UK ISPs agree to help curb piracy

[monahan]

Original source: BBC NEWS | Technology | Net firms in music pirates deal

The latest news is pretty much old news, Virgin media in the UK has already implemented traffic shaping in the form of daily bandwidth download allowances and reached an agreement with the BPI to "educate" people on the facts behind piracy - we of course know most of these claims that piracy supports terrorism are, for the most part, a complete fallacy, and that this is a scare tactic so that the music and movie industry can claw back some of the 3 billion odd pounds ($6 billion) it loses in revenue. I agree, for the most part that there is a certain moral and ethical obligation to buy a product on the terms that if you like something enough to keep it, that you should, I should get that straight right here.

What does this mean for the UK though? I should stress for anyone reading, that any allegations brought against you thus far by the BPI and MPAA will be civil in nature and not legal - that's a different kettle of fish; the claims will be for damages, which is pretty much all either organisation can do, but it should be stressed that this doesn't necessarily stop a production or music company bringing forward allegations of theft if you can be proven to have distributed a file (say...an MP3 of Avril Lavigne's "girlfriend" over bit torrent) The crunch comes in here - The ISP cannot monitor your movements without proper legal authorisation - this is an invasion of privacy, so any monitoring of your movements will be traced purely through the use of aggregating IP addresses from sources such as bit torrents and trackers you've signed up for (and subsequently, they've brokered a deal to release databases in exchange for clemency), so the focus is on the BPI and MPAA to prove that you have not only downloaded, but distributed a file. This is done by forwarding a said IP address to the relevant company, they determine the holder of the lease at that time, and a letter is sent out.

It should also be stressed that UK ISPs have not agreed to disconnect heavy downloaders, although you will find in your TOS that illegal copyright downloading on a given ISP server in the UK is within the terms for which you can be disconnected.

Interestingly, this is, I think a testbed for such agencies to prove that a practice like this can be implemented on a wider scale such as the US and Europe, so heads up folks - what's happening in the UK in the future is a future echo for your country in all likelihood. Unless you're a lucky bastard who lives in sweden.

[yensed]

If I like something and Can buy it, I will. But so often songs simply arent available for purchase and the only way to obtain the file is to download it from someplace. I like lots of Instrumental versions of songs but its almost impossible to buy then legally.

[Gregory]

Well, the way I see it, ISP's in the UK are a monopoly. Are there many local ISP's in the UK?

I use a local ISP, and everything is great with them. They are all for network neutrality.

[monahan]

Originally Posted by Gregory

Well, the way I see it, ISP's in the UK are a monopoly. Are there many local ISP's in the UK?

I use a local ISP, and everything is great with them. They are all for network neutrality.

Not really...because of the way our backbone is run, all internet goes through BT anyway. You have to remember that we're nowhere near as large as the states.

[Gregory]

Still, I'd call that a monopoly.

Here in the US we've got Level3, Cogent,Sprint Link,Qwest, Internap, and others. You'd think the UK government would have something to say about that. Are UK citizens very happy about that?

[monahan]

Originally Posted by Gregory

Still, I'd call that a monopoly.

Here in the US we've got Level3, Cogent,Sprint Link,Qwest, Internap, and others. You'd think the UK government would have something to say about that. Are UK citizens very happy about that?

We havea choice of ISPs, they're just largely owned by someone bigger. At this rate thouhg, I might be moving out to greece with family.

[theDark]

Music Stuff : UK's illegal downloading crackdown - the facts

Does this affect anyone else on here? What are your thoughts?

I think that if I recieve a letter the most I will do is stop using torrents for a few weeks then start masking my IP from then on. Can't really see me getting a letter though as I don't download that often...Plus what about the fact that I download a lot of independently released music through demonoid, will this get picked up my their method of tracking and me thought of as illegally downloading? Could be interesting times for piracy...

[Dizzy]

http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/tec...rb-piracy.html


Merged.

[Gow616]

Any bandwidth shaping for any reason should be THE criminal offence.

Across the pond, here in the states, Congress finally grew a pair and quit sucking on RIAA's teat to tell Comcast to quite messing with the bandwidth. Though the UK just keeps getting more and more strict and can do so because absence of a variety of backbone providers. This is just another way they are trying to control the populace along with the cameras and the new camera tech meant to home in on loud threatening noises/disturbances.

...and I thought we were bad here but over on the other side we find that we are not that close to being so.

[monahan]

Britain is becoming a nanny state very quickly. a lot of ISPs, for example are starting to use webwise/phorm

[SilentWalrus]

Is it even legal for them to do this?
They are hurting others that are legally doing things on the internet.
I bet that the people that were using their high speed internet connection can't a) Play Runescape anymore. or b) can't get their porn fast enough.
What a sad day for the porn going runescapians.

[Gow616]

Originally Posted by monahan

Britain is becoming a nanny state very quickly. a lot of ISPs, for example are starting to use webwise/phorm

Well, it is up to you, the British, Scottish, Irish, Jamaican, Indian, etc. citizens of the United Kingdom to stand up to the Government and say "Hey, stop that."

I can complain and rail against this all day/month/year long but ultimately I will have little impact. It must be the citizens of the U.K. who stand up not the U.S., Canada, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, so on and so forth.

With the Monarchy reduced to a name only and power being invested into the Prime Minister who works with hand in hand with the Parliament. Not to mention he/she is chosen from the majority of the House of Commons...this kind of problem was bound to pop up.

Remember, we elect two branches of our Government, Legislative and Executive (Congress and the President).

We don't have a House of Lords but we elect Senators. Thus making, in theory at least, all key members of our legislature accountable to their constituents (Lobby Groups is for another time).

Who do the people elect over there? Just members in the House of Commons. You can't choose a Prime Minister directly or indirectly through electoral college? You can only do so if you give the party a majority in the House of Commons?

I could see this problem arise since it's conception, especially in a time when there would be a great need to check the powers of the Legislature and Executive head of the Government.

Well, if you can't get it worked out, there is always Canada and other locales to live.

Though nothing changes if you don't change it.

[OFFTOPIC]I would say come here but with Obama being crowned by the world...we are about to get a big hit in the economic front but hey, he's not Republican and not Bush so our capability for being loved by foreign powers will improve at the cost of a Executive Branch who will not care to pursue such ends. Instead the Branch would rather keep uttering a word over and over again as a nation descends into insanity... "Change".

Versus a man who will work with foreign powers but they will just hate him because he is a member of the Republican party. Never mind that he is anything else...they will just focus on that part and leave it that.[/OFFTOPIC]

[Locke]

Gow, you are absolutely right; when the people are not given a direct hand in their politics, they are either powerless or simply don't care about what power they do have. It's a dangerous situation in any country, to be sure. And you're right about Obama too: Obama's "change" sounds too much to me like Coolige's laissez-faire policy-don't send the troops, don't do a thing, let the people run themselves. Unfortunately, a command-control economy such as ours needs a proactive push from both the government and the people, and I don't see much of either from our country today. And speaking of irrantional hate of one because of their party, have you ever read Empire, by Orson Scott Card? It provides a very clear picture of what could happen in America if this bi-partisan rift continues to grow. Anyway, loved your post, +rep.