (but can receive 8 US TV stations over the air).

      If you want to see a useless pile of crap just look at the Hollywood answer to online video, UltraViolet. It's almost as useless as DIVX players were. The so called Digital Copy that comes with DVDs or BluRay and expires 3 months after the movie is released.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is just ridiculous

    Instead of this nonsense six strikes crap, give pirates one warning then prosecute them and send them to prison like Japan does with a 2 year mandatory prison sentence plus a high fine. It won't stop all piracy but it will get a lot of scum off the streets and into prison where they belong. They make prisons for those who can't live within the laws of society.

    1. TheVogon
      Mushroom

      Re: This is just ridiculous

      I think you are confusing copyright infringement with buccaneering.....

    2. Thorne
      FAIL

      Re: This is just ridiculous

      I can see why you went AC. How many new prisons would the US needs to house the millions of criminals and at a cost of approx $150K per person per year.

      Next does an IP address consitute a person? Which person should go to prison? Two years prison for the 8 year old on her Winnie the Poo laptop? Maybe her Parents should each spend a year to even it out? What is the wireless was unsecured and someone else used it from outside the house?

      Your suggestion is so gobsmackingly stupid that clearly you didn't think at all before posting. You must be from a anti piracy companies because normal people are not that dumb.

      Here's a suggestion to kill piracy that might actually work. Make the content cheap and easy to access. Get rid of the stupid regional restrictions and the licencing crap that prevent people from accessing legit material.

      Free to air TV makes money without charging viewers. Why can't media companies? Offer two services, free with ads and premium without ads. Make it available everywhere. Make it simple to use. Get all the media companies together so the material is in one place.

      Do this and piracy stops. Your stupid suggestion or this stupid six strikes solution is a total waste of time.

    3. Ian Court
      Stop

      Re: This is just ridiculous

      So if we fill the prisons with pirates as you propose, where will we keep all the real criminals who do actual harm to people?

    4. Robert Helpmann??
      Childcatcher

      Re: This is just ridiculous

      ...give pirates one warning then prosecute them and send them to prison...

      Or, to put it another way, "If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."

    5. MacGyver
      FAIL

      Re: This is just ridiculous

      l say YOU'VE been downloading illegal content AC, and I have some Excel documents with your IP in it that prove it. Have fun in prison. That is exactly how it goes right now. I can sue you because some guy I paid to make logs has logs with your IP in it. It's not Rocket Science, or any kind of science, it is all hearsay, and you want to send people to prison based upon it, that sounds smart.

      P.S. How exactly do you think they KNOW you or your neighbor is downloading stuff. Hint: They are doing deep packet inspection of all your network traffic. (fancy talk for: They watch you surf the internet and keep records for at least 12 months, maybe forever) . Have a nice day.

    6. g e

      And confusing

      Civil infringement with criminal acts as defined by the law itself.

    7. Intractable Potsherd

      Re: This is just ridiculous

      I'm confused! The sentiments expressed by AC are the same as one lunatic troll posts every time, but s/he hasn't used the word "perp". Is there a new industry "spokesman" on duty today?

    8. ChrisC Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: This is just ridiculous

      Absolutely, this *is* ridiculous. An utterly ridiculous suggestion... Good luck eking out an existence in a world where a sizeable number of the people you rely on to survive (whether you realise it or not) have been thrown in jail for the heinous crime of copying something. Feeling unwell? Uh dear, your GP is behind bars. Feeling *really* unwell? Oh dear, half your local hospital staff are behind bars too, and even if they weren't there's no ambulances running to get you there because of a sudden shortage of paramedics. Feeling right as rain but just a little bit peckish? Whoops, queues a mile long at every store still open that sells anything even remotely edible, because most of the shop assistants are in the slammer too. And most of the stores that used to sell food are now closed because the HGV drivers who delivered to those stores are in the cells too. Even if they weren't, how would they get their HGVs from A to B when most of the fuel stations have had to close because their attendants got caught up in the grand "SOMETHING MUST BE DONE" copyright infringement sweep?

      How many people in everyday society need to dabble in something that the law says they shouldn't be doing, before that law can no longer justifiably be considered a law of society?

  10. nexsphil
    Coat

    I don't give a shit anymore...

    ...and I don't think many other people do either. This kind of stenching corruption will only continue to distance the people from their governments. Does the US government think it can drop all pretence that it's anything other than a 'serf control agency' to keep the cattle penned in? I think we might be airing out the guillotine soon, unless the 1% think they can stop hundreds of millions of very angry people with the force of their primate superiority alone.

    1. Don Jefe
      Meh

      Re: I don't give a shit anymore...

      Dude. WTF are you on about? You think people are going to revolt because they got caught stealing? Unlikely.

      "Piracy" actually did do quite a bit of good and forced publishers to get prices down to a reasonable level. Now that part is over and we all have to accept the fact that we want music/shows and the people that make those things want to get paid. It's called finding middle ground. Get used to it. It really is OK.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I don't give a shit anymore...

        OK, explain to me how I can pay for to get UK TV content in the US? Can't do it? Thought not.

        Some of us illegally download content because it's not available any other way. I've actually tried to pay for it, my CC was turned down ("Not a European address").

        So, fuck 'em.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: OK, explain to me how I can pay for to get UK TV content in the US?

          There are sites which list movies and series with links to [CLOUD FILE SERVICE NAMES DELETED]. If you don't want to enter captchas or wait too long you can buy access to these services. I was able to get some series that never show in my country's TV. I bet these guys are making some money and I didn't mind paying to get the series.

          Oh, you mean legally? MPAA is missing something.

      2. The BigYin

        Re: I don't give a shit anymore...

        I want to pay, but artificial barriers to free trade prevent me from doing so.

        I do without, but it costs the sellers and they wonder why sales are dropping. The Internet has no borders (yet) and they need to recognise that. Or maybe that's why we see so many news laws and plans trying to control people's freedoms.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I don't give a shit anymore...

          "I want to pay, but artificial barriers to free trade prevent me from doing so"

          Yep, I'm also impatient. I want to watch some US tv series as they are broadcast (or timeshifted a couple of hours). Not have to wait 3-6 months for them to be broadcast in the UK, or released on dvd/blu-ray, if they ever are.

      3. The BigYin

        Re: I don't give a shit anymore...

        Oh yeah. And it's bot piracy, it's the uploader committing a breach of license. It doesn't even constitute stealing, which is why it was always considered a civil and not criminal offence.

        Piracy involves rape, kidnapping and murder; license infringement, not so much.

        Do not allow the likes of the RIAA to further attack your freedom by allowing them to control your language.

        1. MacGyver
          Trollface

          Re: I don't give a shit anymore...

          I think it should be called "IP Sodomy", it has a nicer ring to it. (I mean they are looking for scary words are they not?)

          "NBC was sodomized today by hackers." . see how it rolls off the tongue.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Availability?

    "The other is to provide people with content at a reasonable price in a format they can use as they like."

    Absolutely. I mean DRM-free MP3 files are so hard to find at a reasonable price...oh, hang on

    1. TheVogon
      Mushroom

      Re: Availability?

      Well yes, there is allofmp3.com - oh but then the RIAA and the rest of the copyright cartels would like you to believe that's not legal (it is in fact legal to use from anywhere that is a signatory to the Berne Convention). All the 'approved' outlets of MP3 files are certainly not reasonable priced.

      And then just try finding an official source for DRM free movies....

      1. TheVogon
        Mushroom

        Re: Availability?

        (Now mp3sparks.com)

      2. Blain Hamon
        Pirate

        Re: Availability?

        "All the 'approved' outlets of MP3 files are certainly not reasonable priced." What is reasonable pricing? Do you mean Amazon or iTunes? They both are about less than £1/song.

    2. DJ Particle

      Re: Availability?

      iTunes may not be DRM'd, but most of the other places still are, and then there's the fact that not all music is available in digital format in the first place.

      And as far as I know, there is nowhere that one can legally download popular video free of DRM, at any price.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Want me to stop torrenting?

    - No DRM of any kind

    - Easily portable common format

    - No geolocation lockouts (all content available everywhere)

    - No spying or monitoring what I'm watching or listening to

    - No repeat billing (e.g. no pay-per-view or pay-per-listen or pay-per-period to keep what I've paid for)

    - No forced streaming or cloud storage (e.g. I can download a work onto my OWN system and keep it indefinitely)

    - Reasonable pricing (e.g. $0.50 - 1 per song, $2 - $5 per TV episode, $5 - $10 per feature-length movie or complete album)

    - No forced bundling (e.g. I don't have to buy a whole album to get one song, or an entire season of a TV show to get one episode)

    - No embedded advertising or annoyingly visible watermarks or logos.

