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UK File-Sharing Laws Unenforceable On Mobile Networks
superglaze writes "UK mobile broadband providers currently have no way of telling which subscribers are file-sharing which copyrighted content, ZDNet UK reports. This represents something of a problem for new laws that have been proposed to crack down on unlawful file-sharing. According to the article, databases (tracking IP address mappings) could be built to make it possible to identify what specific users are downloading, but the industry is loathe to fund this sort of project itself. Also, as an analyst points out in the piece, users of prepaid phone cards are mostly anonymous in the UK, which creates another challenge for the government's plans. And if that isn't enough, connection-sharing apps like JoikuBoost would make identification pretty much impossible anyway."
They have no way of telling which subscribers are file sharing on any network - ask your local laser printer. I guess they'll just have to make do...
"In the absence of the ability to establish the attribute of truth they tried to establish the noble attributes."
I for one scoff at identity tracking technology.
Anybody who plans on running bittorrent over a prepaid mobile connection is either going to pirate very small files, or end up paying rather more than retail for them...
Sharing your connection using Joiku with a file-sharing felon might tar you with the same brush. 3 strikes and you're all out.
Due process? We flushed that crap down the toilet years ago.
John
Unbelievable - it's actually close to anonymous? Watch them close this up just as fast as you can say Tor. Is this the case in other countries as well?
Does this mean the ISP can look into my cd-collection and see that I don't own the right to use a mp3? If so, how? And better yet, how can we stop them.
Freedom costs a buck o-five.
"In the absence of the ability to establish the attribute of truth they tried to establish the noble attributes."
Some basic assumptions are that the ISP uses a Radius server to have people authenticate their mobile network devices on their network. Radius servers record the calling phone number of the sim card. Lookup phone number/sim number against the owner at time of given download? Or is that far too simple?
If the record industry wants this data, they can pay for its collection.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Outright retarded article... Mobile data fees are so expensive that this whole story it makes no sense whatsoever
I've seen plenty of slow news days here where kdawson decided to publish non-sense, but this is a new low.
Who hijacked slashdot for this "story"? Is the slashdot torrent tracker next? I guess it's not too far a stretch. Instead of 100 inane "frist post" comments they're all be converted to "Please seed" instead. Instead of flamewars about Apple, Microsoft, or Google, we can all start flames about the torrents containing viruses or whose torrent of the latest 0 dayz warez is better than whose. Welcome to the new slashdot. Not so different to the old!
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I don't think FSOSA (free speech or stone age) had this (somewhat middle ground) scenario in mind, but it rhymes quite a bit.
Basically, you can't quash speech unless people can't access laptops and wireless cards. Period. You either go back to the stone age or accept arbitrary, free speech.
But in this case you don't even need to resort to some grassroots, duct-taped together community mesh network - you just need to get one or two abstractions away from the proper "Internet" and you're already there. Which is really great news, actually.
For those who haven't RTFA, they're pretty much just saying that mobile networks in the UK use NAT for their data connections so there's no way to narrow connections to one user.
The solution to the problem of file sharing is very simple. All they need do is put a government program on the computer that monitors everything the user does and reports to the people assigned to monitor the citizens. Better yet would be to build this into the government mandated operating system or even better, government mandated hardware dongle. Problem solved. After all, no one's under the delusion that they have a right to privacy anymore, right?
I haz unlimited internets* on my phone here in the good old USA.
(*Unlimited, I'm sure, until I use several GB or something instead of just looking at Google Maps occasionally. :p)
Filesharing is "the perfect crime" in any situation which doesn't involve horrible crippling of networks. There has NEVER been a solid mapping between "person" and "network route", and there never will be on any sane network architecture.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
There is a book called, The Public Domain written by a professor of law from the Duke Law School. You can download an electronic version legally and for free from that link. It outlines the conflicts facing areas of creativity like the arts and sciences and explains the history of how it came to be so enclosed. It also does not pull any punches, it supports industry where deserved and advocates Citizen interests where right. It certainly is a lot better than my rants and raves when I scream: I Want My Public Domain ! Although he has more reasons to be tactful than I. Inform yourself, read the free book. I am and once I'm done I'm going to go read some Pirate Party propaganda to see if it is compatible with the good professor.
Shh.
And require all devices to be registered, with clients shimmed into your ip stack being required to access anything online. This is where it will end up. Everyone will be running something like the old netzero client .. ack.
