DRM and the ISP
It was only last night I that I reflected on being branded with the mark of DRM and as I awoke this morning the headlines on ABC News Online broadcast this;
This reeks of what I believe was a previous Telstra proposition to packet sniff our connections, to have a peek at what we are downloading and to then prioritise bandwidth so that P2P apps are essentially cut out of the equation. I think according to Telstra, torrents are only used to download illegal material and that we are guilty for just using a Bit Torrent client. Now the "Australian Music Industry" wants to cut our "phone and internet connections" if we are caught downloading illegal content. This no breaking news and it is already loosely done, although I don't know if anyone has ever had their internet connection terminated because of it and if they were threatened to be cut off, then it was simply a matter of churning to another ISP.
The Music Industry already tracks downloaders of illegal content. They essentially join a swarm and identify the ISP's associated with an IP address downloading and uploading particular files and then send cease and desist letters or copyright infringement notices to the ISP's who own the IP addresses, who then pass the infringement notice onto the consumer who has that IP address at the time of alleged unscrupulous activity . However, now the Music Industry is embarking upon a crusade to deploy Internet Service Providers as the conformity enforcers of a solution to what is essentially their problem and to top it off they want ISP's to act as morality police for a failure on their part to stamp out file sharing and piracy.
The ABC article states that " Ms Heindl says several smaller Internet providers have already expressed support for the plan" and I can't help but be suspicious of the motives behind targeting smaller ISP's who would be only too keen on deploying measures to protect bandwidth that is precious to their survival due to some flaw in their business model. I wouldn't put it past the big name players like Telstra and Optus to use whatever excuse to prevent bandwidth exploitation from torrents and other file sharing apps so that their bottom line can be further expanded by whatever totalitarian methods they see fit.
There is something wrong with the system if the big guns in society are reduced to litigating against some teenager downloading a few measly songs off the internet. The idea of maximising the profit margins to finance the bonuses of music industry executives is where the whole system is flawed, so that some fat cat can maintain an ever increasing quest for power and a lifestyle to match. The solution to piracy that we are being sold is to live in a police state, where the moral police are internet service providers and the thought police are tied to the courts so that some sorry arsed geek, cops a termination of his telecommunications or ends up being sued for some breach of copyright, is absurd.
The problem can be fixed without such draconian measures, we just have to think outside the square. Surely the music industry can come up some scheme where there profits can be maximised using the technology that the consumer is using. Nowhere in history has prohibition ever worked so to think that threatening an online community with dire consequences is bound to be a futile endeavour. Surely the music and movie industries have to realise that the price they are charging and the limitations of digital rights management they are imposing are the culprits in this failure to enforce copyright. Online piracy is only one part of a bigger system of piracy represented by racketeers overseas where hard copy piracy runs rampant, with little word from the industries about taking actions to police such organised disregard for executives pay cheques.
This whole anti piracy campaign will ultimately fail because technology will always be one step ahead of what the bureaucracy is capable of enforcing.
The full story can be found at http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1897439.htmMusic industry pushes ISPs for action on illegal downloads
The Australian music industry has approached Internet service providers (ISP) to penalise people who illegally download music.
Under the plan, record labels would identify Internet customers who are illegally downloading and service providers would give them three warnings before cutting off their phone and Internet connections.
This reeks of what I believe was a previous Telstra proposition to packet sniff our connections, to have a peek at what we are downloading and to then prioritise bandwidth so that P2P apps are essentially cut out of the equation. I think according to Telstra, torrents are only used to download illegal material and that we are guilty for just using a Bit Torrent client. Now the "Australian Music Industry" wants to cut our "phone and internet connections" if we are caught downloading illegal content. This no breaking news and it is already loosely done, although I don't know if anyone has ever had their internet connection terminated because of it and if they were threatened to be cut off, then it was simply a matter of churning to another ISP.
The Music Industry already tracks downloaders of illegal content. They essentially join a swarm and identify the ISP's associated with an IP address downloading and uploading particular files and then send cease and desist letters or copyright infringement notices to the ISP's who own the IP addresses, who then pass the infringement notice onto the consumer who has that IP address at the time of alleged unscrupulous activity . However, now the Music Industry is embarking upon a crusade to deploy Internet Service Providers as the conformity enforcers of a solution to what is essentially their problem and to top it off they want ISP's to act as morality police for a failure on their part to stamp out file sharing and piracy.
The ABC article states that " Ms Heindl says several smaller Internet providers have already expressed support for the plan" and I can't help but be suspicious of the motives behind targeting smaller ISP's who would be only too keen on deploying measures to protect bandwidth that is precious to their survival due to some flaw in their business model. I wouldn't put it past the big name players like Telstra and Optus to use whatever excuse to prevent bandwidth exploitation from torrents and other file sharing apps so that their bottom line can be further expanded by whatever totalitarian methods they see fit.
There is something wrong with the system if the big guns in society are reduced to litigating against some teenager downloading a few measly songs off the internet. The idea of maximising the profit margins to finance the bonuses of music industry executives is where the whole system is flawed, so that some fat cat can maintain an ever increasing quest for power and a lifestyle to match. The solution to piracy that we are being sold is to live in a police state, where the moral police are internet service providers and the thought police are tied to the courts so that some sorry arsed geek, cops a termination of his telecommunications or ends up being sued for some breach of copyright, is absurd.
The problem can be fixed without such draconian measures, we just have to think outside the square. Surely the music industry can come up some scheme where there profits can be maximised using the technology that the consumer is using. Nowhere in history has prohibition ever worked so to think that threatening an online community with dire consequences is bound to be a futile endeavour. Surely the music and movie industries have to realise that the price they are charging and the limitations of digital rights management they are imposing are the culprits in this failure to enforce copyright. Online piracy is only one part of a bigger system of piracy represented by racketeers overseas where hard copy piracy runs rampant, with little word from the industries about taking actions to police such organised disregard for executives pay cheques.
This whole anti piracy campaign will ultimately fail because technology will always be one step ahead of what the bureaucracy is capable of enforcing.
posted by TwistedTripper at 9:03 PM
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