Australia Latest To Consider Kicking People Off The Internet For File Sharing

from the three-strikes-and-your-shooting-yourself-in-the-foot dept

Mon, Feb 18th 2008 11:37am — Mike Masnick

Never let it be said that the entertainment industry lobby isn't comprehensive. Over the past decade plus of watching them at work, you begin to see some patterns that are unmistakable. When the industry has a new idea it plans to push through as a law, it quietly works the concept through a variety of politicians around the world, and then will have one representative of the industry slip the concept into conversation at a public event somewhere. Then, while everyone's debating the concept, it suddenly shows up in pre-written legislation around the world before anyone knows what's going on. That appears to be happening again. Over the summer, entertainment industry execs (mainly from NBC Universal) started buzzing about how ISPs needed to take more responsibility for punishing those who were sharing unauthorized files on their networks. It seemed so outlandish that people were kind of surprised that it was even brought up. But then the laws started popping up. First there was a French proposal that would have ISPs ban users after being caught sharing unauthorized files three times. Then a similar proposal popped up in the UK last week. Now, down in Australia the government is now considering a similar proposal. Rest assured that these ideas didn't suddenly occur to the politicians in each of these countries.

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Filed Under: australia, bans, copyright, file sharing, isp, mpaa, riaa, three strikes

19 Comments

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Thom, 18 Feb 2008 @ 12:00pm

It's a great idea
I think this is a great idea. Let the French, UK, and Australian governments implement these laws. Watch as, weeks to months later, all the isps in those countries start to fold up as they ban the significant majority of their customers. Thinks get worse before they get better, that's always the case but especially so when you've got big-business, lobbyists, and politicians involved. There's nothing like banning 80% of your country's businesses and housholds from the Internet to send your political career down the tubes. The politicians would learn from that mistake and they'd learn so well that the entertainment lobby would never be let back through the doors.
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Hellsvilla, 18 Feb 2008 @ 12:40pm

Re: It's a great idea
hahhah, the gov'ts in power of this world would LOVE to see us back in the dark fiber days. They would reward hollywood for destroying the usefulness of the internet.
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You never know, 18 Feb 2008 @ 1:44pm

While they are at it, I'm sure they would love to burn Free Thinkers as Heretics and Witches again... It will keep going until the internet is only for the chosen few who can afford it and / or government and business usages. I say let them have it. How long will it last when the ISP looses all the advertising revenue, and the movie/music industry have to start actually start relaying on Radio and TV to do all their advertising? The rest of us can bite the bullet and go back to BBSs until the world comes back to reality…
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You never know, 18 Feb 2008 @ 1:44pm

While they are at it, I'm sure they would love to burn Free Thinkers as Heretics and Witches again... It will keep going until the internet is only for the chosen few who can afford it and / or government and business usages. I say let them have it. How long will it last when the ISP looses all the advertising revenue, and the movie/music industry have to start actually start relaying on Radio and TV to do all their advertising? The rest of us can bite the bullet and go back to BBSs until the world comes back to reality…
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You never know, 18 Feb 2008 @ 1:45pm

While they are at it, I'm sure they would love to burn Free Thinkers as Heretics and Witches again... It will keep going until the internet is only for the chosen few who can afford it and / or government and business usages. I say let them have it. How long will it last when the ISP looses all the advertising revenue, and the movie/music industry have to start actually start relaying on Radio and TV to do all their advertising? The rest of us can bite the bullet and go back to BBSs until the world comes back to reality…
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me@me.com, 18 Feb 2008 @ 2:35pm

ha ha ha!!
I say ban people from making music and films. Problem solved!!
Can someone remind me again why the isps give us 8 - 16 m/bits of bandwith, is it so we can do Windows updates? send email or just swap each others Wedding videos.

Nah it's a rubbish idea. NEXT!!
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Sean, 18 Feb 2008 @ 2:42pm

"would have ISPs ban users after being caught sharing unauthorized files three times"

So this would also include companies doing the same thing. This could get fun if it happens getting large corporations kicked off the net indefinitely for posting any unauthorized content.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Feb 2008 @ 3:23pm

Maybe hollywood should just take the free publicity for their crappy movies and just shut up about it and stop paying off politicians.

Maybe politicians should start looking out for the PEOPLE instead of corporations?

Maybe we should just ban politicians that take this dirty money?
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Alfred E. Neuman, 18 Feb 2008 @ 5:25pm

quagmire
What kind of files ? Only music and movies ?
When everything on the Internet is copyrighted, it shouldn't be very long until everyone has shared an unauthorized file.

How does the ISP know it is unauthorized ? Because "they" said so ?

How do you know she is really a witch ? She is not a witch if she sinks and drowns .......
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darkbhudda, 18 Feb 2008 @ 7:39pm

So people will just listen to internet radio or go to youtube and all the other sites and watch the music videos or just do what I know people already do, rip their music to files, burn it and share it with friends.

Then the Aus government will have to install software on people's computers to track everything they do.

It's already illegal to own more than 5 porn movies in some parts of Aus. Heaven forbid they find out what's on most people's hard drives.
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Michael Long, 18 Feb 2008 @ 10:25pm

Watch as weeks later...
"Watch as, weeks to months later, all the isps in those countries start to fold up as they ban the significant majority of their customers..."

Watch as, weeks to months later, tens of thousands of teenagers are grounded because they terminated the family internet account.
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Michael Long, 18 Feb 2008 @ 10:29pm

Precisely
"...just do what I know people already do, rip their music to files, burn it and share it with friends..."

Which would be a major win. After all, what's better from their perspective? Burning disks (which cost money) and sharing them with a dozen or so friends (at most), or running a torrent and "sharing" the same files with 1,000 or so "friends".

Back in the early days of VHS, people "shared" copies of tapes, but there was a natural limit as to how much time, money, and effort the average person was willing to spend in order to do so.
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PaulT (profile), 19 Feb 2008 @ 12:37am

Re: Watch as weeks later...
"Watch as, weeks to months later, tens of thousands of teenagers are grounded because they terminated the family internet account."

Watch as, weeks to months later, somebody creates a virus that starts using the vast network of zombie PCs already in existence to start sharing illegal files with no other purpose than to get users cut off.

Watch as, weeks to months later, the lawsuits from innocent people being cut off - either due to this virus or by flawed detection techniques - start to hit.

Watch as, weeks to months later, a significantly sized business gets hit and the government retracts the ban...

Most likely outcome IMHO.
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shanoboy (profile), 19 Feb 2008 @ 5:43am

Re: quagmire
Quagmire is right! Most everything on the net could be considered copywritten or owned by someone else technically.

Hell, when you sign up for an online email account like hotmail, they even tell you in the usage terms that they technically own all the email you send and recieve through their servers.

Its bullocks!
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mike allen, 19 Feb 2008 @ 7:00am

ISPs
An update mike UK net firms are resisting government suggestions that they should do more to monitor what customers do online.
heres the link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7246403.stm
hope the Ausies do the same
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demar, 19 Feb 2008 @ 8:49am

it starts
it's the beginning of the end. How long now before big brother tells you that you can't think about those movies or music without paying a fee. It's called a thinking tax. If u think about someone else's movie, you have to pay for it! Looks like it'll be back to bbs before too long.

Of course I could be worng. maybe one day the "industry" will wake up and realize that file sharing is the best opportunity that they have ever had. Probably not, but I can dream.
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shane, 21 Mar 2008 @ 5:32am

lets see
first the music
than the movies
than ANY P2P network traffic
hell lets just KIll the internet for any NON-business / government / school users
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