Is The Six Strikes Plan Being Delayed Because ISPs Are Pushing Back Against Hollywood Demands?
from the seems-possible dept
As you probably know, last year, the big ISPs agreed to a six strikes plan (really five strikes), after the White House pressured the ISPs to cave to Hollywood's interests. What many of us noticed, of course, is that this backroom deal left the public out of the equation, which was obvious from the fact that it actually takes away some of the public's rights -- for example, by curtailing the definition of the public domain.Earlier this year, the RIAA said that the program would finally kick off in July. There were some rumors of delays, and then a bunch of sites (including us) got confused about the actual start date. There have been multiple reports now saying that it will actually roll out later in the fall.
Of course, this has a lot of people wondering just what the delay is about. There might be a clue in a piece over at The Daily Dot, where they say that the director of the Center for Copyright Information (CCI), Jill Lesser, has hinted strongly that the ISPs disagree with some RIAA/MPAA demands:
Jill Lesser, Executive Director of the Center for Copyright Information, told the Daily Dot that the repeated delays were because the coalition wanted an independent review from the American Arbitration Association.Of course, there's one big thing that happened between when the agreement was made and now: the huge public reaction to SOPA. After that, the EFF rightly called for scrapping the backroom deal and starting a new negotiation that actually involved the public. That recommendation was ignored by Hollywood, of course, but the news of some internal fighting hopefully means that the ISPs are asserting themselves a bit more strongly against excessive RIAA/MPAA demands. Of course, once again, this is why it would be nicer if this debate were in public, rather than hidden behind closed doors.
She hinted that disagreement between the ISPs or the lobbying groups might have held up the process. Responding to a question about the delay, she wrote “members are all very involved in internal planning and review of the alert system, which has been and will continue to be a collaborative process.”
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: hollywood, isp, jill lessig, six strikes, sopa
Companies: cci, eff, mpaa, riaa
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
nope
vpns , encryption etc....
isps have long now been patseys to the man
time we all started being the man instead
i like being the man myself
catch me if you can
[ link to this | view in thread ]
When it goes in to effect I will start a business.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Horizontal price fixing
An agreement among “competitive” ISPs to fix prices for consumers at $35 might not fare so well under a new admininistration.
AN ANTITRUST PRIMER FOR FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL
Thirty-five dollars. Fixed price.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Six (Five) Strikes
I'm currently tied to Verizon as my wireless internet provider (I don't have a land line) and I've had several occasions recently to speak to a customer service representative or supervisor. Whenever I think about it, I'll ask what they know about the implementation of the Six Strikes policy, and not a single one of them has heard a thing.
Late in June, I did have a supervisor tell me that it was not unusual for the company to spring policy changes on the customer service department with little warning.
I spoke to someone on July 10, and that rep hadn't heard anything either.
So, if nothing else, the front line at one of the committed participants of the CCI's Six Strikes effort is in the dark as much as any of us.
-- Daniel
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Heh - didn't think it through did ya???
What is a falsely accused individual to do when there is no due process?
This will have an affect upon the percentage of customers who choose to pay their bills online, and it will affect the bottom line of those corporations who are exposed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
There have been a number of huge shifts here, including Paypal dumping many of them under pressure from the Adult industry, as well as arrests of site operators including one in Italy this week (a unique story, because he was arrested for Fiscal fraud as well as copyright violations).
Since the start of the discussion of the strikes system in the US, there has been dramatic shifts on the ground. I am sure that the **AAs don't want to get caught with a policy that isn't flexible enough to cover alternate means of obtaining and distributing pirated content.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Also, one of the biggest dogs is Comcast, owners of NBC/U- I wouldn't expect help from them. Plus, all of the ISP's are or want to play in the content delivery space. They have personal financial interest in tamping down infringement.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I do wonder anyone know what the ISP's are getting out of this? If its not something great I'm not sure why they are agreeing.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
What are the ISPs getting out of this?
I'm wondering this myself. It's understandable with Comcast as mentioned above, but I wonder if there's some kind of leverage that isn't obvious for the others -- some kind of implied threat of significant regulatory consequences for not "playing along," or some such. The MPAA and RIAA influence a lot of folks in D.C., and obviously there's no need to editorialize about that little problem here.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Maybe after the election, they get an indictment from the grand jury?
