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BBC: ISPs Should Assume VPN Users Are Pirates

An anonymous reader sends this news from TorrentFreak: After cutting its teeth as a domestic broadcaster, the BBC is spreading its products all around the globe. Shows like Top Gear have done extremely well overseas and the trend of exploiting other shows in multiple territories is set to continue. As a result, the BBC is now getting involved in the copyright debates of other countries, notably Australia, where it operates four subscription channels. Following submissions from Hollywood interests and local ISPs, BBC Worldwide has now presented its own to the Federal Government. Its text shows that the corporation wants new anti-piracy measures to go further than ever before.

The BBC begins by indicating a preference for a co-operative scheme, one in which content owners and ISPs share responsibility to "reduce and eliminate" online copyright infringement. ... "Since the evolution of peer-to-peer software protocols to incorporate decentralized architectures, which has allowed users to download content from numerous host computers, the detection and prosecution of copyright violations has become a complex task. This situation is further amplified by the adoption of virtual private networks (VPNs) and proxy servers by some users, allowing them to circumvent geo-blocking technologies and further evade detection," the BBC explains.

11 of 363 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So if I... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thats nothing. I use a VPN everyday for my company's cloud based accounting system. My entire department is staffed by pirates.

  2. Obviously by BrennanPratt · · Score: 4, Funny

    The co-operative approach is obvious. I mean, if a Ford-brand car battery is used to electrocute a journalist's genitals in a spider-hole in Iraq, of course the journalist and his survivors can sue Ford. That's just obvious. And BBC is going to find that many businesses at home and abroad do not care to have their means of secure communication severed.

  3. Arrrrgh! by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 5, Funny

    Arrrgh, matey! Debit Left!!!, Credit Right!!!

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
    1. Re:Arrrrgh! by jimmydevice · · Score: 5, Funny

      The Crimson Permanent Assurance

    2. Re:Arrrrgh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Arrrgh, matey! Debit Left!!!, Credit Right!!!

      I think that's "Debit to port, Credit to starboard" yer landlubber

  4. Re:ORLY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Aye, matey. You don't know it yet, but everytime you log into your corporate VPN, you trigger an illegal download. That's part of Ciscos evil masterplan to get rid of odd soap operas like Downtown Abbey

  5. Re:Don't wear pants! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    While you think taking off the pants will expose everything, many will just skirt the issues.

    With nonsense like this, no wonder the Scots want to go their seperate ways!

  6. Re:Copyright has no clothes. by Krishnoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    20 years is long enough, long enough for Terminator 2 to now be public domain and Skynet to be a free literary construct.

    Considering some fashion of Skynet will probably soon be a reality, the copyright holders can then send it a forceful cease and desist letter, and will have the option to sue it in court. That'll show Skynet.

  7. Re:ORLY? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

    Not only that, but actually you're one of the worst. You're even doing it FOR PROFIT!

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  8. Re:Contacting BBC, via VPN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The BBC has been a pretty reactionary organization overall, with some insane political correctness sprinkled over it. They are sucking up to the Middle Eastern audience so hard, they cause trade winds all by themselves. But as I said, overall the BBC is solidly right wing and in the pocket of big media. I still remember when the BBC favored the copy-protection bits added to CDs by some media conglomerates - chiefly Sony and Universal.

  9. Re:So if I... by ray-auch · · Score: 5, Funny

    Won't somebody please think of the children !

    The BBC in particular seems to have been pretty good at employing people who "think of the children"...