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UK Awaits Solution to Internet Piracy
The UK Government is embarking on a solution to the complicated issue of internet piracy, according to an interim report.
The nature of illicit filesharing has, for many years, proven too slippery for national authorities to effectively monitor and regulate. The route-one approach – to simply shut down torrent tracking sites – has proven futile, chiefly because many of them operate within the eyes of the law in their own jurisdictions.
The founders of The Pirate Bay, for example, maintain that their site simply points to where content can be found, not actually host it, which is legitimate under Swedish law.
And even if such websites were to close, there is an global subculture of piracy enthusiasts dedicated to the cause of illicit filesharing. The Pirate Bay has servers in Russia, Belgium, and one placed in the vaults of a bank in Stockholm. The team behind the site had previously tried to buy a small island off the coast of England – a tiny, self-declared sovereign nation which sits outside the jurisdiction of the UK – and had raised over $20,000 in donations for the cause.
Daunted by the legal complexities that are tied to anti-piracy measures, along with the unremitting tenacity of piracy groups themselves, entertainment providers have in recent times turned elsewhere to find a possible solution.
This is where Internet Service Providers, and an ongoing report from UK communications Minister Lord Carter, come into the equation.
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
This is the government wanting to use Internet technology to improve its surveillance of the populace, under the pretence of "doing something about the piracy problem".
How's the War on Drugs going?
How's the War on Drugs going?
Quite good actually, it gives honest people work chasing bad guys, it generates huge profits for dealers who would otherwise not be able to afford luxury goods produced by other honest people. Even if the bad guys get caught, more honest people will have jobs defending, prosecuting and locking up people. Imagine how many jobs would be lost if drugs were legal. It's a giant job creation initiative on both sides.
'bout time internet piracy got "industrialized" like this. With seemingly everybody involved, according to the games developers, there are a lot of jobs waiting to happen. Far more than the few developers and GameStop shelf-monkeys that exist right now.
In the end we would no longer waste time posting on forums, because we are all too busy filing reports on our neighbors, fighting the good fight, getting things done while being paid in the process.
I really hope you don’t believe that! It’s massively cynical.
There are plenty of things to fix in the world if you want to create jobs; you don’t need to be counterproductive and spend money on creating new problems.
The fundamental problem of cynicism, as well as its comic relief, come from the fact of cynicism being able to describe a system which is working for all the wrong reasons. Since hardly anything works for all the right reasons, pretty much anything can and will be targeted by cynicism.
Therefore, in a world driven by Murphy's law and politicians on a crusade for justice, we can find serenity in the fact that everybody will get what he does not deserve.
Besides, in an economy requiring supply and demand to circulate the money and keep the economy running, the last thing anybody really wants is infinite supply originating in infinite piracy. It's better some tax money goes to waste on hunting Pirates, because I sure do know that nobody is going to get any tax cuts if the money is not spend. What better way to waste the money? The train, public school and national health system are already perfect. Ups, did it again.
Public and ISVs reaction is predictable. Firsts will fight against any "freedom limitations" and seconds make their best to reduce any additional work and responsibilities. But fact is that digital content is very easy to copy and distribute. Key role here plays deep Internet penetration and huge downloading speeds. While the human is domination spice on the Earth there will be desire to take something without paying for. And i totally understand public desire to leave things as they are.
The headline of this article seems to suggests that there is a general consensus amongst the populace that ISPs need to be doing something to curtail internet piracy. Let it be clear, that the public, even in the UK, awaits nothing... and neither the world for that matter...
Draconian legislation being pushed through under a pretext that sounds plausible and reasonable but in truth has nothing to do with the stated intent and just results in more government encroachment on civil liberties.
In short: WE (the people) don't want this - the government wants this, and copyright enforcement arms such as the RIAA are trying to jump onto the bandwagon and selling it to the public with corporate propaganda.
But it's not as if my diatribe is going to change anything - when in office, Tony Blair publicly declared war on the Magna Carta, and he and his successor have done a damn good job at that - and I'm sure it won't stop there.