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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."
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
I guess I'm not sure what you want to talk to my printer about. Maybe you're alluding to some story I haven't haerd
If I may, I believe this is about some of the DMCA takedown notices received by University of Washington from the MPAA in the summer of 2008. A few of them were directed at laser printers because researchers at the university pulled some tricks with IP addresses in an attempt to prove that, no, they really don't tell you about identity and, no, the MPAA doesn't care.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/05/the-inexact-science-behind-dmca-takedown-notices/
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/05/entertainment-indust-1.html
I don't know if any changes have been made in response to the embarrassment, nor whether the embarrassment has even been acknowledged as such.