    These are all the features and benefits torrenting offers me. Match that, then we can talk.

    1. Charles 9

      There's a reason for Geolocation lockouts.

      Copyrights are not globally assigned but are held by region by different parties. If one region is down with it but another isn't, then you have no choice but to institute lockouts because the second region can sue for copyright infringement because they never gave permissiobn.

      1. The BigYin

        Re: There's a reason for Geolocation lockouts.

        So the RIAA would be better of in campaigning for more copyright harmony and helping form a truly global market?

        Not going to happen with that dinosaur defender.

      2. JetSetJim

        Re: There's a reason for Geolocation lockouts.

        So you're saying that copyright law is not aligned with a global internet? Perhaps that's something that needs fixing, too.

        1. g e
          Holmes

          Re: There's a reason for Geolocation lockouts.

          Or maybe the global (C) differences are yet another artificial construct to aid price-fixing in different regions in the same way studios charge production companies comical amounts for Hollywood Accounting.

          "Oh we're sorry", said a Vivendi-Universal spokesperson, "we have no control of the pricing in Holland as it's under a different copyright licensee". Where the 'licensee' is Vivendi-Universal Netherlands, a separate but tenuously related company.

      3. Keep Refrigerated
        Facepalm

        Re: There's a reason for Geolocation lockouts.

        This only ever made sense when media was a physical import like food, utensils and other commodities. This day and age geography is not a physical restriction to distribution unlike it still is to physical items.

        Tell me, when the telephone was invented, did the post office lobby for laws forcing people to mail a letter before initiating a telephone conversation? Because that is what region encoding is - it's an arbitrary block to render technology almost useless.

        What about the motor car? Do we still need a law that states someone should walk ahead of the car with a flag to warn people so they don't get run over?

    2. relpy
      Thumb Up

      Re: Want me to stop torrenting?

      And may I add:

      - I can lend it to people

      - I can sell it

      - My kids / wife / who-ever-I-damn-well-please gets to inherit it

  13. Borg.King
    Paris Hilton

    Copyright holder needs to prove the content is their copyright.

    Reading the blurb on the CCI site, it states that the copyright holder identifies the media being shared as being theirs, and then they have to ascertain the IP address of the sharing party, and provide that to the ISP of the sharing party to have that ISP send the warning email.

    Sounds a bit too complicated to me. Joe MovieMaker is unlikely to have the nouse to perform these three preliminary tasks. He might outsource it though. . . . .

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    6 strikes - worse than 1 or 2

    Currently copyright infringing ambulance chasers seek to prosecute offenders after the 1st strike, in the knowledge that most will never get to court, and if they do they will most likely fail (IP address <> person, etc) - so they try mass threats etc. to get their money. With the new 6 strikes the ISP will notify the copyright owner after the 5th, giving them the info. This is no longer a scatter-gun supoena for a names from an ISP but will be a targetted attack on somebody who, they can show the court, has 'flagrantly ignored' copyright by continuing to 'share' after being warned no less than 4 (or 5) times already. They will be deemed a 'persistent offender' by the copyright holder (or rep) and the court will be more likely to grant the request and the prosecution will have a field day - with fines to boot - regardless of actual innocence.

    Hopefully the courts will realise that if an IP is not a person the first time, then the same is true the next 4/5 times also - and not allow the IP to be traced. I fear this won't happen though, and the courts will give in, leading to some high profile cases that the media companies dare not lose.

    Hopefully the letters will all go out to innocent people who complain/sue/kick up a big stink, etc, or who can get proper representation in court, and the whole shebang gets binned - but I'm not holding my breath.

    What would be funny is if somebody used an unsecured wifi of a top judge to download stuff. If the judge received a warning letter and was told they had to pay to appeal...well, I'd pay to watch the fall-out from that :-)

    1. JetSetJim
      Unhappy

      Re: 6 strikes - worse than 1 or 2

      A sufficiently senior judge is likely to have a sufficiently large house & grounds that you can't get near enough to sniff their wifi (assuming they have it)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Large grounds WiFi

        Pringles can antenna.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 6 strikes - worse than 1 or 2

      Isn't this quite similar to the RIghthaven business model? Do the ISP's have any standing to enforce anything?

