Finally a bit of SENSE in File sharing law review

johnwillyums · 10 Nov 2010

Just seen this myself and was going to post about it. I've had a look at the Digital Economy Act in depth and it looks like it's been hastily drafted by people who really don't have technical knowledge about how ISPs operate or how internet piracy works. As it stands it looks unenforceable.

Fayla · 10 Nov 2010

Then it's just like many of the other laws that the Labour party supported / suggested.

johnwillyums said:

Just seen this myself and was going to post about it. I've had a look at the Digital Economy Act in depth and it looks like it's been hastily drafted by people who really don't have technical knowledge about how ISPs operate or how internet piracy works. As it stands it looks unenforceable.

noobvious · 10 Nov 2010

Rei Tumult said:

Then it's just like many of the other laws that the Labour party supported / suggested.

Careful....you're getting close to this one....

No discussion of politics, religion or firearms - this is a technical forum and not the place for it!

https://www.sevenforums.com/general-d...ease-read.html

jimbo45 · 10 Nov 2010

Hi there
this is one of those areas where Politics does overlap into the relevant thread -- not individual policies of particular Parties or Politicians but over the principle of how to handle illegal file sharing / Piracy of software / music / other intellectual property.

However even this is fraught with difficulty.

For example consider a case where the CIA or other intelligence agency "Steals" or otherwise acquires by dubious means a piece of software which theoretically could shut down major computer networks in the US or elsewhere.

Is the action of the CIA any different from a person "acquiring" files by similar means.

In the case of the CIA most people I suppose would tend to give tacit approval even if they didn't explicitly approve of the action taken whereas the other case would usually get the thumbs down.

The fact that the software COULD cause problems doesn't mean that it was DESIGNED to do that or that it was maliciously written in the first place.

Once you start getting into these areas then the whole concept of current Law is totally "Not Fit for Purpose" and this is where we DO actually need the Politicians to sort out the whole mess.

So we can't ignore Politics completely unfortunately but I agree we shouldn't get into Parochial National politics.

Cheers
jimbo

noobvious · 10 Nov 2010

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
this is one of those areas where Politics does overlap into the relevant thread -- not individual policies of particular Parties or Politicians but over the principle of how to handle illegal file sharing / Piracy of software / music / other intellectual property.

However even this is fraught with difficulty.

For example consider a case where the CIA or other intelligence agency "Steals" or otherwise acquires by dubious means a piece of software which theoretically could shut down major computer networks in the US or elsewhere.

Is the action of the CIA any different from a person "acquiring" files by similar means.

In the case of the CIA most people I suppose would tend to give tacit approval even if they didn't explicitly approve of the action taken whereas the other case would usually get the thumbs down.

The fact that the software COULD cause problems doesn't mean that it was DESIGNED to do that or that it was maliciously written in the first place.

Once you start getting into these areas then the whole concept of current Law is totally "Not Fit for Purpose" and this is where we DO actually need the Politicians to sort out the whole mess.

So we can't ignore Politics completely unfortunately but I agree we shouldn't get into Parochial National politics.

Cheers
jimbo

I was just worried that things would turn partisan, and that never ends well.:)

Fliplip · 11 Nov 2010

Over here in the UK at least one ISP (Virgin Media) are now capping activity on ports normally used for torrents and Usenet.

yowanvista · 11 Nov 2010

My ISP does not even bother about torrents and illegal downloads

Fliplip · 11 Nov 2010

VM are rubbish. They keep upping our speed but then caping those who want to take advantage of it.
lucky for me i use Giganews and can switch ports so im not affected

jimbo45 · 11 Nov 2010

Fliplip said:

Over here in the UK at least one ISP (Virgin Media) are now capping activity on ports normally used for torrents and Usenet.

Hi there
Go via a Proxy to avoid this problem.

I use Proxies a lot - especially when I'm outside say the UK and want LIVE Premier League football or outside the US and want to catch TV shows not yet released in Europe.

Cheers

jimbo