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Operating Systems Google Microsoft Piracy Windows Apple Your Rights Online

Microsoft, Google, Apple Could Be Requested To Actively Block Pirated Downloads, Says Report (torrentfreak.com) 207

Posted by msmash from the os-level-block dept.
Popular operating systems by Microsoft, Apple, and Google could possibly soon nuke torrents downloaded (PDF, non-English language) from The Pirate Bay and other websites that offer copyright infringing content, warns a report published by Black Market Watch and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. The report adds that the aforementioned companies are in an ideal position to deter piracy, and could be requested by the authority to put a system in place to block pirated content on the operating system level. Via a TorrentFreak report: "Other players that possess the potential ability to limit piracy are the companies that own the major operating systems which control computers and mobile devices such as Apple, Google and Microsoft," one of the main conclusions reads. "The producers of operating systems should be encouraged, or regulated, for example, to block downloads of copyright infringing material," the report adds. The report references last year's Windows 10 controversy, noting that these concerns were great enough for some torrent sites to block users with the new operating system. While Sweden doesn't have enough influence to make an impact on these global software manufacturers, applying pressure through the international community and trade groups may have some effect.
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Microsoft, Google, Apple Could Be Requested To Actively Block Pirated Downloads, Says Report More

Microsoft, Google, Apple Could Be Requested To Actively Block Pirated Downloads, Says Report

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  • 2016: The Year of Linux on the Desktop (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @07:02PM (#52640135)

    This will produce a giant boost of Linux usage on the desktop.

    • Re:2016: The Year of Linux on the Desktop (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Mr D from 63 ( 3395377 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @07:04PM (#52640153)

      This will produce a giant boost of Linux usage on the desktop.

      And pirated versions of Windows, custom Android roms.

    • If only to download the Windows programs. But hey, it's a start.

    • This will produce a giant boost of Linux usage on the desktop.

      THIS is the year!

      Just kidding, OK? But we can dream..

    • Re:2016: The Year of Linux on the Desktop (Score:5, Informative)

      by Dutch Gun ( 899105 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @07:48PM (#52640413)

      Besides that, where would this even stop? People use computers for all sorts of things. Should your OS snoop on you to make sure you're not cheating on your taxes? Should it check to make sure you're not browsing just a bit too much at pro-Jihadist websites, or looking up how to make a pipebomb? How about if you're trying to figure out how to hire a hitman?

      To be honest, though... this smells a lot like some trumped-up nonsense. We hear about shit like this all the time, and it never happens. Exactly how many stories about nefarious DRM-in-our-OS schemes does one have to hear about before getting completely jaded? A report from *TorrentFreak*? Um... yeah. Thanks, Slashdot, for once again giving completely unsubstantiated rumor-mongering some credibility. This was just a combination of a speculative piece based on a few words in a EULA, and a wishful-thinking report from a content-production organization telling about how they wish tech companies would solve all their problems, and also that they'd like a magical unicorn please.

      • or what if the data collected finds that are are married but surfing dating and singles websites and determines since you are married you might be cheating on your wife and sells that info to attornies to spam your wife with, but the snoops dont know who is actually behind the desk at your computer is your drunk uncle visiting and using your computer to try and hook up with some lonely old harpy he knew in highschool

        • I'm sure they plan to fix the "drunk uncle" problem with further typing-pattern user fingerprinting and facial recognition from the always-on camera.

      • Trumped up nonsense? DRM-in-our-OS has already happened on iPhone and Android. With Surface and Macs blending mobile OSes with desktop OSes more and more with every release, it's almost a certainty that what is proposed by *TorrentFreak* is going to happen. Hundreds of millions of people already cannot install an App unless Apple lets them, or for that matter, download illegal music and movies. We have almost already lost the ability to individual control the next major compute platform (mobile). When Slash

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sudon't ( 580652 )

        To be honest, though... this smells a lot like some trumped-up nonsense.

        Of course it is. How would they even do that? The fact is, with digital, there's always a way around it. When people want something, they find a way to get it. It's how torrents came into being. If they ever found a way to make torrenting really difficult, someone would come up with an even better way.

