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Microsoft, Google, Apple Could Be Requested To Actively Block Pirated Downloads, Says Report (torrentfreak.com)
Popular operating systems by Microsoft, Apple, and Google could possibly soon nuke torrents downloaded (PDF, non-English language) from The Pirate Bay and other websites that offer copyright infringing content, warns a report published by Black Market Watch and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. The report adds that the aforementioned companies are in an ideal position to deter piracy, and could be requested by the authority to put a system in place to block pirated content on the operating system level. Via a TorrentFreak report: "Other players that possess the potential ability to limit piracy are the companies that own the major operating systems which control computers and mobile devices such as Apple, Google and Microsoft," one of the main conclusions reads. "The producers of operating systems should be encouraged, or regulated, for example, to block downloads of copyright infringing material," the report adds. The report references last year's Windows 10 controversy, noting that these concerns were great enough for some torrent sites to block users with the new operating system. While Sweden doesn't have enough influence to make an impact on these global software manufacturers, applying pressure through the international community and trade groups may have some effect.
This will produce a giant boost of Linux usage on the desktop.
Until the day a legislation gets passed where only hardware may be sold where UEFI secure boot can't be disabled, and
where UEFI signatures will only be allowed for kernels that have such an "anti pirate" spyware module inside.
Also works great for political ideas. Just put anything you don't like your people to read onto the blacklist. Iran, China and friends will love this.
Nothing makes me feel safer than knowing some invisible party on the other side of the Atlantic has access to nuking any and all files on my computer whenever he wants.
I'm sure companies will love to know that their trade secrets can be deleted without notice by a low-level grunt taking a bribe from a competitor.
When the fucking hell did my computer stop being MY computer?
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
1. people hate blue-ray and DVD because its nearly 20 minutes of unstoppable auto-play adverts for new titles or tie-in marketing.
2. people hate being gouged for old titles they cant access anymore in the name of exploiting established nostalgia. I can pay $70 for a used copy of command and conquer, or i can just fucking download it.
3. people loathe the theatre experience of 20 minute captive audience adverts, exorbitant ticket prices, and concession gouging.
unless and until these issues are resolved, we will continue to sink time and formidable effort into the process of generating and distributing torrents. theres no legislation you can pass that will keep me from getting a copy of the avengers that doesnt waste my time while the version that tries to sell me a new car stays on the shelf.
Good people go to bed earlier.
The Right to Read
No, the OS makers should not be regulated to keep your struggling business model alive.
You fought to make copyright insanely long. Now its getting harder to put out new things no one has seen before and will pay money to see.
You fight to keep your creations artificially restricted by region in our connected world. So people share it to get around that.
You fight to keep people from sharing culture. That's the very essence of culture, a shared social existence.
You fight to make money off those who create, and screw them over. They are leaving you in droves.
You lie, cheat and steal and when someone does it to you, you whine and beg and bribe to get them back. You act as if you are the only ones with rights here. Well you are not. We have rights as well and we're sick of your corrupting our governments to steal them from us.
We're going to share content. you cannot stop it. Add more DRM and we'll simply break it. Pass laws to regulate makers of operating systems and they'll move while we choose another one or make it ourselves. Take down a website, another will always spring up to replace it. Give us shit options that cost more than physical ones and we'll continue to ignore them in favor of sharing. We are not pirates. We are humans. We are not wallets. We are humans. Humanity survived because of sharing. You deny humanity itself when you try to stop sharing. You declare yourselves to be monsters that must be fed, creatures who think they are better than we and should be obeyed.
We do not like those would call themselves our masters. Especially not when they prove to have such a weak grasp of reality. You keep spending your money and efforts trying to stop sharing. We'll keep finding new ways to share until you run out of money, out of influence, out of ears to listen to you and corrupt our laws. And then, when you have passed from existence, we'll figure out better ways to share more freely, to build upon each others creativity, and make truly great things again.
captcha: overtake
...put a system in place to block pirated content on the operating system level. ...
Given the quality assurance failures of major OS providers recently, this new plan will only be a disaster. But those proposing it don't care about false positives, and they have lawyers to protect themselves from the effects of false positives.
.
[aside: this coming weekend I plan to convert the second of my three notebooks from Windows to Linux, due to the Windows 10 update malware tactic. If the plan to delete files on my systems goes through, the conversion of the remainder of my Windows PCs will only be accelerated.]
In the 90s if I told you, your monitor cable would enforce DRM, you would have thought me mad.
This frog is being boiled slowly, but boiled nonetheless.
An open Internet and general purpose computers give peasants too much power and must be quashed at all costs.
I already have a plan in place...
I'm going to just XOR all my data streams with a repeated 0x46 0x75 0x63 0x6b 0x20 0x4f 0x66 0x66.
If they figure it out, they're liable for violating the DMCA rules on anticircumvention...