Slashdot Mirror
Criticism Of Copyright Alert System Mounts
Dangerous_Minds writes "This last week, the Copyright Alert System was rolled out. Now that everyone is getting a better idea of what the alert system looks like, criticisms are building against the system. Freezenet says that the mere fact that ISPs are using a browser pop-up window opens the floodgates for fraudsters to hijack the system and scam users out of money. The EFF criticized the system because the educational material contains numerous flaws. Meanwhile, Web Pro News said that this system will also hurt small business and consumers."
This is exactly the same as other totalitarian regimes did and do to re-"educate" (or to say it plainly, indoctrinate) their citizens with ideological propaganda to support the system. The USSR did it before the wall fell in 1989, and now the megacorps are doing it in the USA. Most Russians were clever enough to see through such propaganda, I'm curious to see if Americans are just as smart.
Aren't they protected from liability as long as they act as "dumb pipes"? Doesn't his mean they are opening themselves up for liability? Yeah, I understand the ones that own media companies but what about the rest? Seems like a way to lose customers is all.
Everyone should draw a crappy picture in paint, host it on something free like google sites, and spread links that bring people to a second page that says "You don't have permission to click this link" with a link to the picture itself. Then bring copyright complaints to all the ISPs of all the people who inevitably click that and hence download your copyrighted crap without permission. Flood the fuckers.
"residential Internet accounts are the focus of our program. The vast majority of businesses, including those like Starbucks that provide legitimate open Wi-Fi connections, will have an Internet connection that is tailored to a business operation and these business networks are not part of the CAS and will never be sent a Copyright Alert."
the rest of the site looks like an advertisement for the major media companies, directing you to "their" content as if it is the only game in town, while appearing to mom and dad as an official legal page
The fact that the content industry has no problems with having the ISP industry monitoring their CUSTOMERS use of the Internet makes me sick.
Some rights are more important than others. My right to not be spied on by a company I (not the content industry) am doing business with is much more important than the content industries desire to make sure they're paid every dime they think they deserve.
The ISPs should have fought like hell to achieve a common carrier status which would have allowed them to tell big content to pound sand. Oh and as for the content industry owning many ISPs our government should have never allowed that.
I'll say it again. If your business model requires a police state to be viable, you need to fucking go out of business.
Browser hijacking popup?
Noscript says "wat?"
It seems to me that the content of an IP packet should be protected under wiretapping laws. What gives the ISPs the right to monitor my traffic. If they do have this right, do they also have the right to break or somehow spoof encrypted traffic as well?
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
If, as is described on the copyrightinformation.org website, the copyright alert system is implemented such that the IP addresses it gathers genuinely are being used by infringers, I don't have much of a problem with this, since I don't download infringing content, nor do I do anything which might permit or enable other people to use my internet connection who may, and I do not hold much sympathy for those who do.
There are, however, two major flaws that concern me greatly. The first is that if they are falsely alleging that a subscriber infringed on copyright with one of these alerts, the subscriber cannot actually challenge the alert until after about the 3rd or 4th one. The other issue, an even bigger one, is that all of the alerts, even including the ones which permit an alleged perpetrator to appeal, are worded very much like a form letter, and do not contain any particulars about the accusation, like what work was allegedly infringed on, which network the alleged infringement occurred on, when it occurred, etc. It doesn't even identify the *TYPE* of alleged infringing content, which strikes me as incrediby unfair.... and has a very similar feel in my opinion to the notion of, say, being stopped and given a warning by a police officer, but them not telling you what it was that you supposedly even did. If you don't know what they are even talking about, then how are you expected to sensibly respond, beyond calling them liars?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
This is not an educational system. It's a system designed to assign IP violation liability to the owner of the IP address where by eliminating arguements like "I didn't know it was occurring" or "it was an unauthorized user. I'm very glad to see scrutiny rising on the topic, there was little coverage in the days leading up.
Would you also say that the ACLU doesn't back important rights because it advocates for the speech rights of groups you disagree with? Privacy doesn't mean being left alone to do just what _you_ think everyone else should.
The EFF is still fighting for internet privacy. That some people their privacy so they may violate IP laws is immaterial.
True. When this was first posted, I didn't need to read further than "browser pop-up" to realize it's a bad thing. I am a professional IT security expert, after a couple of years you get an intuition about stupid ideas.
Will it work? Are you kidding me?
Will it have unintended consequences? Nah... neeeeever... what could possibly go wrong?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
The first two warnings – “educational alerts” – tell consumers they’ve been caught. The email will then direct them to legitimate sources of content with the hopes that the early warnings are enough to scare people into buying content.
I hardly use email anymore. I almost don't use it at all. What I do have, my ISP does not know about, unless they've been spying on my HTTPS connections to Gmail. I don't have ISP based email, or if I do, I have no idea what it is, or have a means to login. Why would I use email that would change if I need to change layer 3 ISP?
And what "legitimate sources of content" will work on my Slackware based computer? If they had that, I wouldn't need to be working around their broken sites.
The next two warnings step it up a notch with what’s called “acknowledgement alerts.” The first two alerts were simply emails, but these next two will actually hijack your browser. You will be hit with a message telling you that you’ve been caught yet again, and must acknowledge that you’ve been caught before you can start browsing.
Criminal actions and privacy aside, how the hell are they going to hijack my browser? I'm using HTTPS whever I can. I have 4 VPN setups to use. Sure, I do some insecure browsing like at Slashdot. But I don't use THEIR proxies, so they would have to add equipment than can do intercepts to traffic. So maybe it's possible for them to hijack my Slashdot traffic. But combining the interception and Slashdot's crazy content format, how can they make a popup appear safely ... for every web site? And how will this even prevent browsing without cutting off service? Cut off port 80 if they think that stops anything of high value?
The next two tiers, and presumably every alert afterwards, will be “mitigation measures.” In essence, the ISPs will begin throttling your bandwidth or blocking Web sites you frequently visit. The ISPs will not be able to cut off your Internet connection under the plan.
I frequently visit Slashdot. I guess they are going to block that And I am paying extra for the higher tier (8 mbps ... and it works). If they throttle below that level, they are violating the service offering they have for that extra payment. So I stop paying the extra.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
That network that isnt 'ours' crosses a billon public right-of-ways. They may own the wire, but we own the land it runs through, its not as simple as you make it to be. The public has a vested interest in regulating ISPs and we should be doing more to leash them.
Good-bye
for the last week, so far no emails, letters or pop up's from comcast. Ive wanting to see how much downloading does it take before I get flagged. Then once I know the triggers, I can switch to an anonymous vpn and try it again.
I'll take copyright infringement seriously the day that Big Media starts taking the public domain seriously, and not one second before. They thought they could play this game of indefinitely extending the length of copyright terms, effectively stealing from the public domain and all of humanity without there being unforeseen consequences? Guess what? People now take copyrights about as seriously as Big Media does, i.e. not at all.
Fuck your copyrights.
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