ISPs: New Police

[bleys]

Several major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have signed on to a voluntary agreement with the movie and music industries to crack down on the pirating of copyrighted media, under which consumers will be subject to a “six strikes” policy.

The copyright enforcement plan will allow copyright holders to partner with ISPs to identify and warn consumers six times that their account could be subject to penalties if identified illegal activity continues. After the “sixth strike,” a consumer would be subject to “mitigation measures,” ars technica reports.

The website quoted the agreement’s announcement materials, which stated that the agreement’s goal is to “educate and stop the alleged content theft in question, not to punish. No ISP wants to lose a customer or see a customer face legal trouble based on a misunderstanding, so the alert system provides every opportunity to set the record straight.”

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/new-anti-piracy-agreement-isp-consumers-subject-to-six-strikes-policy-28045/

[Guild]

It's like a six strike system or something.

My guess is that it will have virtually no impact on piracy.

[Scrumtrilescent]

Is that like double secret probation?

[Guild]

Is that like double secret probation?

No... more like double secret bit-torrent downloading.

[blackcatgrowl]

As someone who has made a great deal of my money off of software that I wrote Ive got no problem with this.

It never ceases to amaze me that someone who wouldn't dream of stealing a pack of gum seemingly has no compunction about stealing days, weeks, months, or even years of someone elses hard work.

The people who you say "wouldn't steal a pack of gum", probably would steal a pack of gum if they could push a button and the gum instantly appeared on their desk.

Even if they were told "This is someone else's gum unless you pay for it.", they would take it if it was that easy.

[Guild]

As someone who has made a great deal of my money off of software that I wrote Ive got no problem with this.

It never ceases to amaze me that someone who wouldn't dream of stealing a pack of gum seemingly has no compunction about stealing days, weeks, months, or even years of someone elses hard work.

While I sympathize with you I don't view copying as stealing. I like the Dutch outlook of "it must be something taken from someone so as to cause them to no longer have the use said thing." That's a really rough paraphrase.

That said I don't want to take away what the software's creators have earned so I'm torn on the issue. The way I justify the use of torrents to myself is by using them as fully enabled demos. If I don't like the software I delete it, if I do I buy it legitimately. Of course most people won't show even that small amount of respect and will never pay.

[Guild]

I get the ease part of it. Ive often gotten a good laugh at those PSAs on DVDs:

You wouldn't steal a purse!

You wouldn't steal a car!

Don't steal this movie!

And my response was much as yours; Well if I could download an Aston Martin...

But Ive talked to people who compartmentalize the act as something besides stealing. They act like downloading a copy of Adobe CS 6 is somehow the same thing as ripping a copy of a friends Ke$ha CD.

I believe your example is in fact doing the same thing. Both are the act of copying digital data. The purpose/function of the data is irrelevant from a moral standpoint on both sides of the moral argument.

[bleys]

I fall in that category.. I wouldn't steal a pack of gum, but have stolen plenty of programs over the years..

the last Windows I ever owned was Win95.. have only bought a handful of Albums in the last 15 years (only the ones I actually enjoyed and wanted to support)..

[PanthaSan]

<----- has stolen gum, cars, trout from the fish farm, countles virginities (all girls), hearts, meat (cow), and countless other things. I had criminal Mentors when I was growing up.

[Seamonk]

I'd change ISPs, tbh. Who is to say someone comes over to my house and downloads something using my internet without my knowledge. This actually happened to me in College. I got a Judicial Referral for downloading a movie via BitTorrent that I didn't download.(Madea goes to Jail, what an asshat, it wasn't even a good movie) I was out of town and my roommate had a friend over who used my internet. In the end, I didn't get in trouble after explaining my case. But some other places aren't going to listen.

Honestly, while they may be losing some revenue due to piracy, it's not to the extent they claim and certainly not enough that they need to invade other people's privacy to do so. Most of the piracy goes on overseas.

A lot of the people I know will buy the Movie or CD if they like it enough. So instead of shoving out generic formulaic movies out every 3 months they should probably make better movies. And no, a movie doesn't have to have a big budget to be great. This is the same as the gaming industry where crap games are shoved out at 60 bucks a pop. I'm sorry, but there's no way I'm buying that only to be disappointed with a hole in my pocket. Especially since a lot of games have demos that are false representations of the actual game. The same way a lot of movie trailers only show 10 seconds of the only good scene in the movie. see. Sucker Punch

On that note, I suggest people to stop using BitTorrent if you're going to pirate. It's SO easy to track people on public trackers. I haven't used it for 2-3 years. It used to be big like 2003-2006 when it was still on the down low, but the more people use something, the less you should use it. like everything from Napster, KaZaa, Morpheus, etc.. it's just way too risky.

[bleys]

I tend to have a similar philosophy..

although regarding someone using your internet, that's why they have 6 strikes instead of 1.

[Davidson Deac II]

We should legalize marijuana, then execute a few software thieves. ;)

[bleys]

damn.. talk about never seeing the light of day.. :dita:

[Niner National]

I've watched countless movies illegally. I get 5 bars of wireless signal from someone in my building, so if he ever disappears I guess I'll know what happened :lol: