Byte Rights: While You Were Out

[Brink]

Finally, rights holder and ISPs have found a foolproof way to punish you, their nefarious customer. The MPAA, RIAA, etc. have struck a deal with five of the largest ISPs in America on file sharing. It's perfect. No due process, judicial review, or evidence. It assumes you're guilty until proven innocent. And you get to pay for the whole thing! Since these ISPs cover the majority of America in markets, with no competition, you can't even go elsewhere. The new deal is enforced in the terms of service, so if you want Internet almost anywhere in this country, you have to sign away your constitutional rights.

If the rights holders send your IP to the ISP as an offender, you get dinged—no proof required. Several dings and they send all your connections to a landing page, requiring you to call them. Presumably at that point you'd end up talking to incompetent customer support people who don't know a wit about BitTorrent, copyright, or possibly the Internet.

Read more at: Maximum PC | Byte Rights: While You Were Out

 

[Schroff87]

The MAFIAA seems to have lined a lot of pockets to make this deal.

 

[smarteyeball]

The MPAA, RIAA, JUDGE DREDD.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/byte_rights_while_you_were_out

You have been judged and the sentence is FFS :sarc:

 

[seekermeister]

Isn't this similar to a previous thread on the subject? As I recall, Cox wasn't on the list of ISPs involved in the conspiracy, and since the number that is involved hasn't changed, I hope that they still aren't. I wonder how all of this would stand up in court, or before congress, it it got that far? I imagine that the cost would be too prohibitive for only one person to take legal action, but it seems that this would be something best dealt with by a class action case.

 

[Airbot]

Isn't this similar to a previous thread on the subject?

Probably this one:
http://www.sevenforums.com/news/177218-major-isps-agree-six-strikes-copyright-enforcement-plan.html


Getting about time to abandon using the internet...

 

[Hellriser]

Sometimes I feel good I live in Eastern Europe. The whole world globalization, fraudulent enforcements and privacy violations catch with us much later. Regarding the internet, at least...

 

[lehnerus2000]

Mpaa, riaa

I wonder how all of this would stand up in court, or before congress, it it got that far?

Don't those jerks already own the US Congress?

Didn't SCOTUS recently rule that corporations have more rights than citizens?

 

[seekermeister]

It wouldn't particularly surprise me, because the govenment no longer understands the meaning of "inalienable" rights. They think that they can determine what everybody's rights are. However, I had not heard of the ruling that you mention...have a link?

 

[Schroff87]

The only persons who have rights in the US are artificial persons .. like the MAFIAA

 

[lehnerus2000]

I was being slightly facetious

However, I had not heard of the ruling that you mention...have a link?

I was being slightly facetious.

They ruled earlier this year(?) that corporations can donate money to politicians.
Just like real people (except they have millions lying around).
Of course election donations have no influence on politicians.

Corporations have different tax liabilities (and giant loopholes they can exploit).
I heard a TV report that said Exxon didn't pay ANY tax to the US Government in 2009(?)
I don't know if that's true.

If you or I kill somebody, we'll probably get sent to gaol.
Corporations normally only get fined.

If you or I had caused the GFC, we'd be in gaol (or Gitmo, or worse).
A lot of corporations got handouts, especially the ones that caused the problem in the first place.

Thus from a "certain point of view", they have more rights than ordinary people.

 

[Darryl Licht]

Finally, rights holder and ISPs have found a foolproof way to punish you, their nefarious customer. The MPAA, RIAA, etc. have struck a deal with five of the largest ISPs in America on file sharing. It's perfect. No due process, judicial review, or evidence. It assumes you're guilty until proven innocent. And you get to pay for the whole thing! Since these ISPs cover the majority of America in markets, with no competition, you can't even go elsewhere. The new deal is enforced in the terms of service, so if you want Internet almost anywhere in this country, you have to sign away your constitutional rights.

If the rights holders send your IP to the ISP as an offender, you get dinged—no proof required. Several dings and they send all your connections to a landing page, requiring you to call them. Presumably at that point you'd end up talking to incompetent customer support people who don't know a wit about BitTorrent, copyright, or possibly the Internet.

Read more at: Maximum PC | Byte Rights: While You Were Out

Students at UCR (University of California Riverside) did research 4 years ago on this topic and their results were frightening for anyone who participates in P2P sharing such as torrents, etc...

Here's an excerpt:

In an effort to prosecute P2P users, RIAA and MPAA have reportedly started to create decoy users: they participate in P2P networks in order to identify illegal sharing of content. This has reportedly scared some users who are afraid of being caught. The question we attempt to answer is how prevalent is this phenomenon: how likely is it that a user will run into such a .fake user. and thus run the risk of a lawsuit? The first challenge is identifying these .fake users.. We collect this information from a number of free open source software projects which are trying to identify such IP address ranges by forming the so-called blocklists. The second challenge is running a large scale experiment in order to obtain reliable and diverse statistics.​

So.... Hide or block your identity when using P2P filesharing!​

Anyone who downloads or uploads via P2P should be educated on the facts and dangers! Here is some more info on this shocking report:​

P2P researchers: use a blocklist or you will be tracked... 100% of the time

UCR Newsroom: In P2P, Illegal Downloading Has Consequences

Full report in pdf format: http://jaheit59.home.xs4all.nl/P2P ...Engineering University of California 2006.pdf

 

[Britton30]

And the US government can now eavesdrop on any connection, phone, wireless, web with no warning or warrant. Thanks Homeland "Security", keep frisking and detaining elderly crippled people. Surely one is a terrorist.

