Studios' Oz Power-Grab Revealed

Xiroth writes "More details are beginning to come out about the lawsuit launched by film studios in Australia. According to law experts familiar with the case, the studios seek to force the ISPs to become 'police, judge, and executioner,' effectively giving the studios the legal clout to switch off ISP customers' internet connection at will. Apparently the ISP iiNet is the unlucky victim for the test case as, unlike other ISPs, they refused to pass on infringement notices to their customers."

Comments

Glad someone's fighting

[MoonBuggy]

I'm liking the sound of these iiNet people - they were the ones who wanted to say a big 'screw you' to the proposed government censorship scheme, too. Any Aussies care to comment on whether they're actually the good guys or not?

Re:Glad someone's fighting

[Anonymous Coward]

They're one of the better ISP's yeah. I hate their adds though!

Re:Glad someone's fighting

[Oqnet]

They are probably testing the waters with one ISP to get precedent that they can use against other ISP's. It looks from the article that they are the third largest ISP in the region. They probably don't want to go after the bigger ones first but they don't want to tackle a small ISP as well. I would guess this is just the first step in setting up a system for their benifit.

Re:Glad someone's fighting

[StikyPad]

I'm not an Aussie, but I think it's unproductive (and often counter-productive) to try to label companies or people as "good" or "bad." This particular action appears to be good. Nuff said.

Re:Glad someone's fighting

[quinks]

Internode and iiNet are the two awesome ISPs in this country, although there are lots of smaller ones. You'll want to avoid the ISPs that charge $180/GB on any of their plans for excess usage such as Telstra, Dodo or Optus. This is not a typo. That's 180 Australian Dollars for every Gigabyte you go over your allowance. For example, Optus's 'Yes Fusion $79 plan comes with 4 GB and $150 for every Gigabyte over that. Needless to say, they've got their had stuck up so far their own bottom that they can see daylight through their own ears. But even they completely oppose the plan.

A certain Mark Newton who works for Internode is also an extremely outspoken critic of the censorship plan. But Telstra, iiNet and Internode, likely 3 out of the biggest 5 ISPs all have important people saying that the filtering won't work.

Broadband Choice is an excellent overview of the choices out there. Check out Whirlpool if you want to know more about the situation.

Re:Glad someone's fighting

[emil10001]

You don't think 'good' and 'bad' are helpful adjectives to describe a company to a friend who might be interesting in purchasing services from said company and who will eventually need to deal with said company?

Two examples, Comcast and Netlix. I've read quite a bit actions that both companies have taken, and have been on the phone with both companies several times. If I were referring a friend for a high-speed internet service, I probably wouldn't recommend Comcast because I think that they are a 'bad' company. They do things like throttle your internet connection if you're using bit-torrent, regardless if it's for completely legal purposes or not. They are lobbying for a tiered internet. They are rarely pleasant or on time to service calls, and calling their customer service center is an exercise in futility.

Netflix, on the other hand, I would recommend as a 'good' company, because they are constantly doing things that bennefit their customers. For example, they have been working very hard to bring streaming movies to people. I just got that ability with the latest xbox update, and it's awesome (really good quality too). They are also very good on the phone. The CSRs will really try to help you, and if you have some sort of technical question, they put you on the phone with somebody who understands and can answer your question!

So, in short, I think that labeling companies as 'good' and 'bad' is helpful. If a company is falling into the 'bad' category, and they don't want to be there, then they need to get off their ass and figure out what put them there.

Re:Glad someone's fighting

[MobyDisk]

It's kind of like the Borg:

The individuals who joined the collective weren't really evil people. The Borg will assimilate anyone. But once they become part of the collective mindset, they have one goal, and that goal can really only be achieved in an evil way.

