Anti-Piracy Firm Rightscorp Will Hijack Pirates' Browsers Until a Fine is Paid (torrentfreak.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Anti-piracy firm Rightscorp says that it's working on a next-generation technology called Scalable Copyright, under which it plans to extract cash settlements from suspected Internet pirates. The company says its new technology will lock users' browsers and prevent Internet access until they pay a fine. (Sounds familiar?) To encourage ISPs to play along, Rightscorp says the system could help to limit their copyright liability. For those unaware, Rightscorp works with copyright owners such as movie studios, music labels, and game developers, and tracks the IP addresses of people who are torrenting copyright infringing material. Sadly, the company's previous tactics haven't worked so well. The company doesn't have many clients, and it posted a net loss of $3.43m in 2015, up from the $2.85m net loss recorded in 2014.

Comments

Re: If ever a company and its people deserved to d

[sudon't]

No, it's not theft, it's copyright violation. There's no good reason to confuse the two concepts.

I don't know if there's a good reason, but there's a useful reason. It allows people like the RIAA and MPAA to justify things like suing their customers, or installing ransomware on their computers.

You know, I just thought of a fun thing for developers to do. If someone inputs a known bogus serial to unlock your software - bam! - you install some ransomware! They've just authenticated for you when they installed, right? (unless they have the sense to install apps in their Home directory). Now you hold their data ransom for $15, or whatever, and fill their monitor with scary 8-bit graphics until they pay up. Hilarious, am I right?