        Here's the other thing I wonder - when did Google go from being a search engine, to being in charge of the internet?

        • Sorry, that app is not signed by an approved M$/Crapple/Hemoroid certificate, you cannot install it and it will not run.
          Sorry, that movie/music/game file does not bear the proper signature and does not receive clearance from the our servers as legal, you may not view it.

          It's not "trumped up" or far-fetched at all

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by KlomDark ( 6370 )

      Well, honestly, I just scratched Windows off my main laptop a couple days ago for Linux Mint 18, so this really might help Linux adoption finally. I feel much more relieved running Linux after Windows Spyware Edition. It's finally ready as long as the systemd shit doesn't have spyware embedded in it, but I really don't know.

    • Re:2016: The Year of Linux on the Desktop (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mark-t ( 151149 ) <markt AT nerdflat DOT com> on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @09:36PM (#52641025) Journal
      This is troublesome because if it actually came to pass in that way, then legitimate use of Linux could itself basically be pushed to fringe usage of the OS. This could in turn spur the impression that that the only, or at least primary reason to use Linux, or any open source OS for that matter, is for piracy, much as the impression has already been created that the primary use for bittorrent is for piracy. Commercial entities may then possibly be inclined to steer clear of such open source platforms for fear of being perceived by the general public as somehow affiliated with the piracy culture on those platforms.
      • Actually, Linux is associated primarily with terrorism in the minds of legislators, not piracy.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mark-t ( 151149 )
          The only reason that companies would care what legislators think is either if they are proposing laws that will adversely impact their business model or else the legislators themselves are the company's clients. If the general public has a perception that there is a large piracy culture surrounding Linux and very little legitimate use exists, then companies that care about their image or public reputation, and are wanting to avoid the stigma of appearing to be affiliated with that culture may end up avoidi

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mwvdlee ( 775178 )

      2016; the year of Linux-based, networked devices which do the downloading for you.
      It'll be exactly the same as before, but finally the remote user interfaces will improve.

  • See you later guys...

    Android and Linux for me, thanks!

  • Let's see.

    There's Linux, BSD, Windows XP, Windows Vista as backup OSes.

    No problem.

    • Re:Workarounds (Score:5, Insightful)

      by NotInHere ( 3654617 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @07:10PM (#52640187)

      Until the day a legislation gets passed where only hardware may be sold where UEFI secure boot can't be disabled, and
      where UEFI signatures will only be allowed for kernels that have such an "anti pirate" spyware module inside.

      Also works great for political ideas. Just put anything you don't like your people to read onto the blacklist. Iran, China and friends will love this.

      • Asian electronics tourism and sneaker net could go up.

      • Also works great for political ideas. Just put anything you don't like your people to read onto the blacklist. Iran, China and friends will love this.

        My thoughts exactly. Even assuming that this was technically possible to implement, and achieving a universally desired goal, how long until "Things your computer prevents you from downloading" includes "revelatory leaked documents from $country intelligence" or "information about violent suppression of $protest" or "video of racist remarks made by $politician"

        Even if it's "fixed" in a week (oops, we shouldn't have done that, sorry!) the damage to the public discourse is already done.

        • The human race has proven to be a failure, time for us to go the way of the dinosaurs and let a new life form rise and hope they don;t make the same mistakes....

      • Hopefully by then, we will be fully entrenched in the maker movement, and we will be able to print out our own circuit boards, using machines that we also printed out.

      • The window on implementing that has come and gone. It used to be (think early 90's to early 2000's) that if you bought a computer within 2-3 years it was basically shit and needed to be replaced. You could count on the fact that people pretty much HAD to upgrade pretty soon so "old" computers would soon become effectively useless.

        Now though - computers keep getting faster, but there's no real NEED to get a faster computer. They're nicer, but I can still comfortably do most things I want to do with a comp

  • That's a terrible idea. It sounds like a proposal made by someone who doesn't understand how computers work.

    Enforcing this would be a nightmare. If they did a cost/benefit analysis of this, I suspect the cost of implementation & maintenance would far outstrip the earnings they hope to "protect".