Corporations tend to work the same way. Most of the individuals are not evil, but they contribute toward a whole that is going in an evil direction. Some time it is tough to take a step back and go "if I do this, they could use it for something else..." I always wonder who was the jerk who wrote the "virus" that went on the Sony BMG music CD's that disabled the ability to burn CDs as a form of copy protection. Surely that person knew what he/she was doing was wrong. But in other cases it is more gray. The same tools can be used for good or evil. And if evil makes you more profit, well.. that is what happens.

Re:Glad someone's fighting

[geckipede]

There do exist forms of justice more subtle than the lynch mob.

Re:Glad someone's fighting

[mr_mischief]

Well, if by "like Canada" he means it is a sovereign nation, has a large land area, is resource-rich, and sells a lot of its stuff to the US, then he's only being deceptive and can't be caught in an outright falsehood. China's not very much like Canada in most ways, though. Even a superficial glance at the news coverage from each country could tell you that.

This is an ages old trick of the trade for con artists and fraudsters. A con tells his mark something that's worded very ambiguously. He makes sure what the mark understands is patently false, but covers his ass with some fanciful alternate meaning. That way the con can blame the mark for moving forward with the deal without a clear understanding of the terms.

I know the con and fraudster labels get bandied about for politicians and bureaucrats all the time. In this case, it seems they might be especially fitting. He's either lying through his teeth, severely deranged, or counting on one of Wikipedia's favorite tricks to catch: weasel words.

Re:Glad someone's fighting

[Malekin]

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a FREE country..."

I call bullshit.

As I recently heard Lessig point out, the US government is less popular with its constituents these days than it was preceding the American revolution. Your economy is circling the drain. You have massive and growing separation of the rich and poor. You've had almost a decade of politicians shitting on your rights and your founding principles.

The time for you to mobilise your well-regulated militia was long ago. And you know what happened? Nothing.

It's about time you stopped being so naïve. It's clear the governments of developed and developing nations have no greater fear of a population of gun nuts than of flower-wielding hippies. Neither community will sacrifice their bread and circuses so long as they can vote for a new guy in the next election. Fair and transparent democracy is the best and most natural defence of a free nation, not the possibility of slaughtering a stack of your fellow countrymen in the name of revolution. All that gets you is the sort of political stability we see in Niger and Darfur.

Re:Glad someone's fighting

[DimmO]

In a world with predators...

That's the point, right there. no guns = no predators.

The only reason I see to oppose this

[MikeRT]

Is that if they have enough evidence to make you get shut off the net, they have enough evidence to sue you. Stop passing the buck and file a lawsuit, jackasses.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Wild leap of logic

[$RANDOMLUSER]

They claim iiNet authorised copyright infringement by failing to prevent its users from downloading pirated movies and TV shows.

So I guess this means that the Jews (and the Catholic Church and the Masons) really were responsible for 9/11 - after all, they failed to prevent it.

To iiNet Customers

[MozeeToby]

Do everything you can to be suspicious without violating any laws. Download dozens of distrobutions of Linux, send massive files to your friends anything to get yourself noticed. Then, when they cut off your access, complain and complain and keep complaining until they either give in or give up.

Seriously, these test cases exist for a reason, show the ISP how much business it will cost them, show the government how many false positives they will get. It can't hurt and (if they aren't a buch of corrupt fools) it could help.

Re:To iiNet Customers

[GenP]

...millions of copies of Linus...

When did he upload?!

Re:Even Wilder leap of logic

[$RANDOMLUSER]

So an eyewitness is as guilty as the perpetrator?
So General Motors and their dealerships are responsible for thousands of instances of vehicular manslaughter?

I'm sorry, I don't think I like "authorized by failing to prevent" as a legal precedence.

ip law is a gentleman's agreement

[circletimessquare]

for a select few major players in the rarefied business of media distribution, circa 1988

now, any pimply faced teenager with a net connection has more distribution power than time warner and bertelsmann in 1988. but the law hasn't changed to reflect that technological change in last 20 years

now, those dying business powers wish to use the laws meant for their private little club to impose their will on a billion teenagers. a billion poor meda hungry teenagers with obfuscation, encryption, spoofing, etc., at their disposal

good luck with that

Re:WTF is wrong with Australia these days?

