Government Will Force Crackdown on Privacy
In the U.S. there are debates raging in the world of the Internet Service Provider, or ISPs, about whether they are obligated to help the recording and film industries by stopping the flow of pirated content on their networks. In the U.K., though, the British government is putting its foot down, saying that if ISPs there don't take steps to stop illegal downloading they'll institute legislation to force their hand.
Here Comcast has definitely taken the side of the content holders, actively slowing and even disabling connections for those who would download torrents of films. Verizon on the other hand has indicated it has no intent to get involved with the content war, reminding everyone of the various bits of legislation that protects telephone service providers from being held liable for what people choose to say on them and indicating that any attempt to stop pirated content is a very slippery slope indeed.
Will this be a trend? Can we expect similar measures here in the U.S.? You can bet on it if the Motion Picture Association of America and Recording Industry Association of America have anything to say about it -- and given the number of lobbyists the two wield, they certainly will.
From Reuters
Related Links:
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jimmmy king @ Feb 22nd 2008 12:22PM
IMPEACH TERRORISTS BUSH,CHENEY, WHAT WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION? DUMP DISASTER REPUBLICONS FOR A BETTER WORLD.
whitcombc @ Feb 23rd 2008 3:31AM
Wow! How about bait and switch? The story here isn't that comcast is protecting anyone, or any rights. Comcast is in court RIGHT NOW because they have been slowing traffic, stopping peer to peer from anyone they wish, using the same techniques that spammers use...huge attacks on servers basically slowing them down until they don't work. The ISPs want to be able to sell, for extra money, un-slowed services to anyone who pays extra. SO, as happened in Canada, if the ISP wants one group to succeed on the net and another to fail, they simply slow down the traffic to one domain. THIS is the meat of corporate control of the internet. Imagine if Microsoft became an ISP...no MAC user would EVER get their email! And if a political party gets in bed with an ISP and the party isn't yours, good luck finding out anything about your party or candidate. Same with your company, the stores you shop at, the banks you bank at...all these will be under the thumb of some cable entity that you do not get to choose.
Ricky P @ Feb 23rd 2008 10:10PM
Won't work! It will just make a larger more discrete Black Market that will go Orginised Crime Big Time! As well, this is the new generation comming up and anything old won't exactly count for much! Big Brother Looses in the end regardless of who likes it and who doesn't! Old ways are Out! I'm getting old so won't fase me! In Grave ROLMAO! :) HAHAHAHAHAHA
Daniel Gaunt @ Feb 25th 2008 8:31AM
If the capitalists had their way it would be illegal to share media even with you're own family, so if you had 4 people in your family you'd have to buy that movie 4 times!
http://freeextras.blogspot.com/
http://lifeorsomethingnotquitelikeit.blogspot.com/