Pirates are the hot topic of the hour, whether we're talking about the ones shaking things up off the Somali coast or those causing a stir on the Internet. As Somali sea pirates last week were threatening to slay Americans, operators of The Pirate Bay -- a site that allows users to track and download BitTorrent files -- were sentenced to a year in jail and a $3.6 million fine for violating copyright law (a decision they've since appealed).
Unauthorized file sharing online has become a huge problem. The New York Times pegs American entertainment industry losses at $20 billion annually.
But lawmakers are struggling to come up with a solution. One of the most drastic suggestions so far has come from French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who thinks illegal file-sharers who've ignored three written warnings should have their Internet connections cut.
This measure was shot down by the French government earlier this month, but it could still be revived. Many purported supporters of the law sat the first vote out, and Sarkozy says he intends to reintroduce the measure.
But if French lawmakers are anything like the Internet Evolution community, such a bill doesn't stand much of a chance. In a poll last week, over 60 percent of nearly 300 Internet Evolution readers voted against the idea of kicking people offline for file-sharing. (26 percent favor the idea; and 13 percent don't know... arrgh.)
The New York Times recently published a piece debating whether this proposed law infringes on a human being's right to connect to the Internet. Many believe that the ability to connect is now a basic human right and is necessary in order to be a productive member of society. Cutting someone's access is then akin to quieting someone's free speech or restricting his/her ability to receive an education.
But the issue goes beyond that when considering the reality of passing this law. Such a proposal to sever someone's Internet access assumes that we're still living in some Internet Dark Age, limited by a single connection. But in an age of smartphones, Internet cafes, WiFi-enabled devices, software that can hide one's own IP address, and beyond, cutting access might turn out to be little more than an irritant for these repeat offenders.
Sarkozy is clearly looking to take le couperet to the piracy problem, addressing it with force and little tolerance. But as the Internet evolves, writing laws that ignore how far we've advanced technologically is short-sighted... and a waste of time.
Enforcing existing copyright laws is a good start toward curbing this epidemic, but trying to hunt down everyone that is pirating software and limiting their online connectivity is sort of like herding cats, it can be a frustrating and time-consuming process with little chance of success.
In my experience working with former game developers that have been victimized by piracy, it is clear that the only way to effectively fight piracy is via technology solutions such as the emerging anti-tamper technology. In the gaming industry in particular, the majority of revenue losses come in the first few weeks after general availability, so protecting a new release from piracy for a matter of months can make a huge difference in the bottom line.
A technical attack on illegal down-loaders is easy. Media files can be easy masks for Trojan horses. dDOS is even easier. Problem is this has been to the courts, and the answer is NO.
Of course, do we all remember the first day download of a new Madonna song- MP3s all over the web. And what did they sound like: "Madonna saying "So what the F@*K do you think you are doing?"
This technique could go soft core too. The copyright holder could salt the pirate library with low resolution and otherwise flawed versions of of the media. 30 minutes into the movie it would start to skip and freeze?
In a recent survey, it was concluded that international terrorists that manage to steal military secrets from western military intelligence, also are some the biggest customers when seeking enriched plutonium.
So it's facinating that some the biggest thieves are also some of the biggest customers. I feel much better now.
When your hard work is stolen out from under your nose, and your struggling to feed your family, it should be comforting to use Perduco's survey.
well put!, punishing everyone for the actions of a few is not a productive way to solve ANY problem. The matter of the fact is that where there is a money making business, there will always be people who try to work the system to get the end result without money. People who sell bootleg stuff are like the shoplifters of the entertainment industry,and no matter how many protective measures we put in place people stll shoplift!
Cory Doctorow touches on this issue a bit in his latest Big Report: "Big Entertainment Wants to Party Like It's 1996." According to Doctorow, the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) contains a provision for disconnecting people across the globe from the Internet for piracy.
In a recent survey by Perduco for the Norwegian market showed that people that download "free" music buy 10 times more songs compared to those that do not engage in "free" music downloads. Check it here (sorry it is in Greek) or here (google translated).
Well, I am sure the Chinese or some other international hosts will take over. Those heavy users are the ones affected by the cap. I can only hope I don't download anywhere close to 20GB/month.
And then again, download from campus, download from a wifi hotspot or download from your neighbor's unsecured wifi connection - the cap is not the solution to illegal downloading. It's only Comcast moving the trash to someone else's yard.
Well said, ktroulos. And thanks for the information about the Norwegian ISP. That's a great example of why this policy won't work. Apart from simply being ineffective, it will likely make things more difficult for people trying to stop piracy. It doesn't make much sense.