Thirty-five motherfucking dollars.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Heh - didn't think it through did ya???
I'm pretty sure there will be massive lawsuits if CCI gets what they really want. Then they will have to give up on arbitration and deal with a real court who will have to be informed which failed IP address gathering firm they are using.
Demanding consumers have to pay $35 to challenge an outside companies claims that are resulting in degraded service and limiting the "allowed" answers might be stacking the deck.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: When it goes in to effect I will start a business.
For politicians with no understanding about the works of the internet, they will focus on part 1 and when the effect of part 1 is 10% of what they expected, they are perplexed and want 9 new pieces of strenghtened survailance to make up for the "promises" to a particular "the industry".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I wonder...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: nope
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Horizontal price fixing
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Why not lower the price to something palatable, add in convenience, and make more money?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: I wonder...
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal that others.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Support
[ link to this | view in thread ]
In 50 years, it will all be laughable.
Oh, dear...
(Sorry, I would have commented sooner, but on the way here I hit a rock and got a broken stone wheel on my Flinstonemobile. Have you tried to get a new stone wheel lately? It's damned hard to do!)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: I wonder...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
FTFY
Why would dpi be used ... because everyone is a criminal, that is why.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: I wonder...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Horizontal price fixing
Because the Obama admininstration's Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, Ms. Victoria Espinel, thinks that coordinating "competitive" ISPs on a $35 price is just right?
( Go look up the history on the Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. )
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The past fighting the future
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Horizontal price fixing
I was thinking something similar. If they wait until after the election, the president may not be in office. At which point all pressure to follow through with this agreement goes away.
With the treat of a SOPA like public revolt against 6 strikes come other issues. The possibility that people will start calling for an end to the local telecom monopolies becomes extremely high. Most of the social media revolts thus far have had two thing in common, pushing back against wrong doing, and pushing against entrenched monopolies.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
isp
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Horizontal price fixing
Although, that's one of the interesting facets of the “Madison Oil” case, United States v. Socony-Vaccum: Mr Roosevelt was president both when his administration “prompted the cartel”, and also when his administration prosecuted the cartel executives.
In “The Story of United States v. Socony-Vacuum: Hot Oil and Antitrust in the Two New Deals”, Daniel A. Crane explains:
In the Obama administration, the interpersonal dynamics are certainly different than they were in the Roosevelt administration: The people are not same.
I personally have a hard time believing that Ms. Espinel would push an agreement to fix a $35 price without Attorney-General Holder's okay.
Is Mr Holder planning to stay on into a potential second Obama administration?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Not 1c more from me!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Heh - didn't think it through did ya???
File suit under the theory that the White House forced this down the throats of the ISP's and it is an end run around the constitution.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
When the marginal cost of distributing something approaches zero making money depends on providing more value; quality, convenience, access, etc.
Being a monopolistic fuck who doesn't understand economics justifies illegally downloading and streaming. Got it!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
For the 100th time....
The ISPs are NOT looking at what your downloading, any more than normal.
The accusations come from an unnamed 3rd party, thought to be DtecNet.
https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-anti-piracy-police-kept-secret-from-the-public-110811/
It is the same methodology used in the copyright trolling lawsuits sweeping the country. They join the swarm, record IP addresses, and then take action.
In this private enforcement agreement the IP addresses are divided by participating ISPs who then in turn just automatically pass on the "warning" to the person paying the bill. There are a tiny number of allow answers to the accusation, and if you feel it was generated in error you have to pay $35 to challenge, in arbitration where they never ever ever just side with the corporation who hired them over facts.
This lets them enjoy the same sort of terrorism the copyright trolls have without having to file a Federal Lawsuit to get the names to send the messages to. The ISPs keep records for CCI to see who has gotten to many notices, and they hold onto those for a while.
This is designed to be an automated system where they just submit a couple thousand IP addresses and notices are generated.
Depending on how many notices you have gotten they may or may not be taking actions like throttling your connection or blocking you connecting to the internet until you tick a box on a website.