  15. asdf
    Joke

    the real crime in all this

    Whats an even bigger injustice is the fact that the copyright period is so short. Come on give me a break. Currently at most only a good four or five generations of your family can sponge off your work. This grave injustice must be fixed. Write your local politicians and tell them what we really need is eternal copyright. We are headed that way anyway (Mickey Mouse will never ever go public domain) but lets make sure the last information that ever rots to where the unwashed masses can enjoy it duty free (dirty socialism at its worse) was created right after WW1 (the Great War).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Superlatives

      Bad

      Worse

      *WORST

      1. asdf
        Headmaster

        Re: Superlatives

        Conceded English grammar fail. If the stupid language made any logical sense and didn't have a million exceptions I might feel bad for it. I pity anybody that has to learn English grammar as a non native language. Every other language I have been exposed to (especially the more Latin based ones) are so much more consistent in the rules.

  16. Herby

    If they only devoted the same effort to...

    ...spammers as they do to "pirates", I might feel better. Right now over 1/2 of the messages that land on my mail server at home are tossed on the floor as spam in one form or another. Add this to the robo-calls I get on another phone line, and it really annoys the H*** out of me.

    Of course, if they copyrighted the spam emitted, and went after THAT, I'd welcome it, but that isn't going to happen.

    So we sit here in the Caribbean and say Ho, Ho... and the spammers "keep on coming!". (*SIGH*)

  17. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    "While no ISP wants pirates"

    Of course, because ISPs sell 100Mbs download/512kbs upload and 500Gb/month packages to people who are just really into facebook

  18. Martin Huizing
    Thumb Up

    Quiznight!

    The first two alerts are described as "educational", and according to a leaked AT&T draft plan may include requiring the user to take a copyright quiz.:

    Question 1:

    Is pirating wrong?

    -> Yes

    --- No (see you next round)

  19. Franklin
    Thumb Down

    Okay, so when so I get to call 6 strikes...

    ...against large hosting companies?

    I write a lot of content. I release nearly all of it free under a Creative Commons-like attribute/sharealike license. And you know, about ten or twelve times a year, I find someone lifting big chunks of my stuff and slapping it up on their own web sites without credit, or (worse yet) claiming authorship.

    So when do I get to start going after ISPs for hosting pirate content or broadband providers for facilitating copyright infringement? Or is that something you only get to do if you're a gigantic, wealthy media conglomerate? Oh, wait, I think I know the answer to that...

    1. The BigYin

      Re: Okay, so when so I get to call 6 strikes...

      You are a content creator, you are not who the RIAA are here to protect. In fact, they would probably go after you as your free approach denies some of their members the chance to charge.

      The RIAA are here to protect large movie studios (who deny actors, writers etc a fair share of profits through false accounting), not to defend content creators.

  20. bean cube

    Packet controls

    Who can control packets? Not users and they can be framed easily.

    1. bean cube

      Re: Packet controls

      Who can strike down those ads and spams imposing on us everyday? Really, after 6 warnings, we can shut down their Web accesses?!!!

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pirate Pete here

    Yo Ho Ho and a Torrent o' Fun!

  22. beep54

    It is called the suckers bet::

    (no appeals allowed, but you get your money back if you win)

  23. dbk

    Mark Monitor is Everywhere

    Check out s3-1-w.amazonaws, server-54-240-170-114.dfw50.r.cloudfront.net, ob-in-f95.1e100.net , ec2-107-23-22-124.compute-1.amazonaws.com, dfw06s17-in-f9.1e100.net, dfw06s17-in-f15.1e100.net, dfw06s17-in-f7.1e100.net, ie-in-f106.1e100.net, dfw06s26-in-f17.1e100.net, ch4plpkivs-v03.any.prod.ord1.secureserver.net, ec2-50-18-192-251.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com, ie-in-f120.1e100.net . Marky is spying on a lot of people.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Mark Monitor is Everywhere

      Care to elaborate?

  24. Quinnicus

    The land of the free...

    And the home of the <insert word or object desired here/>

    1. Mako

      Re: The land of the free...

      <insert word or object desired here/>

      Whopper, obviously.

