Tuesday, February 12th 2008
UK Internet Users Could be Banned for Illegal Downloads
No doubt this news will be met with ferocious attacks from the generally public, but it looks like internet users in the UK could soon see themselves banned from the internet for illegal film and music downloads if new government proposals are approved. Internet service providers will be legally required to enforce a "three-strikes" system - strike one means an email from the ISP, strike two means a suspension and strike three a ban. Under the proposals ISPs would be prosecuted for failing to enforce the new rules and suspected customers details could be made available to the courts. The government is yet to decide whether information on offenders will be shared between ISPs, but if so it could make it much more difficult to find a new ISP once you have been banned. This move comes as a result of six million UK broadband users downloading files illegally each year, with the proposals being officially unveiled next week.
Source:
Times Online
73 Comments on UK Internet Users Could be Banned for Illegal Downloads
On topic : I have no idea what the future of the internet and it's access will entail. I do know that there are many, many, many individual people who will fight for the right of free information (and file transfers) and they will be the deciding factor, not the governments.
i just don't see this being implemented, there are just to many people against it, that and people will always find a way to share files its the American way:roll:
When its all said and done, I'm sure there'll be some kind of fee to get you un-banned. Say 50% of your monthly access fee each time? Obviously they can't entirely ban you from the internet... can they?
Maybe work it into a system like getting your license suspended? Yes. That's it. They'll hand out card readers for every PC, and require you to get an Internet license. If you ever want to use the net, you'll have to swipe your card to log on. O.o...
basically its about making the isps legally responsible for what they provide..
i hope it dosnt come off.. if it does its the beginning of the end of a free internet..
trog
Other friend got nabbed by Cox for DL Bourne Identity WAY back in the day. They just shut his internet off out of the blue without a warning. When he called about it, they told him that they noted he was DL the movie, and that was his first of 3 warnings. My friend asked how they knew that, the rep said they hire a 3rd party consultant to monitor traffic.
PeerGuardian is a program that blocks incoming tracking, how much, I'm not sure. But friend said in one day it blocked the Chinese Government Probes 7 times. hah.
or, on the other hand, I wonder how many people will start gravitating towards some "hacking" practices to get around such proposals.
if u take the time to read their site, theyll tell you, ignore email warnings, but if u get one to your home address, get a lawyer :roll: and optionally contact them, becaus they are willing to help however they can. my peerguardian blocks almost 3 billion ips or somthin, altho i gotta say make sure u dont (if your using the bluetack lists) double up on lists, ie edu, gov cos both urls (peerguardian and bluetack) have some of the same lists, to take the time to read over there site, cos missuse of their software can be bad for them as they only rely on donations to continue hosting their ip list servers.
but yeah
used em for years, on all my pc's great software :toast:
offtopic? ohwell
There is no way to enforce this with proxies and encryption everywhere. Hell, go to furk.net, have them torrent and send you HTTP/HTTPS links - no one need ever know.
ONCE passed, just imagine the NEXT BOGUS BS idea that the ISPs will have to police! Get warned, suspended or banned for using any words that contain "sex", "bomb", "security", "vendetta", "terrorist" or the combinations of words like "Gordon Brown is a noodle" etc. My concern is not so much the "protection of copyright" but the new politically acceptable concept of spying on the public, and making private enterprise accountable to the policing of it.
The next law will be that you have to "snitch on your neighbours" or face going to jail for not snitching. Hell, what kind of State are we turning into?
Woops, if i was in the UK i'd lose my net now.
this is BS, and i completely agree with you - this is not what it claims to be for, its really just a legal way to spy on peoples net usage whenever people feel like it. The ISP, the Gov'mnt, etc.
However, I think you're contradicting yourself somewhat when you say that you're a fan of "personal freedom, over government intervention," and then follow that up with saying that you will fight for "the right of free information (and file transfers)"...
You do know that the only thing that will save the internet (and allow the right of free information) is "government intervention" (network neutrality), don't you?
(Please don't tell me you're going to depend on the free market to save the internet, because big companies are precisely the ones trying to lock it down. ;) )