Tuesday, November 29th 2011
File Sharing: Big 5 Aussie ISPs Gang Together Against Their Customers
Well, it looks like Big Content finally got to them, because Australia's five major ISPs (Telstra Bigpond, iiNet, Optus, iPrimus and Internode) are all ganging up together in a group called The Communications Alliance to screw over their customers in the name of Big Content. They are going to start sending out warning letters to their customers on mere accusations of copyright infringement, as part of an 18-month trial. These warning letters, termed "educational notices" to spin them as some sort of favour to their customers, would be sent on apparent evidence of infringement, based on IP address - that same method that has proven to be so unreliable, especially against home users, many times over. If their customer still doesn't get it, after three of these "educational notices", the copyright holder gets to enjoy pursuing the "offender" through the courts. The real tragedy, is the way that all this is based on an assumption that file sharing causes lost sales, as they state themselves that the effect is impossible to prove and hence rely on statutory damages. Big Content has never proved it and indeed several studies have shown that file sharing doesn't actually hurt sales and often has a positive effect, as we reported here. The big surprise out of this lot, is to see plucky ISP iiNet in this hall of shame since they were the ISP who'd fought the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) who had argued "that the ISP infringed copyright by failing to take reasonable steps - including enforcing its own terms and conditions - to prevent customers from copying films and TV shows over its network." - and actually won.
Source:
ABC News
42 Comments on File Sharing: Big 5 Aussie ISPs Gang Together Against Their Customers
Also it's Aussie :toast:
Eek! :eek: Forgot to say... thanks to Wyverex for the news tip. :toast:
"During the trial, rights holders would send copyright infringement notices, including evidence of copyright infringement and the IP address involved, to ISPs who would then send "educational notices" to the internet users concerned."
Evidence *MUST* be accompanied with the accusation.
www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-29/copyright-holders-unhappy-with-piracy-plan/3701888
As per usual, however, the Copyright holders have their rights secured, whereas those of the end user are the last to be addressed, if ever :/
Big Content of course, don't give a shit about this, just as long as they can intimidate people with it.
Our Aussy friends such as Wolf and Mussels must be really pissed off about this and who can blame them?
Also saw the show on the ABC about it.
So far, here in Queensland at least, we've seen less of this effect then our southern mates have (NSW and Victoria tend to be targeted first, due to the larger population there).
I don't object to rights holders enforcing their Intellectual Property, but, as already pointed out, getting unequivocal evidence is difficult to obtain at best, and impossible at worst.
Also, there's always that fine line between privacy and law-breaking..
The biggest issue is always the government - it sticks its nose in an environment it knows little to nothing about :/
Sure, there's a bunch of smaller ISPs, but they'll get sucked in too, in time.
An exclusive deal such as that, is a real money spinner for the ISP in question. For that, they're asked to show some 'goodwill', which inevitably results in stunts like this.
Also, the perpetual threat of being taken to court has already sent many smaller ISPs to the wall, due to a lack of legal funds :/
EDIT: Aren't all of these ISPs renting lines from Telstra anyway? Telstra could be the one pulling strings here.
Most notably Optus, has shelled-out big time to get its own lines, as have iiNet and TPG (albeit it to a much lesser extent).
Regardless, it's still relevant to discuss here, especially as it's such a controversial issue.
Yes, it's still very much pertinent!
They should not be able to charge you on that. Unless of course, they search your personal computer and find it (they'll need me at gun point to even get that far, wankers).
worst case i think some will hire a over seas seed box and torrent to that and download via FTP.
as for telstra being a big player in this, they have their "telstra T-Box" where you pay and watch movies from online. so it would be hurting them