Why the 'Six Strikes' Copyright Alert System Needs Antitrust Scrutiny 159
suraj.sun sends this quote from an op-ed at Ars Technica:
"Eight months ago, content owners and Internet service providers agreed to the Copyright Alert System, a 'six-strike' plan to reduce copyright infringement by Internet users. Under the system, ISPs will soon send educational alerts, hijack browsers, and perhaps even slow/temporarily block the Internet service of users accused of online infringement (as identified by content owners). At the time it was announced, some speculated that the proposed system might not be legal under the antitrust laws. ... If I had to explain antitrust in a single word, it would not be 'competition' — it would be 'power.' The power to raise prices above a competitive level; the power to punish people who break your rules. Such power is something society usually vests in government. Antitrust law is in part concerned with private industry attempting to assert government-like power. ... The Copyright Alert System represents a raw exercise of concerted private power. Content owners as a group have control over their product. They have leveraged this control to forge this agreement with ISPs, who need to work with content owners in order to offer content to their own users. ISPs, in turn, have power over us as users."
Who cares if it's legal? (Score:1, Insightful)
Let's be realistic, here. This is America. The telcos can do whatever the hell they want and get away with it.
This will work well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sue them till they bleed. (Score:5, Insightful)
From the **AA's, who brought you lawsuits against the dead, comes this latest greatest solution to the problem of not wanting to adapt!
We got a buncha companies owned by our buddies to sign onto a program to screw the consumer.
Our super secret tech, which no one can be allowed to challenge or examine, is never wrong! Except that one time it identified the woman who didn't own a computer.
This great plan will raise the prices for consumers, all to protect our "rights".
The plan is 50/50 funded by the ISPs and the **AA's, both of which will just extract those costs from you by passing them on.
The system lacks any real fairness, and even if you can prove we were high as a kite when we blamed you... it costs $35 to challenge us.
The main goal of this system is to give us the powers of SOPA, without having to waste money on Congresscritters.
Even ISPs who aren't part of this plan now, well we are going to apply pressure and make them cave in.
We might not terminate your service, but it'll work just as well at 1 step above Dialup speeds.
You might want to move to a different ISP, well fuck you we have monopolies in most areas of the country.
Once this plan is moving along perfectly, we plan on adding a requirement for deep packet inspection... we want to make sure you can't "steal" a cent from us by even discussing the plots of our shows. Dare to quote the lyrics of a new song? We'll send you a bill.
It might be time to look into ripping the public funds out of the ISPs, making them purchase the rights to have poles and wires. Remove their monopoly control over communities, and demand actual competition. This is a service provider deciding a 3rd party has a right to control how you use the service your paying for. If someone claimed they saw you speeding, would you expect the car maker to come and make your car slower based on that claim? But your ISP thinks its a great idea.
Its time to get the FCC, FTC, and a bunch of other acronyms to get off their asses and protect the public from this massive overreach.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
The really big problem (Score:5, Insightful)
I think we have seen more than our share of false assertions of copyright by parties who professionally act "on behalf of copyright holders." They operate on assumption and without proof. These systems which do not require proof, but instead operate on "good faith" and "...under penalty of perjury" are rife with abuse.
Current systems in place are experiencing an epidemic of abuse by rights holders at the expense of many innocents. The harm this kind of thing causes the many outweighs the convenience and consideration of the many.
Re:How to make it interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Except you're new user agreement will strip away the right to sue in favor of arbitration... thanks a lot SCOTUS.
A question of values (Score:5, Insightful)
Somehow or another, the copyright MAFIAA has managed to hijack the public conversation such that the only value or goal of public telecom policy is to stop copyright violations.
It's time to stop fighting defensive battles on "what's the best way to stop copyright violations".
A better question is, "What should be the goal of telecom policy". My view: freer communication.
Just as we accept that some people will die on the highways, but we don't shut them down. Some people may be offended by various speech, but we don't shut down the 1st amendment. Some people may get shot, but we don't abridge the right to bear arms.
So, similarly, some copyright violations may occur, but we don't abridge the right to communicate. Also the 1st amendment amends the copyright clause [google.com].