  25. dbk

    Mark Monitor is Here

    Check out s3-1-w.amazonaws, server-54-240-170-114.dfw50.r.cloudfront.net, ob-in-f95.1e100.net , ec2-107-23-22-124.compute-1.amazonaws.com, dfw06s17-in-f9.1e100.net, dfw06s17-in-f15.1e100.net, dfw06s17-in-f7.1e100.net, ie-in-f106.1e100.net, dfw06s26-in-f17.1e100.net, ch4plpkivs-v03.any.prod.ord1.secureserver.net, ec2-50-18-192-251.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com, ie-in-f120.1e100.net . Marky is spying on a lot of people.

  26. AidanCheddar
    Thumb Down

    Ugh...

    Sigh, SOPA was only the beginning. Can the copyright holders just get with the times already!? Creative Commons happily avoids all of this.

  27. ukgnome
    Devil

    How can it tell that the torrent infringes copyright?

    Does it download the torrent itself and then compare it to an actual film \ music file?

    Because isn't reproducing any part of copyright material an offence.

    1. g e
      Holmes

      Nope

      They distribute the torrent themselves and fit you up.

      1. The BigYin

        Re: Nope

        Isn't that entrapment?

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @ ukgnome

      Reproducing a "substantial part of the work" is classified as copyright infringement in the UK.

      Which is a civil matter and not an 'offence' unless you are a business profiting from that activity.

  28. Jimboom
    FAIL

    This assumes the person is contactable

    So what if there is no e-mail account on record for said offender? Say I don't have an e-mail account with my ISP package and I never register one with them. Then their automated system has nothing to go from. Then lets say they decide to send the warnings by snail mail.

    I turn around after they start suing and state that we have had a problem for years now where mail goes missing, so we never received the first 4 letters. If there is no way to confirm receipt of the warnings then how can they say I ever received them in the first place?

    Just seems to me that this idea has a few holes in it before it has even started.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: This assumes the person is contactable

      There ARE ways to confirm delivery in the postal services. At least there are in the USA (Certified and Registered Mail, for starters). If they get word of a rumor that post gets lost, odds are they'll send at least one notice with a guaranteed notice of receipt. There goes the "mail gets lost" out. Plus, usually only the addressee can sign for these kinds of mail, blunting the "mail gets stolen" angle.

  29. Tony Paulazzo
    Facepalm

    "We hope this cooperative, multi-stakeholder approach will serve as a model for addressing important issues facing all who participate in the digital entertainment ecosystem."

    No matter how I read it, it feels like a null sentence. So the 'all' who participate in the digital entertainment ecosystem are not the same as the 'multi-stakeholder' with the cooperative approach and a model for addressing not getting paid?

    Here's a clue - stop producing fucking content and just die already! If you don't create then nothing can be 'stolen'. Go out and get an 'honest' job, like bricklaying ya workshy cock knobber.

    1. The BigYin

      Stakeholders? I take it they mean "Everyone except the customer. Screw the customer, just give us direct access to their wallets."

    2. Tony Paulazzo

      Here's a clue - stop producing fucking content and just die already! If you don't create then nothing can be 'stolen'. Go out and get an 'honest' job, like bricklaying ya workshy cock knobber.

      Felt I needed to qualify this statement somewhat:

      If the content producers stop creating content no one will die as a direct result, and just maybe the human race will get off it's collective arse and start colonising Mars... or something... anything...

  30. This post has been deleted by its author

  31. Levente Szileszky
    Stop

    Road to Police State, Step #1 - check...

    ...now let's wait and see... there's no outcry? Good - proceed to Step #2...

  32. Levente Szileszky
    FAIL

    Average profit on bandwidth is 1000-1500% and wholesale prices are in freefall for years now...

    ...so it's actually nothing but the scumbag MAFRIAA is paying them under the desk (or actually the same team like in case of Time Warner or Comcast etc.)

    We allowed cable monopolies and studio dictators to lobby everything to death then break every previous rule, we deserve this - but these pigheaded, arrogant, greedy crooks are too stupid to realize that they might win this battle but this will cost them the war: I predict a long, protracted war where more and more people (especially young ones who are entering the labor force) will simply say 'no, fuck you very much' and cut the cord/never hook up but will fire up those strong VPN connections, running over port 80 and 443 (http and https), making these scumbag ISP's life miserable/firewall DPI SSL feature useless.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Haul them off

    Haul these criminals off to prison like they do in Japan.

This topic is closed for new posts.

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