I read it incorrectly, oh well.. Glad I made this thread and was informed correctly.

They already do that nothing new here.

Does this have any effect outside the States?
We already got one of those here in Norway, they started it up five days ago. National surveillance of Internet, phone and other medias. Supposedly to make it possible to detect terrorism and crime, putting a stop to it before it happens.
Dunno if it's gonna work, though.

Not this again...

They aren't going to be monitoring your internet connection, I wish people would stop spreading this story.

Yawn.

1) Doesn't affect me,

2) Nothing that can't be dealt with by accessing the Internet through a VPN with encrypted traffic.


No, I'm not encouraging piracy, thank you very much. Just privacy. I guess they like neither because they sound so similar.

It got canceled?

No, that's just not what it does.

What they do is look at the IP addresses downloading torrents of copyrighted content and send them to the ISP. Then the ISP sends you a warning, up to a maximum of six, each with increasing urgency.

The ISP doesn't even do the monitoring, it's the copyright holders who look for the pirates.

Warnings? What happens if someone gets that one more than six times then? Do they send the cops?
Such ideas often work on paper, but people keep doing illegal stuff nonetheless.

I read it correctly then.. And that is still a major issue, if you ask me.

Yup. Narmy is right. ISPs aren't doing any monitoring here, but rather a third party company will monitor various bittorrent trackers and send their findings to ISPs. The list of torrents tracked is determined by the MPAA and RIAA, who also pick the companies doing the tracking. the ISPs are the only ones informed of the IPs, not the MPAA/RIAA (officially). Also, after all warnings, nothing officially has to happen, as the ISPs are allowed to set their own punishments for infringing behavior as they see fit.


The only new thing in this is that the ISPs get a report of who is infringing instead of the MPAA/RIAA. So instead of getting sued you get a warning. The MPAA/RIAA have been tracking IPs by joining bittorrent swarms for years.

From what I remember, they cut off your subscription or throttle it immensely.
Even so, an IP address does not equal a person. http://digitaljournal.com/article/327691

And how exactly do they see if you're downloading copyrighted content without monitoring all of your Internet traffic?


@ DEFRON: Huh. I hope you're right. For Mericuns' sake, I'm not touched by this.

Why do you say "here" on a forum with an international userbase? Think before titling.


This question is answered in the very post you're quoting...

Read what, that sensationalist article? It clearly says "ISPs monitor all activity and data transfers of every single one of their customers." which is 100% false.

That's what they want you to think

*cue conspiracy music*

Its extremely simple to see what peers you connect to when downloading using peer to peer software. The third party company just joins a swarm and sees who it can catch.

That was one article I read, and I thought I copied another link.. My mistake. I was googling this and reading bunch of articles.. One was talking about what you were saying, and still this is something I disagree with.. And from what I know about the Governments, there is prolly more to this than what is being told.

So let me get this straight. All this does is discourage torrenting? Do they differentiate between torrents of pirated content and legal torrents, like e.g. torrents of Ubuntu distros? Various torrents use same trackers.

So you can still download pirated software, just not using torrents? That is kind of stupid.

Everyone who pirates will get around this anyway. It's sort of like what Princess Leia said: "the more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

This is also a potential boost for any ISP who does not want to comply. We'll have to see.

1. ISPs and MPAA/RIAA made an agreement for ISPs to send warnings to users

2. MPAA/RIAA flunkies who have been watching bittorrent traffic for years to report to the MPAA/RIAA now report to the ISPs.

3. The flunkies only watch torrents the MPAA/RIAA tell them to watch, so, for example, linux distro torrents are 100% fine, but a BD of some hollywood film isn't.

4. ISPs send out a warning to the person and put a demerit sticker on a big board full of users to keep track of who has had infringements before

5. Some mild punishment happens, like throttling your speed

6. People get 6 warnings and the ISPs throttle speeds to baud levels but won't cut off the service (if they cut service they no longer get monies, but throttling saves them money)

Clear enough for everyone now?

This is an opt-in agreement and the list of ISPs participating in it has been known for some time now. In fact, this was originally supposed to go live back in May. ISPs voluntarily agree to this, so there isn't any compliance thing.

So, like I said, you can still download pirated material, just not using torrents. >_<

Or even using torrents, if you connect through a VPN.

Yeah, it's not really a system that does much of anything to anyone but people who torrent big-name hollywood movies from a certain well-known bittorrent site. It's probably why the ISPs agreed to it so quickly, because it involves almost zero effort on their behalf and gets the MPAA/RIAA off their backs about how they are murdering the entertainment industry by encouraging piracy.

Pretty much. I don't think it will be much different than what's in place now.

I forgot... It is natural to forgot such stuff that you normally don't think about.

~Edit~

Anyways. I guess I was liarjack. I did read it incorrectly then.. So it is just about torrents? That it? Wont effect me downloading videos from YT or zip/rar files from various different sites hosting mods? Yeh. I read it wrong then.. Oh well. I over-reacted then on something I shouldn't worry about but I am glad I said something and got informed.

"Speak up when something is bothering you then you might learn the truth."
"Always ask questions. Best to know the full thing then just a little."

I guess I'll just leave this thread up just for the discussion... Gonna change the OP though.

~Edit-2~

And yes, I do tend to over-react to stuff... But not too much in a way that I do something extremely stupid.

What companies/organizations are currently counter operating this surveillance program?