Re:Not really a trust (monopoly) (Score:4, Insightful)
Highly insightful comment in original article (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not really a trust (monopoly) (Score:5, Insightful)
And when you've gotten booted off of every single ISP, they will use that data to lobby for even worse Big Brother legislation to monitor every single communication. The antitrust label is very apt here, because the copyright lobby is basically arguing that their profits are more important than human rights and freedoms, so important that the whole world must bow to their demands.
All I want to say is "Or else WHAT?"
It is truly shameful that what we consider a democratic political system is so nearsighted that it can be trivially manipulated by valueless profiteers. They don't even have an actual product, they're only selling contrived litigation.
Re:In police state USA... (Score:4, Insightful)
The Corporations control/buys the government which controls you.
The real problem is copyright itsel (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A question of values (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, if you go by the rule "the Constitution is whatever the Supreme Court says it is."
But nothing says the people cannot discuss what the Constitution means. And then vote in Presidents and Senators who will appoint the Supreme Court justices that agree with the people's interpretation of the Constitution.
So what I did was the first step in that process: advance an opinion. And I'd encourage anybody who cares about the right to communicate to propagate the notion that the 1st amendment amends the copyright clause.
false positives (Score:5, Insightful)
We've already had people get slapped for birdsong [slashdot.org] as copyrighted work. An acquaintance of mine is already wrestling with YouTube because he recorded classical music on his guitar, and he's getting slapped because someone else identified it as a copy of their recording, and YouTube has already jammed advertisements into his video to compensate the accuser, as if he already agreed to a plea-bargain.
Too many false positives, and it costs much less for the people who are already wealthy to make false claims than it does for private citizens to defend themselves against the false claims. This stinks to high heaven.
Re:This will work well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I recall an event on the Image-Line forum. One of the site admins (guys who make their software etc - content creation software) - was accused of "stealing" his own samples. Said content provider even "reviewed" the claims and rejected it... which was hilarious, because it was demonstrable that he created the damn things and gave permission for it's use in the work triggering the takedown.
This shit is insane.
It's not all about stopping piracy - you have to keep in mind they're basically glitzy headhunters. If there is no _need_ for a publishing agency they go out of business. If you can just go an be some kind of underground sensation, you not only risk them losing money over you giving your work away for free, but by diluting the amount of new media on the market - if you can make a profit on it in the process you have the added risk of becoming their competition - and the media is notorious (even making movies about it) for how ruthless they are - hell, the only truly evil corporations in America can almost always be classified in the healthcare, banking and publishing industries - and of the 3 they are the only group trading in both people and intangible assets.
Re:In police state USA... (Score:5, Insightful)
Look it up.
Fascist = when a Government and Corporations become "Friends With Benefits"
In such a situation, the people can only watch with disgust.
Just replace the goo with Money and Power and you get the picture.
Re:Who cares if it's legal? (Score:4, Insightful)
You know why that is? Because people like accept what happens and turn around to say "Let's be realistic, here. This is America. The telcos can do whatever the hell they want and get away with it."
Do Nothing (Score:3, Insightful)
The MAFIAA cannot be defeated by any recourse to law or government regulation, they have long since purchased the souls of polititians, judges and lawyers. Indeed it now seems that the media industries are becoming a desirable "retirement gig" for polititians now that banking has become discredited.
Understand that the MAFIAA exist to only one end, money and lots of it. They care nothing for the Constitution or the Law. They have no ideological or dogmatic agenda. They care only about money and to achieve it they have declared war on the people.
However they may have made a serious mistake in their choice of battlefield, they have chosen politics and law, seeking to criminalise their customers and compel them to do business on the industry's terms by force (the only way that any law is ultimately enforced).
In doing so they have forgotten that there are more powerful weapons and the most powerful weapon of all in any market is DEMAND. Simple ecconomics (and for a quick refresher in market ecconomics, go and watch a couple of Ebay listings) dictates that when there is no demand for a product or service its value tends to zero and continued supply of a costly but worthless product becomes a fast route to bankruptcy.