    • Every few years someone tries to push a bill that does this. I remember when they wanted ISPs to block this stuff at the router.
      It's a tough problem to solve at this scale. Just making a law won't suddenly solve the problem (and provide for the capital expense)

    • Enforcing this would be a nightmare. If they did a cost/benefit analysis of this, I suspect the cost of implementation & maintenance would far outstrip the earnings they hope to "protect".

      You're thinking of this wrong - the cost for implementation would fall to the OS vendor, who will then pass it on to the consumer. In effect, the consumer will pay extra to have their OS spy on them.

      It's sort of like being shot at by cops, and then having them bill you for the bullets.

    • Nearly all proposals which become law are written by people who have no idea how stuff works. What usually ends up happening is you stop making things legislators don't understand.
  • Because the obvious response of these OS providers, if forced to do it, will be shoving even more DRM (and worse, hardware-assisted DRM) down our throats.

    That's basically the main way they have to force that a "non approved/digitally signed" program or OS is simply unable to run.

    That and ratting you out to the NSA, if you are doing something the OS thinks may be "Wrongcomputing".

  • Delete Everything (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Calydor ( 739835 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @07:12PM (#52640203)

    Nothing makes me feel safer than knowing some invisible party on the other side of the Atlantic has access to nuking any and all files on my computer whenever he wants.

    I'm sure companies will love to know that their trade secrets can be deleted without notice by a low-level grunt taking a bribe from a competitor.

    When the fucking hell did my computer stop being MY computer?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Xenx ( 2211586 )
      The computer is totally yours. The OS isn't. It is a fine distinction, but important.
      • The OS may not be yours, but the non-OS-specific files, and your hard drive sure are.
        • Of course, I mean the legally obtained files, but the fact that allegation does not automatically equate to being infringing, and there are just so many things where you can draw an analogy to the real physical world, and the rights that come even for example in a case like where you rent an apartment - you don't "own" the space outright, but still have a lot of rights.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        In theory, yes.

        In practice, if the firmware is set so that you can't boot whatever kernel you want - and this is the case for just about any computer where UEFI secure boot can't be turned off (and they do exist) - a corporation effectively owns the device you paid for, since they dictate the terms on which it can be used. This is especially so if and when all secure boot OS's have mandatory updates to comply with whatever policy is currently being forced.

        Arguably not unlike the John Deere case, you have a

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @07:13PM (#52640215)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:while doing nothing to address content issues. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Qzukk ( 229616 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @07:50PM (#52640427) Journal

      adverts for new titles or tie-in marketing

      You mean decade-old titles and ancient marketing.

      Don't forget multiple FBI notices to accuse you of being a bad person for buying the DVD.

    • Yeah, the great thing about theaters is that it is always exactly 20 minutes of previews, so that the ticket sellers don't even blink when you show up 19 minutes after the posted movie start time and ask for a ticket to see that movie... although they will remind you, "better hurry, the actual movie is starting soon!"

  • Every Data transaction has to be traceable back to a certificate authority. Every program can be deauthorized from a central authority.

    • Which then makes the CA servers ripe targets for ddos attacks. It also requires the os to know the difference between a random data packet, and a packet containing binary data related to a download, when these functions are on different levels of the osi model.

      The best that will happen is that whack a mole happens, and it bankrputs these companies.

      The wost that will happen is that every packet sent and received has to be deep inspecter for contraband, and false positives abound. (Simple encryption or encodi

  • In these companies' position, I'd respond "Sure, we'll provide a way to block infringing content. You'll merely have to present a judgment from a court of competent jurisdiction stating that that content has been found to be infringing. We aren't a court, we're not going to hear cases and make rulings like one.". When the whines start, I'd go "Oh, you want it blocked because you allege it's infringing? OK, we can do that. We'll block any content that anyone alleges infringes on their copyrights until presen

    • In these companies' position, I'd respond "Sure, we'll provide a way to block infringing content. You'll merely have to present a judgment from a court of competent jurisdiction stating that that content has been found to be infringing. We aren't a court, we're not going to hear cases and make rulings like one.". When the whines start, I'd go "Oh, you want it blocked because you allege it's infringing? OK, we can do that. We'll block any content that anyone alleges infringes on their copyrights until presented with a court ruling saying it isn't infringing. But again we aren't a court, we will not get into the business of hearing cases and making rulings on whether the evidence supports the allegation or not.".