 

[Darryl Licht]

And the US government can now eavesdrop on any connection, phone, wireless, web with no warning or warrant. Thanks Homeland "Security", keep frisking and detaining elderly crippled people. Surely one is a terrorist.

If that someone Homeland Security is eavesdropping on is a terrorist or suspected terrorist... FINE WITH ME! With or without the warrant!!!

Just dont say/text/post/email things like "dirty B?*B" and you should be off their list! :sarc:

Actually reminds me a story that happened years back here at a local high school... some kid had written "Da Bomb" on their backpack, and inadvertantly left it in a hallway on a Friday afternoon... yep, principal called police... police called in bomb squad... kids back pack was blown up with a charge to detonate any possible bomb... all shortly after 9/11. Better safe than sorry! Especially with the recent news of a possible strike on the anniversary of 9/11!

 

[Britton30]

Yup, we gotta keep them old ladies off planes. Homeland Security will be renamed - Shadows Anonymous. I'm unwilling to give up my right to privacy in the name of "security".
All internet and other communication should be private unless there are extraordinary circumstances warranting taking someone's rights. Big Brother is here, although about 27 years late.
The government knows all to well who are real suspects but use the security angle to allow removing more of Americans rights.

 

[Darryl Licht]

If your doing something wrong there are plenty of ways to hide your tracks! The bad guys already know this...

The average American or World citizen has nothing to fear... IMHO!

 

[Britton30]

I have nuttin to hide either. But I'm entitled to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, which includes among other things, privacy. *Steps off soapbox*

 

[Darryl Licht]

We all have the "illusion" of privacy, and that's probably as good as it's gonna get!

I know people in law enforcement and some at the govt. level... the things they can, and do, do are downright scary!!!! Just keep your nose clean!
:devil2:

 

[IUseWindows7]

This is all truly destroying privacy. and to be honest this is only for money those poeple just want cassh and nothing else because there greedy.

 

[Catswold]

However, I had not heard of the ruling that you mention...have a link?

I was being slightly facetious.

They ruled earlier this year(?) that corporations can donate money to politicians.
Just like real people (except they have millions lying around).
Of course election donations have no influence on politicians.

Corporations have different tax liabilities (and giant loopholes they can exploit).
I heard a TV report that said Exxon didn't pay ANY tax to the US Government in 2009(?)
I don't know if that's true.

If you or I kill somebody, we'll probably get sent to gaol.
Corporations normally only get fined.

If you or I had caused the GFC, we'd be in gaol (or Gitmo, or worse).
A lot of corporations got handouts, especially the ones that caused the problem in the first place.

Thus from a "certain point of view", they have more rights than ordinary people.

Fact: Corporations are people--they are nothing more than a legal agreement between people (stockholders), they don't exist as separate entities and they cannot exist without people.

Fact: Corporations never pay taxes, any such costs accrued by them are automatically passed on to those who buy their products, therefore any movement to "tax the corporations more" is nothing more but a means of placing more taxes on the people--except in this case, that tax is hidden from the people.

Fact: When a corporation "kills someone," at best the charge would be "negligent homicide," because corporations don't set out to kill people intentionally, thus they are not like us. If "you or I" kill someone by accident, we sometimes go to jail and we sometimes have to pay fines and do public service instead.

Oh yeah, on occasion when a company kills someone through negligence, those in charge of the company (CEO, CFO, President, etc.) are penalized as individuals. It is not possible to penalize everyone who is part of a corporation, therefore penalizing them financially is the only means of enforcing laws.

Fact: MPAA/RIAA are ****s (censored by me) and their claim that they are only protecting the rights of artists is ******** (censored by me). They are only out to secure more profits for those corporations and don't give a dang if the individual artists receive royalties, because after about a year, most artists don't receive but a pittance anyway.

Liberty and freedom are on life support, but it is government far more than private industry who is threatening them.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Badly written, corrupt and/or outdated laws

Fact: Corporations never pay taxes, any such costs accrued by them are automatically passed on to those who buy their products, therefore any movement to "tax the corporations more" is nothing more but a means of placing more taxes on the people--except in this case, that tax is hidden from the people.

That is the result of badly written, corrupt and/or outdated laws.

It is simple to compute the input and output costs (the corporations actually keep collate that data themselves).
We don't live in the 1800's anymore. Work that would have required thousands of accountants and taken months to complete, can now be performed in minutes by computers.

They could be taxed on the "retail" price of their products and services.
The tax should be sliding scale based on the percentage markup (e.g. mark your prices up 100% and get taxed at 100%).

Oh yeah, on occasion when a company kills someone through negligence, those in charge of the company (CEO, CFO, President, etc.) are penalized as individuals. It is not possible to penalize everyone who is part of a corporation, therefore penalizing them financially is the only means of enforcing laws.

Why should everyone in the corporation be punished?
Why not punish those who were involved and those who were supposed to be overseeing the company's operations?
Fining a corporation only punishes the general public and the shareholders.

That's why corporations cover up manufacturing defects.
There have been many examples of companies (think automotive) not performing recalls, because the lawyers and accountants calculated that court fines would be less than the cost of a product recall.

If the law was, the BOD is civilly and criminally responsible for actions of their corporations (except in the case of actions performed by external unaffiliated person(s) or rogue employees) the corporations would "clean up their acts" overnight.

Liberty and freedom are on life support, but it is government far more than private industry who is threatening them.

If you live in a "Democratic" society, why are you scared of the Government?
Could it be that the Government passes laws that benefit special interest groups (e.g. corporations, unions, religious groups, etc.) to the detriment of the majority of the citizenry?

Eliminate the influence of special interest groups and make the politicians do what the majority of voters tell them to.
Of course if you are in a minority group, things might not be so rosy.