Virgin Media, TalkTalk snub kind offer to block Newzbin2 The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has asked two other UK internet service providers (ISPs) to consent to a court order that would force them to block their customers' access to a copyright-infringing website. The MPA previously won a High Court ruling against BT forcing it to "block or attempt to block" access to the …
This whole sorry tale is stupid. This particular website is doing nothing that you can't achieve though a quick Google search and yet they are being singled out. Surely, if indexing illegal content is illegal in itself, then Google is also in violation? The court order is also pointless in that the wording of the court order will become very important. If they name a specific website, just change the name. If a specific IP, just change that etc.etc. Until the MPA finally come to their senses and realise it's their previous activities and business model that's wrong, they will never sort this out. Thisis just causing cost and irritating people for no benefit, short or long term.
"The complex issues involved have been considered already in the BT case and the future process for obtaining blocking orders, in clear cut cases at least, can only get quicker and less expensive"
Not only have you allowed the censors onto your own network, you've made it easier for them to get at others' networks. Why be so stupid?
Also, we really need to address the silly law against people sharing things that they own.
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"The ISP has mainly used its Cleanfeed technology to block access to websites featuring child abuse images."
its hardly sophisiticated technology they have simple changed the DNS records for the sites so they don't resolve, as many have pointed out if you put in the IP for newzbin2 in the address bar you can by pass the "cleanfeed technology"
Clean feed doesn't rely on DNS hacks to make it work. Instead it publishes an alternative route to IP addresses that are hosting content for one or more of the blocked URLs. This alternative route is actually via a transparent, filtering proxy. Non port 80 requests are forwarded as normal, whilst port 80 requests go to the proxy which then selectively choses if the request should still be forwarded or not based on the full URL.
This design avoids a significant chunk of the collateral damage that might otherwise be caused by DNS hacks.
Source: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rnc1/cleanfeed.pdf
I'm sure we will see a lot of the regular comments from the regular commenters and in the main they will be saying the same thing. The MPA is attempting something obvious for all the wrong reasons and will fail to achieve their objectives for even more obvious reasons.
It is almost irrelevant whether Newbinz2 are being bad boys or not because they can respond orders faster than the MPA and courts can enforce so the only effect is that the courts and ISPs become more and more casual about blocking/filtering content to the eventual detriment of everyone.
All the time that the 'genuine' product is either too expensive or not available in a suitable format then the grey areas will creep in to fill the void. The grey route cost/risks are relatively low (unless you feel like advertising to the world that you have a rip-off of every movie that has ever been made).
This means that people that really really have to have a copy of that movie (you know, the one that thingie was in where he/she saved the world while hanging from a trapeze singing 'our' song) to watch on their fondleslab while having a duvet day will take a chance. If they get away with it they may try for one or two more. If a large portion of the population is taking a chance on the grey zone then don't fix the symptoms fix the cause.
Agreed, dull old arguments rehearsed. So let's talk about something new.
Assuming there is a demand, what could you do to prevent "piracy?" The only thing I can think of is a strict national IP whitelist, with automatic strict disincentives for anyone accessing or allowing access to non-whitelisted destinations. A bit like China.
Nothing will ever eliminate piracy 100% - not even a whitelist. But it can be greatly reduced
The correct solution requires a different attitude first by content owners. Make us not want to pirate. Provide a superior product than the pirates can offer and make us *want* to give our money.
As it stands in some creative sectors, particularly gaming, Pirates now offer a superior product: No DRM and no third party software required just to load the game post install.
I know Capitalism is getting a bad rap, but piracy is just Capitalism at work. A need of the market wasn't being met, so someone met it. It is perhaps one of lifes great Ironies that those who benefit the most from capitalism are trying to squash it.
Absolutely agree.
I do a lot of travel and after reluctantly accepting books are heavy and take up luggage space started to move to digital content on my fondleslab.
I've downloaded a number of comicbook torrents (that I already own in meatspace) to carry with me which are ok to read in ACV. The tempation is strong to to download other comics I don't own in meatspace. However I find comiXology to be a superior experience - especially the sliding panels - so much so that I've started purchasing in app. It's really convenient (also a little scary how convenient). I've even decided to convert to digital at the expense of my paperback collection of The Walking Dead.
tl;dr - comiXology is a good example of this.
Of course what I'm really waiting for now, is the for them to bundle digitial downloads with phyisical purchases - this, I think would be fair and useful.
Waste of time. People will get around this just like they get around everything else.
Virgins just started traffic shaping Newsgroup access so that even if your on their 100 service, between around 5pm and midnight instead of taking less than 30 secs to download a 700MB file, it takes 5+ hours.
So people have started using VPN's to get around this
And that's apart from the fact that under current English law, if I download say a TV show from a newsgroup, I haven't even committed a criminal offence, just a civil one uf they use newsgroups, unlike using torrents.
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended by the Copyright and Trade Marks (Offences and Enforcement) Act 2002, currently protects copyrighted materials. People who download copyrighted recordings without permission face civil actions. Downloading can also constitute a criminal offence if the downloader distributes the material.
Because it's the thin end of the wedge...
I suspect very few people use it because these days you have to pay for a binary newsfeed.
However, now it's pretty much legally banned at BT, they're using the BT ruling to enforce the ban on other ISPs. Then they'll pick a slightly larger target, maybe go back to court with BT, but use the previous ruling to help the new case, then if they win, use the two rulings for force other ISPs to 'co-operate'. Then pick a slightly larger target, and go at BT again, by now there's a lot of precedent been set... A couple more rounds and TPB will be on the hit list...
Once that's down, here's a list of ALL the other search sites, could you just add those to Cleenfeed too? Many thanks...
I wonder how much BT (or Virgin Media or Talktalk) earns per month from providing its customers with a service they can get for free by simply parking outside a neighbour's unsecured WIFI with a laptop on their knees?
If you know, do please tell the witless morons controlling the entertainment industry. And if they are too stupid to register the significance of it you can give them this clue with my compliments: the customers think that the added-value service and convenience that BT provides are worth its charges.
There now, was that so difficult to grasp?
PS The copyright of this idea is mine and mine alone. Any attempt by anyone to use it in order to earn money for themselves, and many employees and peripherals and associated other businesses such as taxis, restaurants, clothes shops, motor manufacturers etc, not to mention artists, actors, writers and musicians, will be greeted with enthusiasm by myself and doubtless many others.
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