      Government always holds the ace of being able to declare things illegal and pass laws and acts backed up with the monopoly on the threat and use of deadly force and prisons. It took a constitutional amendment to prohibit alcohol (and another to repeal the prohibition), and the only way around the first attempts to ban marijuana were the use of 'tax stamps' with the catch-22 that to qualify to purchase the stamp, you broke laws ('possession'. 'transport', etc of 'non-Stamped' contraband and federal tax law v

    • The other issue is that there really is no such thing as inherently infringing content. There's content that is infringing if the owner of the computer doesn't have a particular license or has something that wouldn't be ruled as fair use. There's perfectly legal stuff on my laptop that would be infringing on yours.

  • Required Reading (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @07:35PM (#52640349)

    The Right to Read [gnu.org]

  • Tired of your shit Big Content (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @07:38PM (#52640369)

    No, the OS makers should not be regulated to keep your struggling business model alive.

    You fought to make copyright insanely long. Now its getting harder to put out new things no one has seen before and will pay money to see.
    You fight to keep your creations artificially restricted by region in our connected world. So people share it to get around that.
    You fight to keep people from sharing culture. That's the very essence of culture, a shared social existence.
    You fight to make money off those who create, and screw them over. They are leaving you in droves.

    You lie, cheat and steal and when someone does it to you, you whine and beg and bribe to get them back. You act as if you are the only ones with rights here. Well you are not. We have rights as well and we're sick of your corrupting our governments to steal them from us.

    We're going to share content. you cannot stop it. Add more DRM and we'll simply break it. Pass laws to regulate makers of operating systems and they'll move while we choose another one or make it ourselves. Take down a website, another will always spring up to replace it. Give us shit options that cost more than physical ones and we'll continue to ignore them in favor of sharing. We are not pirates. We are humans. We are not wallets. We are humans. Humanity survived because of sharing. You deny humanity itself when you try to stop sharing. You declare yourselves to be monsters that must be fed, creatures who think they are better than we and should be obeyed.

    We do not like those would call themselves our masters. Especially not when they prove to have such a weak grasp of reality. You keep spending your money and efforts trying to stop sharing. We'll keep finding new ways to share until you run out of money, out of influence, out of ears to listen to you and corrupt our laws. And then, when you have passed from existence, we'll figure out better ways to share more freely, to build upon each others creativity, and make truly great things again.

    captcha: overtake

  • Two words: false positives (Score:4, Interesting)

    by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @07:43PM (#52640391)

    ...put a system in place to block pirated content on the operating system level. ...

    Given the quality assurance failures of major OS providers recently, this new plan will only be a disaster. But those proposing it don't care about false positives, and they have lawyers to protect themselves from the effects of false positives.

    .
    [aside: this coming weekend I plan to convert the second of my three notebooks from Windows to Linux, due to the Windows 10 update malware tactic. If the plan to delete files on my systems goes through, the conversion of the remainder of my Windows PCs will only be accelerated.]

  • Oh, sure, there's NO WAY this could possibly be abused, oh no!

    Microsoft blocks downloads of Linux and FOSS as 'malicious software'

    Don't tell me it won't happen because IT WILL.

    Censorship by the government of Free Speech by deeming 'unwanted' material to be 'copyright infringing'

    Don't tell me THAT won't happen, either.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      With all the fragments of data that get sent back? Just add a new always on layer of protection, a free cloud based AV product for all users.
      Every file downloaded gets a checksum and that data is sent back with the ip for an instant AV report.
      If that file is later registered or found to be of interest to a company, government, or political NGO ... a record of all users globally who have that file can be created.
      People thought it was only the 5 eye nations and their ex/former workers who got a look in vi

  • If you are going to come up with such a crazy idea, why not talk to the router manufacturers first? It seems that they are in a better position to block websites.

