Six Strikes Law

[Eclipse Dragon]

snip

Might want to edit your OP to remove any indication that you pirate stuff... and not to ask us if we do.
It's kinda very thin ice around here.

OT: I don't pirate or torrent anything, so unless it's a blunt violation of my privacy, it probably won't affect me.

 

[Aris Khandr]

I don't have cable or satellite either. My solution? Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Instant Video. Between the three, I can watch nearly any TV show or movie that I want, and no piracy at all. Except Arsenal. Not even paid services carry proper football.

 

[Genocidicles]

Nothing will come of this, except maybe some inexperienced kids will get a couple of strikes before their parents tell them to knock it off. Pirates with even the slightest bit of know-how will be fine.

Plus it only affects people who use torrents. Using a file sharing site or streaming movies online and the like wont get you a strike.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

From my understanding of this, the six strikes thing isn't a law, and the US government isn't actually involved at all. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that only the RIAA, MPAA, and some ISPs. The only people that are actually tracking your internet usage because of this are the ISPs, aka the people that already have access to everything you do on the internet. So I really wouldn't try to argue that this is a case of the government trying to take away your privacy.

Anyway, I don't really have a problem with this, assuming it only affects people that actually pirate stuff. I've actually been in favor of a system that is able to easily punish a large amount of people who pirate, without the punishments being totally absurd. And this seems like it could end up being this kind of system. Of course, I'll admit that I don't actually know very much about it, so I could be very off here.

Now, if this starts affecting people who aren't pirating, then it will be a problem. If people are getting copyright strikes for perfectly legitimate activity, such as legal torrents, then that could be a serious issue. In fact, the possibility of this negatively impacting people who don't pirate is the primary reason that I don't really support this, although my opinion could certainly change.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

It's funny when people think they can actually control the internet. There's so many flaws to a system like this, so many innocent people who will be punished.

Good luck policing the experienced pirates who know how to use proxies and VPN

 

[Therumancer]

My basic problem here is that it smacks of vigilante activity, it's a bunch of private citizens taking action on other private citizens without any kind of control, appeal, or oversight. It someone here accuses you of priacy you could get your internet access repressed, without appeal, without any real proof needing to be obtained, any kind of trial, or any kind of appeal nessicarly being possible.

It will be interesting to see what happens when it goes live, and I doubt I'll have much to worry about personally, but I honesly don't care for the entire idea.

 

[Greni]

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out, for I was not a communist.

You have nothing to fear it you have nothing to hide.

A great way to stop shoplifting is to sever the hand; that doesn't mean that it's right. Or that it stops anything since we have artificial limbs... I really messed up the metaphor, or did I?

 

[DoPo]

My basic problem here is that it smacks of vigilante activity, it's a bunch of private citizens taking action on other private citizens without any kind of control, appeal, or oversight.

Hold on, I thought it was the IP owners who would be raising the alerts, through a system I assumed had (at least some) control and oversight. Furthermore, weren't people allowed appeals? And finally, wasn't it the ISPs who would be taking the action?

Am I thinking of something completely different?

 

[FoolKiller]

I don't have cable or satellite either. My solution? Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Instant Video. Between the three, I can watch nearly any TV show or movie that I want, and no piracy at all. Except Arsenal. Not even paid services carry proper football.

I have cable but I use it to watch shows I miss. In my case I'm just time shifting the material. Hell, my cable provider gave me a pvr but it never worked and they wanted to charge me for them coming and fixing it. Heh... jerks.

OT:

Anytime you come up with a way to slow down the pirates, they just come up with new and interesting ways to do it.

Torrents came out of the death of stuff like LimeWire and eDonkey. It will just create a new wave.

 

[Thistlehart]

Affect is a verb (action). "I don't pirate, so this doesn't affect me."
Effect is a noun (thing). "Considering pirates are generally pretty clever, this will have no real effect."

Your grammar lesson for the day.

 

[Therumancer]

My basic problem here is that it smacks of vigilante activity, it's a bunch of private citizens taking action on other private citizens without any kind of control, appeal, or oversight.

Hold on, I thought it was the IP owners who would be raising the alerts, through a system I assumed had (at least some) control and oversight. Furthermore, weren't people allowed appeals? And finally, wasn't it the ISPs who would be taking the action?

Am I thinking of something completely different?

Not one elected official, or apointee by an elected official is involved in this anywhere. It comes down to private citizens/businessmen making desicians at all steps in the process, with the ultimate standard being whatever they feel benefits them and their bottom line right at the moment. Basically you have businessmen creating their own "court" where they can deny people fair service, and violate confidentiality laws, entirely on their own say so, without needing to bother with the "trouble" of actually bringing accusations of theft before a real court, a real judge, and a jury of the accused's peers, where at least in theory the people in the system are held accountable for their actions. Basically if you start seeing the court violating people's rights and doing unfair things, officials aren't going to get re-elected, and appointees are going to be brough up for review.

The basic "system" as it's presented here is IPs allow enough access to user data where businesses can make accusations against specific users for theft. If a user gets enough complaints the IPs will then deny them, or limit their service. Forget the fact that you might not want anyone tracking your internet use or what you do online on principle. Forget that there is no real proof here (it's all based on an accusation by someone, without needing to actually prove you did anything). Any appeal you make fundementally just goes back to the same private citizens that made the desician to begin with, and your not supposed to be under any obligation to have to explain or justify anything to them.

The bottom line is that this is a cheaper and easier way to go about things than actually using the legal system and it's intristic safeguards.

We're basically talking about a bunch of private citizens being given permission to run their own anti-piracy "Star Chamber", where we're just supposed to accept the honesty and noble intentions of companies like EA and various telecommunications companies providing internet services.

 

[Something Amyss]

From my understanding of this, the six strikes thing isn't a law, and the US government isn't actually involved at all.

It has been voluntary policy for years now.

But, just like people blame the defunct ACORN on Obama winning, we will blame SOPA or its equivalent without cause or reason.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Once again, everyone reading, do not indicate that you pirate anything. It's about the quickest way to a suspension.

But...easiest way to get around this, apart from practising good proxy habits, is don't use the participating ISPs.