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Ahh, the holiday season is upon us: People have begun bargain hunting, department stores are donning premature decorations, turkeys are being shot to death, and email inboxes everywhere are being graced with season-appropriate promotional materials so absurd, one might think they were actually written by the clinically insane.
Considering President Obama went and took the Nobel Peace Prize this year (attention hog, much?), Internet Evolution had to settle for a nomination for the second best prize in the world: a MIN Editorial & Design award. And we're happy to say that we won. Big time.
NEW YORK -- Web 2.0 Expo -- Here at the Javits Center in New York City, several industry innovators have come out to take the stage at the Web 2.0 Expo. But some are having a hard time keeping the audience's attention. The culprit? What else? Twitter.
The debate over whether Google is fairly aggregating newspaper content online has been going on for a while, with Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. leading the discourse. Typically it's followed a consistent pattern: Murdoch complains about Google stealing its content to no real benefit to his company, someone suggests hiding the content from Google, and things get quiet on the News Corp. side of the room.
While Google introduces its new Chrome OS (which I'm hearing will be widely available in one year? Did I mishear that?), IBM announced 10 new products today to help companies using IBM System z mainframe technology.
Smarter Collaboration: How to Thrive in a Challenging Business Environment Market conditions are changing faster than ever, and organizations need to improve their agility and adaptability in order to provide better service and improve processes. The ability to work with customers, business partners, and employees as effectively as possible - while at the same time holding down costs - is a key to success. READ THIS eBOOK
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Mobile TV is everywhere, and yet, nowhere. Nobody uses it – because the handsets aren't good, the pricing is too high, and the coverage is not good enough. But Qualcomm's FloTV Personal TV aims to change all of that.
The problem with telepresence is that it's not universally accepted, because video calling isn't. While we can all do video calling, we also apparently worry too much about how we look. If we want HD telepresence in our future, we have to dress down, mess up our hair, and dive into our online life.
Routesy is an iPhone application that uses the phone’s GPS to let the user know where and when the next train or bus is coming. The application’s developer, Steven Peterson, talks about why a mobile application makes sense, especially given that this transportation information is already available on the Web.
Techies have been going crazy over the pending release of Nokia's N900 cellular phone, which incorporates a newly revised touch-screen operating system. Reiter's got one. Is the craziness justified?
Bad news! By eliminating the world’s digital divide we’re likely to create a new divide: the information divide, where we end up creating a two-tier Internet where access to 'quality' content is controlled and charged for by mega-corporations, and the gulf between information haves and have-nots is entirely dependent on how much money they have. This is, of course, an almost exact inversion of the current situation on the Internet – where access is expensive and content is free.
The city of San Francisco is on the leading edge of using the Internet to provide government transparency. It is providing WiFi for its have-nots, and its DataSF.org initiative is putting the city's valuable data back in the hands of its citizens, with innovative results.
In the final episode of this series about the death of Internet anonymity, Saunders describes how the Internet of the future will start to attain a level of intelligence that requires no human intervention. Scary.
What can users today do to protect their online privacy? The simplest and most obvious option is to not use the Internet – at all. However, once all digital information is consolidated over the Internet, trying to protect digital identity by simply unplugging from the Internet becomes impossible – a fact that has manifest implications for civil liberties, Saunders says.
By 2011 the number of Internet-connected sensors will exceed 1 trillion, making your chances of doing anything or going anywhere unnoticed pretty much zero. Saunders talks about how the 'sensortization' of the Internet is eliminating the traditional divide between online and offline populations.
Industry initiatives and government stimulus funds are giving enterprise software vendors a great opportunity to help build out and manage smart grid technologies.
The problem with telepresence is that it's not universally accepted, because video calling isn't. While we can all do video calling, we also apparently worry too much about how we look. If we want HD telepresence in our future, we have to dress down, mess up our hair, and dive into our online life.
The US loses about $20 billion a year on pirated software, movies, and music. But public policy can help stem the tide of digital theft. For example, France has recently passed a 'three strikes and you’re out' law, whereby if after two warning letters an individual continues to download pirated software then his Internet access will be cut off. US policy makers should consider adopting similar policies.
Financial management planning does not need to include Voodoo economics, but it does help to tap into the knowledge base of your team through some sort of real-time system. We explore your options.
When Reiter gets incensed over incompetent Verizon FiOS order-taking and support, he broadcasts it via Twitter. Did it do any good? How should your company offer Twitter support? Watch this for all the answers.
The successor to the BlackBerry Bold 9000 – the Bold 9700 – will be available soon in the US. Is it worth upgrading? Reiter's got one, and offers advice.
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