Headlines - Music industry and UK ISPs unite in battle against piracy

[dangel]

I wonder if it's 'proof of innocence' or 'proof of guilty' that's central to this though? I'd move towards the former, with the way this is shaping up - and remember "we got yer IP" is enough (regardless of material evidence on a HD. Hmm.

[surk8]

i remember before everyone got broadband
it was £16.00 for a cd an 17-18 squid for a dvd
reckon the pirates have done us all a favour and
forced greedy industry to lower the prices

[j1979]

i work for Virgin Media, and i also agree that the whole idea stinks.

we have a work ethernet forum, where we can voice our opinions without fear, and there is not 1 single positive comment.

i also wonder why we sell V+ knowing full well that if anyone who watches a programme that they have recorded more than once they are breaking the law. Its a silly law, but still, most poeple wont even know that they are breaking it.

[leexgx]

droping cable users is not an good idea, as Virgin are the only provider on cable if thay go thay most likey take every thing with them (sky/tv/bb) so no money for ever and most likey make other cable users jump ship and get sky as well

if i lost my bb i just stop the DD (tv and phone) and move back to bt,

[Nub1]

Originally Posted by faisal_uk

also can they really detect exactly what you are downloading through bittorrent?

That's the real problem with bittorrent. Once they are in the ring they have a list of all ip addresses downloading and uploading that file. You can use an IP blocker like peerguardian (which still isn't working in Vista) but this only blocks known IP's of the music/ movie moguls, govt and educational institutions.

I find this whole thing scary and I find it disturbing that many people are just blindly accepting this loss of privacy especially as this issue is not a matter of national safety but just big business wanting to increase/ regain their profits.

Nobody has mentioned whether they trust their ISPs to store the information safely and to use it properly. We already have many instances with the govt losing cd's and hospitals and the home office losing laptops. Are people willing to trust their ISP? This info may just be a list of IP addresses but it will also include your name and address, possibly method of payment and who knows your credit card/ bank account details. That is of course if they just store all info in the account they already have set up for you in their billing dept. Maybe not, but a list of websites that you have visited may prove to be embarrassing and not just because of pron. If it became public knowledge you were visiting a job agency website while in a full time job, your employer would definitely be interested.

Also how will this informations' use be policed? Who sets the criteria? Not anyone dealing with the customers' interest I bet. What about data protection?

I feel really worried that people just accept and don't question.
I realise I have been ranting so I'll finish here. rant over.

[Jay]

the issue with logs is spoofing of both IP and MAC addresses. The only way an ISP knows where a packet has come from is by Reading the MAC from the start of the frame, if its been spoofed then you will get a letter from your ISP and it won't be your fault. Its a really serious issue on VM as its really easy to do and it means that the evidence should not be used as its not 100% fool proof.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

what about if you use hosting sites such has rapidshare? surely they cant see what your downloading throgh that. there are always ways to avoid this if your into those sorts of downloads. only way to stop piracy is to get rid of the internet all together

[Akill]

The problem here is ISP's are failing to do what they do best, analyse and exploit a situation. Instead of finding a way to change their business plans to MOVE FORWARD with the rest of society they are being stubborn to keep it how it is. unacceptable.

In my opinion law should change with society to start making digital media and information exchance completely free. Then business's should change how they operate in these regions to secure themselves profits.

[Andaho]

If they are able to accuratley detect what music people download, then why don't they use the technology for something useful like catching people who download kiddy porn!

[Saracen]

Originally Posted by Andaho

If they are able to accuratley detect what music people download, then why don't they use the technology for something useful like catching people who download kiddy porn!

For a start, it would depend on method.

If the RIAA use a honeytrap type method, by seeding torrents with copyright material and nailing those that then download, or worse yet, d/l and then u/l, then that technique would hardly apply to kiddy porn. Also, of course, if this is RIAA investigators tracking pirates, then reporting it to the ISP, all the ISP are doing is responding to a list of reported abusers. It may be that the appropriate authorities could, given adequate resources, adopt a similar strategy for nailing kiddy porn. And they certainly DO adopt exact that technique to identify, catch and prosecute paedophiles. It has worked, too.