    • The problem of doing it on a per website or per file type (for example not downloading any torrent files) is that there plenty of valid torrents out there. Linux distributions or out of copyright works of art are just two examples. To be done properly (which it wouldn't) any filter would have to check the validity of each download.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Its about the all files on the local OS too. Just blocking the links could be done at the provider level or set to never found as a search term as a first step.
      Downloads and the OS is the new talking point about any file that made it back to the endusers OS and can be detected by the OS as a file of interest to law enforcement..
      Long term a download, sneaker net drive connected, usb device, all files of interest get reported on via a networked OS with the users ip.
      Plug and spy.
      A bit like could base

    • "If you are going to come up with such a crazy idea, why not talk to the router manufacturers first? It seems that they are in a better position to block websites."

      I bought my router only because it can download torrents by itself without any need for a computer.

  • Why should we care about the views of a couple of antipiracy lobbying NGO?
  • How does the operating system tell whether or not a torrent contains copyrighted material? How does it now whether or not you have paid the license fee for an MP3? How about if I check out a CD or DVD from the library and rip it using 3rd party software, how does Windows tell I haven't paid for it?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ewhac ( 5844 )
      It can't. Obviously. But Microsoft will claim that it can, and set up a rigged demo to "prove" it works. *Poof!* A Bill appears in Congress mandating the technology be incorporated on all computing platforms.

      Too stupid to actually happen? So was the DMCA.

  • Kopimism Blasphemy (Score:3)

    by WaffleMonster ( 969671 ) on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @08:46PM (#52640739)

    An open Internet and general purpose computers give peasants too much power and must be quashed at all costs.

  • this was some random discussion but you know slashdot check nothing its fact. the same shit was spred around with xp vista 7 8 etc.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • What's the difference between a legitimate packet and an illegitimate one? How will MS', Apple's, and Google's operating systems distinguish between them in order to decide which to reject and which to accept?

      Easy RFC3514 [ietf.org] provides an unambiguous method of doing so.

  • I already have a plan in place... (Score:4, Funny)

    by tlambert ( 566799 ) on Thursday August 04, 2016 @12:11AM (#52641805)

    I already have a plan in place...

    I'm going to just XOR all my data streams with a repeated 0x46 0x75 0x63 0x6b 0x20 0x4f 0x66 0x66.

    If they figure it out, they're liable for violating the DMCA rules on anticircumvention...

  • So this is their solution to VPNs? As blocking the trackers doesn't work effectively, how do they plan to bock the magnets?

    Seriously if they ever get this concept to work; it will only create a vacuum that will be filled quickly but another hybrid solution for P2P downloading very quickly.

  • There is no way you could convince every hardware and software company to lock down every computing device to not run anything that isn't approved by governments and big corporations. Outlawing general purpose computers (i.e. things capable of running "unapproved" software) will never be possible either (at least not in any country that isn't a strict dictatorship like North Korea).

    Nor could you modify the networking layer of things like Windows to be able to detect anything piracy related (or even just Tor

  • "a report published by Black Market Watch and the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime."

    Seems legit and unbiased to me...

  • My dad constantly asks me if he should get windows 10 (until I installed gwx control panel).
    I tried to explain to him why it is a very bad thing, and this (win10) is "just the tip".
    There's more to come and you won't be able to stop it. Just fight it as long as you can.

    eyes glaze over...

    A far superior genius and far superior crackpot said it much better...:

    https://www.gnu.org/philosophy... [gnu.org]

    He doesn't sound quite as crazy as he did a year ago, does he?

    Also, IIRC Corey Doctorow has already predicted this, too.

  • I guess the EU should look into that then, as due to monopoly position those companies have, they should not be allowed to just delete content from anyones computer.. I even think it is illegal in a lot of countries to delete stuff without the consent of the user.. But if it all goes through, I guess Linux will start to get even more popular..
    I also don't understand on who's authority they can do this for every country.. they can't..

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