Would The Entertainment Industry Follow A Three Strikes Rule Itself?

from the three-strikes-and-you're-out dept

Tue, Jul 1st 2008 3:51pm — Blaise Alleyne

The entertainment industry has been increasingly pressuring ISPs to be copyright cops. The "three strikes" approach being pushed in France, the UK, Australia and possibly Canada is one of the more extreme attempts which would have unauthorized file sharers kicked off the internet entirely. Cory Doctorow asks if such companies would accept their own rule with a three-strikes-and-you're-out policy for sending out erroneous copyright notices -- meaning that they lose their own access for sending out three bogus takedown notices. Given that organizations like the RIAA and MPAA have sent takedown notices to laser printers and believe that providing proof of infringement is too hard, why not cut them off from the internet too after three questionable takedowns? Doctorow's proposal is admittedly Swiftian; aside from being entertaining, it highlights the ridiculousness of the whole three-strikes-and-you're-off-the-internet idea. If the entertainment industry wants ISPs to impose a three strikes rule for improper usage, they shouldn't mind being held to the same standard.

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Filed Under: copyright, isps, takedowns, three strikes

13 Comments

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anony, 1 Jul 2008 @ 4:10pm

Cox is doing it
Don't know if there is a list of ISPs that are doing it already, but from personal experience I know that Cox Cable has implemented and is enforcing its "three strike" rule.
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- Vincent Clement, 1 Jul 2008 @ 5:55pm
  
  Re: Cox is doing it
  It's one thing for a company to enforce it's own rules. It's another thing when the government makes it the law.
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  - anony, 1 Jul 2008 @ 11:17pm
    
    Re: Re: Cox is doing it
    The company in question is under legal pressure from other companies. Cox itself does not monitor its users and does not require proof of copyright infringement for a "strike" to count.
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LTDLP, 1 Jul 2008 @ 6:14pm

Thumbs Up
Yes, that is a very sane proposal. Cory hits the bulleye.
I'm guessing that the three strikes proponents are not up to the challenge however. If held to their own "rules" you would not hear the end of the wailing, screaming and whining about how unfair it all is.
btw, how many ISPs are owned by these whiners ?
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Not Bob, 1 Jul 2008 @ 6:30pm

Not likely
Sorry Mike,
It seems you have forgotten that when a company/industry/government/person/{insert group here} gets to a certain size, it figures that all the rules are for others and they have no need to follow them themselves.

Sort of like the "argument" that, "This isn't about us, it's about those thieving pirates."
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mike allen, 1 Jul 2008 @ 10:50pm

I dont think it will work
The three strikes rule first it will just piss off ISP customers. 2nd no one has given me the answear to one simple question that of Can they tell the differance between say BBC Iplayer and say Kazaa or other P2P download? i dont think they can. They all use bit torrants and i guess the BBC have copyrights on their shows. so i belive this to be another backfire for the record industry.
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James Gardiner, 2 Jul 2008 @ 3:31am

Force it underground..
Either way, P2P networks are going fully encrypted, so they cannot really tell what your shareing.

And even if they did enforce this big time, it will simply force it underground. Wireless networks, etc, will pop up and users will simply start talking to each other without ISPs getting in the way.

There is always a way around it. Up until the internet, I still knew a number of people who had a steady stream of pirate content. Not sure how they got it.. But, it is always going to happen.

James
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Shohat, 2 Jul 2008 @ 3:58am

Ahem
So basically Cory is saying that a person that likes getting blowjobs, should also give blowjobs.

This isn't Sparta.

Did you just grab my ass ?
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JustMe, 2 Jul 2008 @ 5:39am

Re: Shohat
No, what they are saying is that if you make baby food, for example, you should be willing to occasionally taste the baby food yourself. If you have lax controls and think that things (heavy metals, rat feces, etc.) might have fallen in to the food and don't want to eat it yourself then perhaps you shouldn't sell it to babies.
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- Bad Analogy Guy, 2 Jul 2008 @ 5:01pm
  
  Re: Re: Shohat
  JustMe -> "what they are saying is that if you make baby food"
  
  Ahhh, and I thought my analogies were bad .....
  wow
  So ... the RIAA is mommy feeding the babies surfing the net some baby food and the RIAA should have to eat some too.
  
  I think the RIAA are the babies whining to mommy political court system for the big titty.
  
  Sheesh
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zealeus, 2 Jul 2008 @ 7:20am

Charter
Charter communications already does the 3-strikes rule, too. I've been in areas that use charter for the last 5 years, and I've only known one person in all that time to get a notice, so chances of getting 3 strikes isn't all that great.
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oregonnerd, 4 Jul 2008 @ 10:47am

three strikes
No. If the analogy were to be fair...the RIAA would find out it had already violated the three-strikes rule and was headed to prison.

...Maybe we should just all go to prison and get training on laying cable, like the brits did...
--Glenn
8]
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Dean Landolt, 6 Jul 2008 @ 4:19pm

RE: Shohat
Interesting analogy Shohat -- I'll certainly have to borrow that...

I agree that the relationship between the two isn't commutative. But frankly, I don't believe we'd need go to such extends as Doctorow proposes to demonstrate the absurdity of three-strikes: given strict enforcement and many eyes on them, it's unlikely many entertainment firms could go very long without being caught with their hand in the copyright cookie jar, violating someone's copyright one way or another.
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