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Comcast Working On 'Helpful' Copyright Violation Pop-ups
gregor-e writes "Comcast is said to be preparing to snoop on your internet browsing to detect when you attempt to download a copyright-protected item. On detection, Comcast will pop up a helpful window that contains information about where you can obtain a legal version of whatever you're downloading. 'While sources familiar with the new initiative emphasized that it is being seen as a complement to CAS [a.k.a. six strikes] and not a replacement, the very emergence of an alternative raises questions as to the viability of CAS, which has been criticized for myriad reasons ranging from the questionable strategic rationale of punishing subscribers to an implementation that has been characterized as scattershot. How the two systems would coexist is unclear.'"
Comcast will be inviting other ISPs to join its new system as well.
They arent producing derivative works, theyre inserting content into the stream. IANAL, but it seems to me a derivative work would require redistribution, which theyre not doing; theyre simply dropping something in the middle.
If your reasoning was in the slighest valid, then every site that had third party scripts (facebook buttons, adwords, google analytics, etc) would also be liable.
One would hope that when objecting to such an awful idea, people could at least object for the right reason (like, oh i dont know, MITMing every connection is an awful idea from every single angle?)