It is not possible to win a war such as this by engaging a multitude of enemies simultaneously better to engage them one at a time and ensure total destruction before moving on to the next.
Pick one enemy and do NOTHING!
My strategic analysis is that the film industry is the weakest and least resilient enemy of the people.
Not any random nothing, but a carefully considered and ruthlessly applied set of specific nothings:
1. Spend NOTHING at the box office.
2. Spend NOTHING on DVD and BLURAY.
3. Spend NOTHING on PPV or cable movie chanels.
4. Spend NOTHING on streaming movies.
5. Spend NOTHING on movie merchandise.
6. DO NOT DOWNLOAD - NOT EVEN IF IT IS FREE
7. Do not watch films on TV (even if on a free to air non subscription chanel) - this cuts off advertising revenue.
8. Save more money by cancelling chanels from your pay TV package (you know - the ones owned by the big studios).
9. For added spite, click on their paid advertising links on every website you visit and buy NOTHING at the other end.
That should eliminate 90% of their revenue while at the same time jacking up their advertising costs, however I have not done a detailed analysis - there are probably a few other revenue streams that could be cut in a similar way.
How long?
Depends how many of their target audience were to join in, spreading the word of "DO NOTHING" is a better way to directly crush the promoters of unconstitutional anti-internet law and punish those that have taken their money.
They will be hurting in 30-60 days.
They will be filing for Chapter 11 protection in under 90-180 days (how many $200m total losses can they stand?)
Total bankruptcy will be achieved for the studios, and all major film industry suppliers in 12 to 18 months.
The industry has only one thing of value - it's intellectual property (copyrights) by refusing to pay for it we render it worthless, the liquidators will not even be able to cover their own fees in an auction, particularly if other publishing type companies (think music and books publishers) are warned that ownership of film IP makes them a target.
The various Occupy movements and DDOSing/Hacktivism have achieved nothing except to get people peppersprayed and beaten and arrested - effect on the 1%? Not much!
The example of the Occupy movements is the reason for point 6 - if you download unlicensed copies of films, they will send their lawyers after you and once they start to get desperate they will pay their political friends to order the police to kick down your door - remember kids "downloading is theft" says so at the start of every DVD I own.
To remain safe, obey the law and simply mind your own business while at the same time keeping your dollars in your own pocket for
Re:In police state USA... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, a corporate product. How do you think it got passed? The Health Care Reform Act was the biggest giveaway to insurance companies, drug companies, health care conglomerates, right on down the line. It was the only way anything was ever going to change in the US health care system. Medicare Part D was just a dress rehearsal.
Nothing gets done in Washington that doesn't put cash directly into the pockets of corporations.
That was my goddamn point, you imbecile! And it was just a little taste compared to the siphon of money that's going to go into the coffers of the biggest corporations if the corporate takeover specialist gets to be president. Venture capital, my ass. I'll venture that a hell of a lot of capital that people have in their houses and bank accounts and sweat equity is going to flow straight to people just like would-be president Mitt. People with a sense of entitlement that would have made King Louis the XIV jealous. Whatever crumbs were left on the table after the mortgage/CDO scandal are going to be hoovered up. They're going to make sure that nobody in the bottom 99% is going to make a peep for the next three generations. They want you dumb working fucks to put your nose to the grindstone and keep your mouths shut just like their worker template: the Chinese factory worker. Glad to have a job. Won't make trouble or ask for bathroom breaks. Spends everything he gets at the company store. Born in debt, lives in debt, dies in debt. No chance to move up, no chance to make waves. Jesus Christ, it's like these bonehead ACs don't even read the comments before they start to reply.
Back in the 50's, 60's 70's, the middle class was starting to really get a little political power. They had so much money in their little houses and their pensions and their savings accounts that it drove the economic elite crazy. Women with jobs. Blacks with jobs. They could not stand to see middle class workers, women, minorities, start to act like they owned something. Like they were something. They had to put them in their place and slap them down so hard that there would never be the danger of those little people thinking they had a voice again. Cue Ronald Reagan.
And here we are.