Korea Kicking People Offline With One Strike

An anonymous reader writes "While there's lots of talk of 'three strikes' laws in places like France, it may be worth looking over at South Korea, which put in place a strict new copyright law, required by a 'free trade' agreement with the US (which was the basis for ACTA). It went into effect in the middle of 2009, and now there's some data about how the program is going. What's most troubling is that the Copyright Commission appears to be using its powers to 'recommend' ISPs suspend user accounts based on just one strike, with no notice and no warning. The system lets the Commission make recommendations, but in well over 99% of the cases, the ISPs follow the recommendations, and they've never refused to suspend a user's account."

Comments

Online gaming

[Enderandrew]

Given the importance of online gaming and internet addiction in South Korea, this is actually bigger there than it would be here.

However, in the age of 3G internet access, roaming WiFi hotspots, anonymizer services, and the prevalance of internet cafes in South Korea, I think you'll find it difficult to nail individuals to specific IPs.

Re:Online gaming

[bondsbw]

Speaking of games... ever notice how many real-life rules are based on baseball? What if the guy who invented baseball chose four-strikes, or two-strikes? Law and our economy may hang in the balance of some one-off decision made by a kid hundreds of years ago.

Re:Online gaming

[h00manist]

nail individuals to specific IPs.

That's the main achilles heel of online free speech. Too bad nobody's figured out a solution that scales to everyone. Using other people's IP only goes so far. You can run all you want within Tor, but nobody wants to run the exit nodes. Plus, it brings the problem of anonymity for real crime with real victims, and therefore real investigations, right into the anonymity network. I run a cybercafe, it's a constant legal preocupation. I think of just closing all the time, many around here did...

Re:Online gaming

[NicknamesAreStupid]

If they are using IPv6, the MAC is part of the network address.

Re:Online gaming

[EdIII]

I hope it's huge. Really HUGE. Godzilla huge. Yes I know that is Japan.....

Hopefully, they kick off a few thousand people a day. Seriously.

If there is one place to get a really good Darknet going, it would South Korea at that point. Anything to finally give the impetus for society at large to move from the Internet, to a darknet layered on top of it. Ultimately better for society anyways.

Re:Online gaming

[jmauro]

Except in Korea you must register for all accounts using your Resident registration number. I mean everything: ISPs, bank sites, WoW, blog comments, etc. As such it's fairly easy to track people down since there is no concept of anonymity on the South Korean Internet. As such all they need to do to block you is put your RRN on the black list and you won't be able to get access again.

The Korean authorities also been known to track people down who say critical things about them using this ID as well and make things difficult.

Re:Online gaming

[EdIII]

Anyone who runs a Tor exit node needs to be either stupid enough to not worry, or sufficiently idealistic they are willing to take the risk of such an event in the name of free speech activism.

*raising hand*

Sufficiently Idealistic. Right here. Being disabled at birth meant I could not honor the family tradition of entering the military and fighting for my country. Probably a good thing, since I would have just ended up killing women and children in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Going to court to provide a litigation vehicle to strengthen the principles of Anonymity Through Reasonable Doubt? I'll throw myself on the grenade all day long and die with pride and honor. It's the least I can do for my fellow citizens and the cause of true freedom.

ACTA again

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear USA,

if your corporate leaders had not sent all your manufacturing jobs to China and India, your whole future economy would not depend on media production.

Fuck ACTA, and fuck the RIAA and MPAA.

Re:ACTA again

[interkin3tic]

You can't honestly be blaming individuals for trying to strecth their meager dollars by shopping at walmart, while at the same time giving a pardon to corporate leaders who are trying to maximize their millions by cutting jobs.

I would never eat food from a Costco or Walmart knowing what their buying practices are like.

I think I speak for the whole internet when I say we are in awe of you, good sir. [slow clap]

Re:ACTA again

[erroneus]

I think that's a chicken or egg situation.

I'll admit that typical American consumerism is pretty much out of hand. But it couldn't have happened without the businesses themselves offering these as a way to win over the competition. After all, if they can't make something "better" they will make more of it available at the same price. Competition has to occur for the free market to operate.

That said, I am not a proponent of the free market. I am, instead, a proponent of a regulated market. Individuals and businesses alike will do whatever they can get away with. And they will even feel they are entitled to do so if they do it long enough. In the U.S., we are "entitled" to buy and consume in massive volumes. When we see in other countries that such mass consumerism isn't available, we feel something is wrong or missing. On the other hand, when I have had visitors from other countries, they have adored "Sam's Club" and others for the cheap prices and massive quantities.

You are essentially blaming the U.S. for exercising what is "human nature" and you wouldn't be wrong to do so. This is why I am a proponent of a regulated market. When left to their imagination, people will do whatever they want and whatever they can get away with. Remove regulations that were once in place for a reason, and you get a crashed global economy. Should be no surprise there.

Still, I don't have a Walmart close to me now... I sometimes miss it. The convenience is not easy to resist.

Re:ACTA again

[Anonymous Coward]

Have the USA hit goods manufactured overseas with huge import taxes. I'm not talking about meager 10% taxes either. If the same thing would cost 100$ to make in the USA and a company his using China to get it for 5$, hit each item with 95$ in import fees.

Obviously the whole "cost if made in USA" would be hard to calculate, but the end result should be that given the costs, it would be insane to have it made anywhere but the USA (or at least Canada or Mexico). Even better would be to drop the whole "media copyrights" bullshit from ACTA and actually set pricing standards, minimum wages, etc. so that America, Europe, Japan and Australia could manufacture goods without being run into the ground by China and India.

Re:ACTA again

[rale, the]

I would never eat food from a Costco or Walmart knowing what their buying practices are like.

I wont question the statement about Walmart, but is Costco really that bad? I can't remember reading horror stories about them the way I have Walmart, so do you have some examples, or are you just lumping them in because they seem similar?

How about electricity?

[Anonymous Coward]

If I am reading an illegally-copied paper book by the warm glow of a 60-watt bulb, can the local electric utility be told to disconnect my service?

Re:Good way to get out of cell phone contract?

[jimicus]

Most of the cell phone contracts I've seen explicitly write it into the contract that if your connection is terminated through your own actions, you're still on the hook for the cash.

Re:So...what happens in the other 1%?

[MaskedSlacker]

'well over 99%' means 'we've never heard of a contrary case, but can't be arsed to find out whether or not one actually happened.'

Re:Isn't it odd

[DragonWriter]

Isn't it odd that "free trade" agreements are never that?

No, its not odd that corporate products are deceptively labeled.