[Anonymous Coward]

what would you have them do? Australia is full of criminals, and these are reasonable actions to keep them corralled. A bunch of people walking around with bad attitudes, large knives, and strange accents talking about barbies and mates and dingos. I'm just glad they are a continent unto themselves.

what if they disconnect the wrong person or

[josepha48]

if they disconnect someone who is later found innocent? Will that person be able to sue the ISP and the AU Government?

Well this just seems like the AU gov is really f'd up these days. IMO.

Oz?

[Theaetetus]

Can we please stop using the term "Oz" to refer to Australia, particularly in the context of film studios? There is an "Oz" series, which could lead to confusion, and someone searching for stories about Australia is unlikely to include "Oz" in their search.

Re:Oz?

[Chuck Chunder]

No

Re:WTF is wrong with Australia these days?

[Drakkenmensch]

"Think of the CHILDREN! Won't somebody pleeeeease think of the CHILDREN?!?"

Australia itself is not at fault, neither is the majority of the population who would be quite content to continue being a bastion of open-minded free thinking (much like most of Canada, which I'm proud to live in). No, if there's any blame to assign here, it should be directed squarely at the two groups at fault: Greedy, amoral media executives who would be all too happy to set up a global dictature where their content, flawed and awful as it might get, would be rewarded with mountains of ill-gotten cash as well as power-hungry politicians who take advantage of the aforementionned corporate suits to create a FUD campaign directed at the latest target of "threats against The Children", the Interwebs.

It's not like they have many targets left, now that dancing, rock and roll and comic books have gained wide mainstream acceptance in not being tools of corruption forged in Lucifer's workshop.

Because they're fighting back.

[Xenographic]

> What I'm wondering is why iiNet is the *only* ISP getting sued.

Because they stood up to the studios. Rather than kicking people offline, they forwarded the complaints to the cops because they had no intention of pretending to be policemen.

The summary is inaccurate on that point: they did NOT ignore the complaints. In fact, there are police in the same building as them, so they forwarded all those complaints over to them. The fact that the police did nothing is another matter, but perfectly understandable given the kind of "evidence" they're usually supplied with, especially when there are more important crimes to prosecute.

Anyhow, the studios obviously want to make an example out of the only ISP who isn't willing to play along with their power grabs in order to convince the others to be more compliant.

Re:Because they're fighting back.

[dontmakemethink]

As I posted in a related thread, they not only did not ignore the complaints, "iiNet will be participating in the trials, mostly to prove that the filters are impractical, unworkable and unwanted." The studios are suing them not for ignoring the complaints, not for refusing to cooperate, but just for being reluctant about cooperating.

Major suckage.

Re:Because they're fighting back.

[boyko.at.netqos]

Is there anything we can do to play hardball with the record companies at this point? I'm tired of simply sitting down and not buying their music and supporting companies and organizations which oppose them with periodic donations.

I'd propose a CD burning party, but first of all, it's a little too "third reich" for me to be totally comfortable with, and second, half the people would show up with laptops and blank discs.

Re:WTF is wrong with Australia these days?

[CaptainDefragged]

Don't forget the US Free Trade Agreement our government signed us up for. Thanks for that. Now we get to have DMCA like rules, MAFIAA/RIAA browbeating and destruction of our medical system by "Big Pharma".

Re:WTF is wrong with Australia these days?

[Gideon Fubar]

Sorry sir, As a native Australian, i must inform you that you are off your rocker.

While both of our cultures have European roots, they've both been equally influenced by the US. Saying that NZ is more "European" just shows that you hold it (and Europe) in higher regard than the US and Australia. Your comparisons, from what i can see, aren't even remotely accurate..

Please note that I actually think New Zealand is a lovely place, i just think you're romanticising a bit.