American ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme on July 12

Beats paying 2 dollars, the gas for the trip there and back, and the time.

The comparison is free with the time it takes to type a site in, type the name of the movie, click search, click a link I want, and then click download. Then at my own leisure with no sort of rent deadline I just watch it whenever I'm ready. Having Fios means some of these shows and movies are there faster than the trip to 7/11. And if the Redbox doesn't have that movie, then I wasted a trip. Online, my selection is limited to.. Nothing. Everything is there, somewhere.

The only way to beat that convenience is to start up a service with the same instant gratification, selection, and quality. Piracy got people to stop going to the store, Steam got many people to stop pirating because they were more convenient.

Nobody found out a way to stop video game piracy, and it's almost a non-issue at this point. Movies and shows will suffer the same fate.

Now to watch the latest episode of Walking Dead, which I'd like to stream on a paid service, but I don't have TV, no streaming service offers the latest episodes, and I love the show. Hmm, wish I had a different option out there.

edited 18th Mar '12 10:13:32 PM by Barkey

A lot of people don't live that close to a redbox.

Sure, there's netflix, but they split up their streaming and rentals. Also it's not really worth it if you don't really watch that much video.

Online redbox would be a good compromise, but I haven't seen it.

edited 18th Mar '12 10:12:14 PM by ohsointocats

In B4 America completely ignoring other countries as potential markets while demonising piracy when they haven't remembered to give other territories stuff that there is no other option than to pirate otherwise, not to mention unnecessary price hikes on digital items overseas compared to what America pays.

A generation of men and women will have grown up under the shadow of an entertainment industry that hates them, and in return when they shoot themselves in the foot with this even more, said generation will shrug, quoting Eminem and Lil Wayne's No Love: "It's a little too late to say that you're sorry now". From hell's heart, I stab at thee, RIAA and MPAA. You have found what is possibly the greatest enemy you can find in youthful artists too cynical to remember a time when corporations and governments were "good".

Oh wow.... umm gd talk about an invasion of privacy.

This might be worse than SOPA.... full panic mode?

edited 19th Mar '12 12:42:56 AM by Raso

The Emergency Alert System has been activated, this is an international emergency. Important details will follow:

We're doomed.

edited 19th Mar '12 12:54:03 AM by Steventheman

Constitution of USA I am DISAPPOINTED IN YOU. Now let's hope other countries don't Follow the Leader on this one

Britain has.

I hate the US Government right now.

This isn't the Government. SOPA didn't pass, so they are doing this through non-legislative means, means that stray close to an anti-trust law suit.

To be honest, and owning up to my own sins, I discovered a lot of music through Youtube. But that's because I always go and download the actual song on Itunes after I've listened to it, because I don't want to screw over the musicians.

edited 19th Mar '12 9:47:48 AM by GameChainsaw

Cassie, you need to pay attention. The companies are doing this, not our government this time. As for what can be done, I don't know, unless someone wants to start a massive letter and email campaign again. I don't think a blackout would work in this instance.

But hey, if it ends up in an anti trust law suit I guess that's a way to shut it down also, if we have the good fortune that the hypothetical company loses the hypothetical lawsuit.

@Steventheman; the US government isn't telling these companies what to do in this instance. They're doing it on their own. You and Cassie are directing blame in the wrong direction this time.

edited 19th Mar '12 11:10:17 AM by AceofSpades

So why aren't the US government telling the companies to fucking less it then?

because there's a massive segment of government which thinks letting the free market do its magic is the best thing for every solution.

^

^^

Because they can't. What these companies are doing is not illegal until it actually happens and someone files an anti-trust suit. Companies partnering up in matters of policy is not illegal. The most that the Administration could publicly do is say that they don't feel it's a good idea. Individual congressmen and reps could wag their fingers and denounce it, but they can't stop it.

If I recall correctly, several ISPs already do this... a few of my friends got notices for torrenting episodes of various shows. Most also have policies where they can terminate your account after too many infractions. They also get you if you consume a lot of bandwidth (which filesharing tends to do). I use TWC and they're very much sticklers over people who use P 2 P software.

How it works is that corporations spy on peer-to-peer networks, then report to the ISP of whoever they catch by tracking them through their IP address. The company then has to send the notice.

EDIT: And in case any of you were wondering, false positives do already happen to people who were leeched or use torrents for other reasons. This is just asinine.

edited 19th Mar '12 12:34:17 PM by JuiceBoxHero

Also: This is a pretty good FAQ of what's going down.

I personally find it bullshit that you have to pay a $35 fee to answer a false accusation.

True, but the rest of it actually sounds quite reasonable.

edited 19th Mar '12 1:08:38 PM by RTaco

What I'm concerned with, however, is that these things can and do set off false alarms. You're most likely safe if you don't use peer-to-peer for anything or if you don't pirate at all (no one gives a fuck about fanfiction or fanart, for instance), but if you use Bittorrent (or anything else, really) for non-piracy reasons, you could still be notif'd. It's not always a human making the calls.

Doesn't exactly sound like the end of the world...

It may not be the END OF THE INTERNET AS WE KNOW IT that some are claiming it to be, but it's still a pain in the ass.

I was wondering, what specifically counts as peer-to-peer? Would something like the old Megaupload site have counted, or is it talking about something else?

No, as I believe MU was DDL. This video has a helpful guide on how people are tracked, if you'd like to watch.

EDIT: Well it looks like it's been removed, BUT. If I recall correctly, it was because when you download a torrent, you're simultaneously also uploading—meaning that your IP address becomes trackable. DDL sites like Megaupload only allow content owners to track down whoever uploaded the file in the first place.

AND ANOTHER EDIT: That Other Wiki has an article on P2P applications if you want to know how they work.

edited 19th Mar '12 2:04:52 PM by JuiceBoxHero

Magnet links are a great solution to some of these problems. As well as the usual fare of making sure your traffic is encrypted by using a torrent client which has good encryption, as well as proxying.

I just don't torrent.

So, basically, people who don't torrent and only use direct download links won't be affected by this? Because if that's true, then it's only going to stop people from using torrent, not from downloading anything possibly illegal.

Edit: I looked at the article on P 2 P on the "other Wiki" but still was confused about what sites counted.

edited 19th Mar '12 2:18:16 PM by Rainbow

This shit has anti-trust written all over it, not to mention the massive invasion of privacy. All it takes is for one person to be falsely accused of torrenting a movie or a game, then the dominoes will start to fall. This ain't the end of the world. As the SOPA protests demonstrated, the people wield a massive amount of untapped power that can change the landscape.