Finally a bit of SENSE in File sharing law review

[jimbo45]

Hi there
At least a bit of realism is creeping into politicians into realising what ISP's can feasably do and what is in Cloud Cuckoo land.

Maybe Coalition Politics works -- I'm an Engineer not a Politician but it DOES seem a bit more sense here.

Instead of a slavish reaction to what the Music and Film Industries want a bit of sensible discussion seems the best way forward.

BBC News - Net providers get Digital Economy Act judicial review

Cheers
jimbo

 

[johnwillyums]

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]

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

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]

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!

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/8-forum-rules-info-please-read.html

 

[jimbo45]

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]

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]

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

 

[yowanvista]

My ISP does not even bother about torrents and illegal downloads

 

[Fliplip]

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]

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

 

[Fliplip]

Thanks Jimbo but like i said, i dont have a problem. Giganews uses port 443 for SSL and so far its not being capped like 563.

 

[seekermeister]

I'm surprised that any law could be enacted with only 6% of the MPs present. That would never happen in the US, because it requires a quorum to be present.

 

[Wishmaster]

No matter what they decide, stopping piracy is going to be hard.


This might be slightly off-topic, but a just a thought ...


As we all know, many of these torrent/file-sharing sites themselves are major targets for spyware/malware.
Thats not even considering the legality issues of everything.


In the case of music, I often wonder why anyone would even take the chance with the alternate means such as Zunes Marketplace.

I mean .... you can downlowd and listen to all the music you want, faster, simpler, and easier than any torrent/fileshare and its completely legal.
By the time you add in your song credits (about the equivalent of a free CD every month) you really only end up paying about $5 monthly for the service.
So listen to all you want, and only keep the ones you truly want.


In the case of Movies, you have Netflix, which offers instant streaming and/or hard copys.
Perhaps its just me, but I think a $5 or $10 fee every month to have the freedom to explore wantever content you want is quite reasonable.

Not only that, but you also do not have the worry of your PC being infected with some nasty little unwanted guests.

It just seems to me the cost of such programs are minimal and overall a much better option. Im sure there are other varietys of these things thing, these are the only 2 Im personally familiar with though.

 

[noobvious]

In the case of music, I often wonder why anyone would even take the chance with the alternate means such as Zunes Marketplace.

I mean .... you can downlowd and listen to all the music you want, faster, simpler, and easier than any torrent/fileshare and its completely legal.
By the time you add in your song credits (about the equivalent of a free CD every month) you really only end up paying about $5 monthly for the service.
So listen to all you want, and only keep the ones you truly want.

I do like the theory of the Zune Pass, but you have to have a Zune, right?

 

[Wishmaster]

In the case of music, I often wonder why anyone would even take the chance with the alternate means such as Zunes Marketplace.

I mean .... you can downlowd and listen to all the music you want, faster, simpler, and easier than any torrent/fileshare and its completely legal.
By the time you add in your song credits (about the equivalent of a free CD every month) you really only end up paying about $5 monthly for the service.
So listen to all you want, and only keep the ones you truly want.

I do like the theory of the Zune Pass, but you have to have a Zune, right?

Its better if you have a Zune or Win7 Phone, but NO, you do not need one.

If you arent familiar with ZunePass, this is how it works.

You can download and listen to all you want to. (Yes, even full albums)

The songs you get have DRM though. With the following limitations:

1. They can be listened/used on any 3 PCs you choose
and can be used/synced on up to 3 Zune devices, as well as the Win7 Phone.
(Obviously on the same Zune Acct.)

2.You can not burn them to CD, and they only work as long as your subscription is active.

On top of that you get 10 Song credits per month.
So when you choose to use a credit for a song, the DRM song is deleted and replace wit h a DRM free version thats yours forever,no strings attached, to do anything you want with. Even if you cancell the subscription.

So having a Zune or Windows7 Phone does make it a bit more worthwhile.

IMHO, its a pretty good deal. Especially if you would likely purchase at least 1 CD a month.
Excellent way to explore new music, or check out id a CD is worth buying or not.

 

[noobvious]

In the case of music, I often wonder why anyone would even take the chance with the alternate means such as Zunes Marketplace.

I mean .... you can downlowd and listen to all the music you want, faster, simpler, and easier than any torrent/fileshare and its completely legal.
By the time you add in your song credits (about the equivalent of a free CD every month) you really only end up paying about $5 monthly for the service.
So listen to all you want, and only keep the ones you truly want.

I do like the theory of the Zune Pass, but you have to have a Zune, right?

Its better if you have a Zune or Win7 Phone, but NO, you do not need one.

If you arent familiar with ZunePass, this is how it works.

You can download and listen to all you want to. (Yes, even full albums)

The songs you get have DRM though. With the following limitations:

1. They can be listened/used on any 3 PCs you choose
and can be used/synced on up to 3 Zune devices, as well as the Win7 Phone.
(Obviously on the same Zune Acct.)

2.You can not burn them to CD, and they only work as long as your subscription is active.

On top of that you get 10 Song credits per month.
So when you choose to use a credit for a song, the DRM song is deleted and replace wit h a DRM free version thats yours forever,no strings attached, to do anything you want with. Even if you cancell the subscription.

So having a Zune or Windows7 Phone does make it a bit more worthwhile.

IMHO, its a pretty good deal. Especially if you would likely purchase at least 1 CD a month.
Excellent way to explore new music, or check out id a CD is worth buying or not.

I do about 90% of my listening with my DAP's, as opposed to the computer, or else I might give it a look. And I don't have, and wouldn't buy, a Zune, for several reasons(but that's another topic).

 

[funkybassist]

Even though my ISP doesn't give a crap what I download, I use a expensive VPN to make sure nothing is traceable to my IP address.

 

[funkybassist]

It doesn't matter what governments or private corporations try to do to stop piracy, nessarely using a VPN or proxy automatically enables a citizen to access normally blocked sites/content. But there's always hactivists that will DDOS any particular organization that interferes with Wikileaks or large bittorrent websites. I love the internet, because information spreads forever, and the truth is told. The internet will never be controlled!

 

[yowanvista]

It doesn't matter to me, my ISP does not even care about illegal downloads