Remember only terrorists and pirates want to be anonymous... You have nothing to hide.. do you ?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
>According to the article, databases (tracking IP address mappings) could be built to make it possible to identify what specific users are downloading
Exactly how is knowing an IP address mapping going to tell anyone which SPECIFIC USER is doing anything? It might tell you which account is doing something. But last I checked, that doesn't tie to a person. Any number of people might use a single IP address. At work, we have 150+ users behind a single IP address.
So, an account holder will be guilty, regardless of who the "user" actually was.
This comment has been at 99% for two weeks now! Plz seed!!!!!!@#!eleven!
Your sentiment is valid, but you need to twist the finer nuances of language to manipulate change to your liking.
Shh.
Instead of hiding under whatever is the closest rock, how about checking out an organization such as the Pirate Party. I hear their doing relatively well over in Euro-Land.
Shh.
Indeed - the Government's current strategy for touting the "benefits" of the new national ID card and database scheme are:
1. Put up the price of the passport (used to be £30-40 a few years ago, it's £77 now, and when it merges with the ID card in a couple of years, it'll be £93 plus £30 processing fees).
2. Start insisting that more and more places require ID (one example of this is that the police are now increasingly requiring that pubs and clubs introduce a ID scanning policy - of everyone, even if they know you're old enough). Conveniently make it so that only a passport or ID card can be used, ignoring the perfectly good (and cheap) existing forms of voluntary ID such as the CitizenCard.
3. Say: Look how great the ID card is, you can use it for this, and it "only" costs £30 (plus an extra £30 processing fees that we won't mention), cheaper than the now inflated-cost passport. Following on from my pub/club example, here we are - the BBC very kindly reproduce the spin from the Government press release.
Is that you, Lily Allen? Come on now, you know you shouldn't be "stealing" other people's work, even if you do distribute it in the form of a "mix tape". As you said yourself, music's not free to make, so it can't be free, can it? Who could argue with solid and well thought out logic like that?
Making laws is easy when it is a vetted and money'd interest on one side and some upstart disruptive ne'er do well on the other. Things get a bit more complicated when there is influence on both sides of the issue. How can lawmakers possibly know what is right when there are bribes available on both sides of an issue? It is an unreasonable thing we ask of them -- ultimately they have to try to predict which side will be able to give them more money in the future.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
Well you know, that 99% of politicians make the rest of them look bad.
... all this really does is give them more dead horse to beat on.
All the while not considering that piracy is so widespread it is best described as 'natural' and is found ubiquitous among the poor, rich, educated, ignorant, moral, and immoral. Piracy is almost as common as laughing, and probably more popular than religion.
No.... lets pretend this is a curable disease; an infestation of the people's perception that can be righted..... lets beat this frikking horse to pieces and when the path gets awkward, beat it some more!!!!!
--------
Or... Or we could try to understand peoples and cultures and not try to incriminate ourselves (yes we permit our governments that tickle/torture/incriminate us) --- maybe we could find better business and cultural/legal models that are realistic.... What.. did I just say REALISTIC?
Yes... realistic. If bread was digital, we'd all be making copies. And that is realistic.
It depends on where you live. Here in Denmark, pay-by-the-MB mobile broadband is virtually extinct. Between the various providers, there are 1GB, 2GB, 5GB, 10GB, and unlimited monthly plans, with speeds varying from 1 mbit to 16 mbit. If you go over your limit, most providers just stick you in a low priority queue, so you just get a slower connection.
I've got an unlimited 7 mbit plan, and it is definitely fast enough to run BitTorrent on it. I get at least 4 mbit whenever I'm anywhere near a cell tower.
I have a Vodafone mobile dongle and it costs me £15 per 1GB for pre-pay and they are hardly the cheapest ones out there.
They don't have my name or any other contact information on me (I went to the store in person, bought the dongle and paid in cash) so anything I do through it cannot be associated with my name (as long as I never "load more money" into that account with a credit/debit card).
That said, at £15 a GB, file-sharing is only really worth it if what you're downloading is music (in the UK, if buy MP3 music tracks from places like iTunes or Amazon it will cost you in about £1.00 - aprox. $1.50 - per track) or DivX compressed movies.
Speed-wise, it is quite fast, between 1Mb/s - 3Mb/s downstream.
Head explodes.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Sign please!
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/dontdisconnectus/
C-x C-s C-x k
I've wondered for a while what possibilities prepaid mobile broadband in the UK offer for hackers/crackers. Surely, a mobile broadband USB stick, is a hugely valuable hacking tool? You could buy one in cash so they can't trace your credit-debit card, don't register with the provider so you're effectively anonymous (most mobile ISP's require you to register before letting you access adult content), and you can be moving round a lot. Although they do seem to block web proxies, which is one point against.