The RIAA has decided to cease prosecution of file sharers directly, and instead force ISP’s to become the new copyright police.
The RIAA wasn’t even able to truly determine if people were sharing music, so a ginormous ISP is supposed to be able to figure it out?
I have BitTorrent loaded one one of my machines. I’ve used it to make large files of my own creation available to people who need it (most notably my work on adaptive technology) and used it to download similar materials. I’ve also used it to retrieve a working copy of software that I own but that the CD has been damaged.
Is ATT, my ISP, going to know I’m using BitTorrent legitimately, or are they going to assume that because my music library also exists on the same computer that is running BitTorrent, that I must be an illegal music file-sharer?
This isn’t helping anyone; the RIAA is just trying to find more effective means to catch people doing what may be legitimate work. It just gets scarier, doesn’t it? My BitTorrent machine is offline right now, not because of this, but because we are having new flooring put in the room where it resides. I’m debating on a complete uninstall of BitTorrent before I put that machine back on the network.
An ISP is a UTILITY, not an enforcement vehicle. There’s a whole list of reasons this won’t work or is a bad idea. Maybe we should just get the electric company to shut off power to suspected file sharers. Or, perhaps, the gas company could freeze them out leaving it possible but uncomfortable to share files. I know, cut off their water supply… just because.
Here’s an idea… why doesn’t the RIAA work with the artists (the ones they’re austensibly trying to protect) and producers to come up with ways to work with the technology instead of trying to push the water back into the fire hose?
I’d better stop now or I’ll have enough for my own post…