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UK ISPs Could Be Forced To Block Or Restrict P2P
MJackson writes "The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has published a draft set of proposals for tackling illegal broadband file sharing (P2P) downloads by persistent infringers, among other things. The proposals form part of a discussion piece concerning the role that a UK Digital Rights Agency (DRA) could play. UK Internet Providers will already be required to warn those suspected of such activity and collect anonymised information on serious repeat infringers, though they could soon be asked to go even further. The new discussion paper, while not going into much detail, has proposed two potential example solutions to the problem. UK ISPs could employ protocol blocking or bandwidth restrictions in relation to persistent infringers. In other words, P2P services could be blocked, or suspected users might find their service speeds seriously restricted."
...between downloading from a P2P network and downloading from something considered more legit (like Itunes) when it's presented as DRM free? At it's very best, all it amounts to is downloading the exact same thing from a different server...especially when it's downloaded for free. All 'legit' services do give 'free' DRM free downloads. It has been said by the RIAA that "downloading is illegal and immoral". Yet, downloading from Itunes is never questioned. Why is it that when someone downloads from P2P, they are "freeloaders" but when it's a DRM free 'free' download...everything is ok? One aspect of this that does bother me is that you cannot pull up ANYTHING from the web that is NOT downloaded (in some way). The entire internet is based on the concept of "copying" things, from one computer to another. In all the arguments surrounding this issue, I have yet to hear any logical reason that justifies the actions of the recording industry on any real technical level.
To scare off the average joe user.
Its not about hardcore techies, that isn't the market they are after.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
We can encrypt bit-torrent files so they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between P2P to normal traffic. Sheesh.
Enjoy your throttled HTTPS / SSH / everything else that isn't standard port 80 HTTP...
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
But if the technical solutions find their way into mainstream programs as default settings, what then?
If Limewire and uTorrent and such were to adopt, as default, new technology to disguise file-sharing (and it'd be in their interest to, if ISPs were blocking these programmes en mass), most people would use it. Most people would use it and not even know they were using it.
Very insightful and if I had mod points today, you would get them. Also I see that it is a hopeless effort on their part if there is demand. It is like keeping picnic baskets from bears. I can think of several ways around the P2P restrictions using steganography, and other transforms. By attempting to block the most primitive methods that the bears use, it will lead to smarter bears and an ever more expensive government bureaucracy, which is probably their goal.
Bureaucrats think in terms of selecting a niche that has endless and lifelong traction and income.
Most of the ISP filtering nowadays isn't based on protocol specific filtering... it's based on the idea that if you have multiple incoming connections all at once, you're probably using BitTorrent, so they filter you.
If you can get around that, you're a smarter man than I.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
In the old days we pirated stuff directly, via a phone-based network of BBSes. Perhaps something similar will arise if the ISPs block torrenting.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Shitty laws like this will only give a rise to anonymous P2P-networks like Freenet (freenetproject.org). Freenet is much more harder to block at ISP level and ensures anonymity of both downloaders and uploaders. The warez,mp3,movies etc trading will continue there.
Wait until bittorrent is a popular method for delivering licensed content. WoW patches are BT aren't they? Wasn't the BBC talking about content delivery via BT?
Hard to come by? I got my region free DVD player for £30 off Amazon. But maybe it's different in the USA.
P.S. WTF is up with Slashdot not supporting Unicode. Manually escaping characters sucks.
We are all a bunch of hypocrites. Of course I strongly disapprove of blocking P2P or throttling. It may become a big problem. However it is hypocritical to pretend that P2P is used mostly for legal purposes.
Say what you like, but downloading music and movies for free is still theft, no matter how you look at it. So, you don't approve of the current content owners' distribution policies, you think that CDs are overpriced, and that DRM sucks, and that everything should be available cheaply and conveniently online. I completely, 100% agree. However this is no excuse for stealing. Don't like the policies - don't use the product. End of story. Anything else is simply unethical.
Come on people, it is unethical. If I try to sell you a piece of crap for $1000 you are not obliged to buy it, but you don't have the right to steal it either.
Let's face it, illegal downloading of movies and songs is really rampant. I have more than a few acquaintances in Europe who have collections of many thousands songs, movies (and software packages), without having _EVER_ bought a single one. They will never buy a CD or a movie, for any price, while they can download it for free. They never go to the cinema either because they download all new movies. They act as if they are entitled to this product for free, just because they consider it too expensive or too inconvenient to buy. Personally I find that disgusting (even though I agree with the expensive and inconvenient part).
Distribution of pirated software is a subject that I find close to my heart. It takes a _lot of_ money to develop software. Perhaps not everybody realizes it, but programmers need to pay rent and eat. So do musicians and movie makers.
Just wait. Pretty soon the Used CD market won't exist, because corporations will wisely only make songs/albums available by download. You'll have no choice but to "buy new".
You'll always have the choice of not buying. There's a lot of free stuff available and there are also indie labels that are not affiliated with RIAA and buddies.
Oh, they're already well down the road to dealing with those problems.
Audience not buying? Place a tax on blank CDs, DVDs, hard drives, etc and give the proceeds to the labels and movie studios.
Indie means of marketing & distribution allowing artists to bypass the media cartels? Pass a law such as was done in the US to impose disproportionately-large "broadcasting" fees on things like internet radio collected and managed by a recording industry company (SoundExchange), and by collecting these "license fees" on non-RIAA affiliated artists, force them to either sign up or lose that money. The only way an internet radio station may avoid paying these much-higher-than-over-air broadcast fees is if they file ahead with a copy of a contract with each individual artist for each individual work, making record-keeping and administration costs skyrocket. Both sides, the indie artists and the internet broadcasters, are therefor punished, discouraged, and harassed.
As can be seen, they are already working on eliminating or severely limiting any alternate means of artists to market & distribute their work without them getting the lions' share of the money.
I'm waiting to see what they'll try next. Maybe DRM-enabled instruments that automatically deduct micropayments whenever certain copyrighted note combinations (which can be as few as three notes based on court cases) are played?
Ok, I gotta stop. I'm depressing myself.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
>>>Refreshed with the blood of patriots. So, is it you who will stand up and take a couple of bullets in the chest for your beliefs?
Okay.
Like my forefathers did in the 1770s (against an oppressive government), 1810s (against a foreign power kidnapping citizens), and 1860s (on both sides). I'm going to die anyway, and rather than die an old man gasping for his last breath, I'd prefer to die in service to Liberty and Human Rights. RIAA is an organization that threatens citizens with extortion - pay us $5000 or else. They need to be eliminated.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
This is quite an interesting one. I was talking to an American friend after Obama's inauguration, and she was telling me how she felt more proud to be American than ever before. She actually said "I feel more nationalistic than ever", because patriotism has become such a dirty word with the left in America.
Of course, as a European, I told her to say patriotic, because I can't hear the word 'nationalist' without thinking of fields with graves as far as the eye can see...
All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.