Part if the ISP pushback seems to be tied to the fact that DtecNet aka MarkMonitor have a history of not even understanding how Bittorrent works and making ludicrous claims in studies. Maybe the ISPs want to make sure they are providing accurate accusations before pissing off their customer base.
https://torrentfreak.com/how-scary-is-the-us-six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-120605/
What happens to those who ignore all warnings?
This is an interesting question. Public information provides no answer but the CCI told TorrentFreak the following:
“The program is intended to educate consumers, taking them through a system that we believe will be successful for most consumers. If a subscriber were to receive 6 alerts, that user would be considered a subscriber the program is unable to reach.”
“If ISPs receive additional allegations of copyright infringement for that user, those notices will not generate alerts under the program,” a CCI spokesperson told us.
In other words, nothing will happen under the program. People who receive more than 6 warnings are removed from the system. They wont receive any further warnings or punishments and are allowed to continue using their Internet service as usual.
Who will be monitoring these copyright infringements?
While ISPs take part in the scheme, they are not the ones who will monitor subscribers’ behaviors. The tracking will be done by a third party company such as DtecNet or PeerMedia. These companies collect IP-addresses from BitTorrent swarms and send their findings directly to the Internet providers.
Oh and if someone sues the RIAA, MPAA, or any of the ISPs there is an escape clause in the memo of understanding letting them bail on this BS. The board of this CCI is stocked with cartel members and ISPs bigwigs... it should be fun to see this entire waste of time go down the drain.
NO DPI, Yes they will record IP's in Bittorrent swarms and send out alerts based on that flawed technology alone.
http://dmca.cs.washington.edu/
Seems like there is a whole bunch to sue them for once they start. This is an attempt to void the legal process and scare and punish based on the "eyewitness" reports of someone with cataracts. This is smoke and mirrors to show everyone how important this issue supposedly is.
I wonder if they'd taken the millions they dumped into this clusterfuck and developed a platform to sell things from that actually worked, if they could understand that the root of "piracy" is them spending so much time obsessed over someone not paying them for something that they have pissed off the consumers who would pay them if it wasn't completely limited and screwing over the people who pay them more than the evil "pirates".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: isp
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: isp
Regulatory Capture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture
[ link to this | view in thread ]
@6
see you on the dark side of the nets....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Regarding the no further action after the sixth strike, does this mean you connection gets stuck at dial-up speed? Not really much need fopr further action when it takes a month to download an HD movies I suppose.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
DPI IS NOT A PART OF 6 STRIKES.
EVEN CCI says they are NOT USING DPI.
Because if the ISPs who use DPI were to begin monitoring consumers accounts to police copyrights the lawsuit would be huge and might topple them.
This "education" program costs them next to nothing, and avoids them having to file lawsuits to try and stop "piracy". They at least remember that suing your customers is a really stupid thing to do.
If an ISP were to degrade service permanently on the basis of a nonvetted investigative technique that can and has been to be flawed, they would be hard pressed to deal with the lawsuits. A corporation taking punitive action based on accusation alone would be looked upon very poorly, and when they need the states to allow them to have right of ways and easements to stay in business getting the AG's of those states interested in looking at what the hell they are doing is a very stupid thing.
ISPs enjoy coexisting with the content cartel, they are benefiting each other. They do not relish the idea of getting hung out to dry by the cartels when the shit hits the fan.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
And the targets are so terrified many of them overlook paying off a fee via cellphone or Western Union.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: What are the ISPs getting out of this?
Getting a favorable price for content that is in demand...
They get the big players, many of whom have their own content production wings in the large corporation, to do this then lean on the little ones to give in as well.
They are just sure this is going to work out just right, but then it seems the people at the ISPs have said hey wait a minute this sounds good on paper, now prove it is airtight. In the few areas where there is competition, being the ISP who isn't involved with CCI is a selling point.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
This maybe a correct statement if referring to China, however AFAIK in the US it's still illegal - unless you're a double naught spy. Perhaps you might offer some clarification of your rather nebulous statement.
[ link to this | view in thread ]