Three strikes rule halves internet piracy in New Zealand

[RomanNose]

If it's so easy to do, why do we always hear about paedo rings being cracked?

Because there are hardly any pedophiles? So they can use a lot of manhours investigating.
It actually takes a lot of work tracking down someone who using an hidentity hiding service, especially if they are located abroad as they might just tell the police to go away.
It's possible to track them down but it's an awful lot of work.
If you tried applying it to filesharers it would use an enormous amount of police time to monitor them.

 

[estebanrey]

In terms of shoplifting, the shopkeeper can just let the person go and not contact the police, or the police can turn up and decide with the manager to not do anything. But yes, when it comes to shoplifting, it is memory/records kept by store security (that's NOT a criminal record...)/etc.

What are you talking about? So if the shoplifting targets a different store it's his first offence again?

If you steal something from a shop and the police are called you will be put in their database.

 

[krooton]

Any idea how many copyrights the Random Image Thread infringes? I'm thinking thousands.

 

[krooton]

Hahaha!

Acting on behalf of pornographic film producer and actor Ben Dover, Golden Eye International is preparing to send out copyright infringement notices to just under 3,000 individuals in the UK, alleging that they illegally downloaded copies of Mr Dover’s movies.

The purpose of the letters is to solicit cash from the file sharers, with the threat of court action hanging over them. However those citizens won’t be acting alone, they’ll be backed by legal advice from both Consumer Focus – a group designed to help protect consumers in these sorts of cases – and the Citizen’s Advice service.

“We intervened in this case to make sure that consumers are treated fairly. People will not have ready access to the sort of specialised legal advice necessary to respond to allegations of copyright infringement,” Consumer Focus Chief Executive Mike O’Connor said in a statement (via TorrentFreak).

“That is why we are working with the Citizens Advice service to provide clear advice to consumers about what to do if they are accused of copyright infringement.”

Still, those worried that they might be one of the couple thousand O2 ISP account holders that are set to be targeted by Mr Dover and his representatives, should be alright even without the help of Consumer focus. The letters that are planned to be sent out amount to little more than assumptions. The assume the account holder was the downloader, assume that no one else has access to the internet account and assume that the local WiFi is password secured. If it turns out any of those situations mitigate your guilt, the letter then asks that the recipient provide details on who did share the original files. As if most people openly discuss their pornography downloading habits.

“A failure to make such disclosure may lead to a claim being made against you with the court being asked to conclude, on the balance of probabilities, that you were the user of the computer,” the letter reads.

They can of course try, but it is at the discretion of the Judge whether to accept this conclusion.

 

[JBod]

As the account holder how can I be responsible if someone breaks into my Wireless?

Because it means you didn't secure your wireless properly? No brainer

IP's of course belong to ISP's but what happesn if fake IP's have been added to the tracker and it just happens to be the IP I was using at that time? IP is not evidence it's just a link back to that person at that time and that person may have been on holiday or just downloading mail or any other boring tasks.

A fake IP address wont be delivering files, they only include connections made that actually have the file and start sharing it rather than IP addresses that just sit on a network.

Have you not seen the OAP's who have had letters through the doors (some without internet connections) being told to pay a £300 fine for illegally downloading.

This is nothing to do with what I am talking about, I am talking about ISP handling situations that have been reported by lawyers acting on behalf of companies. Believe it or not there are some what technical people that work at ISPs that are quite capable of looking at evidence and make a decision. They have to report quite a lot of detail to get an ISP account suspended (IP, date, time, what was downloading etc..) - don't forget this is lost revenue/profit for the ISP.

In the few years I worked abuse I don't recall a single case of someone being falsely accused by us, it always was tracked in the end. In the majority of cases cleared up with the simple phrase "Do you have a teenager in the house?". People would shout, moan and deny it - especially when porn and REALLY when gay porn - but all cases they came back and apologised, said they had found the culprit and it had been dealt with.

We often rejected cases back to lawyers or police for not enough detail or coppers that just try it on without a proper court order. We never released customer details to lawyers.

 

[Crimefighter]

That comic is spot on, NZ gets crapped on with this kind of stuff.

I remember get 400ms latency on WoW from NZ. I got 40ms in London. So much nicer.

In saying that, OP - isnt there a government subsidised FTTH project going on right now in NZ?

 

[Vulcan]

Because it means you didn't secure your wireless properly? No brainer

There's no law requiring you to, and it still doesn't explain how the bill payer is responsible for the actions of others.

 

[Cuchulain]

There's no law requiring you to, and it still doesn't explain how the bill payer is responsible for the actions of others.

I personally don't think he's ever set foot in an ISP's office, unless it was to empty the bins.

 

[estebanrey]

In the few years I worked abuse I don't recall a single case of someone being falsely accused by us, it always was tracked in the end. In the majority of cases cleared up with the simple phrase "Do you have a teenager in the house?". People would shout, moan and deny it - especially when porn and REALLY when gay porn - but all cases they came back and apologised, said they had found the culprit and it had been dealt with.

We often rejected cases back to lawyers or police for not enough detail or coppers that just try it on without a proper court order. We never released customer details to lawyers.

I'd tell your company to bugger off and mind your own business. I'd let them decide if the £1000s if would cost your company in taking me to court would be worth it over a few episodes of American TV shows.

 

[nydryl]

Where has this sense of entitlement for free content come from? It seems as though people are actually offended that they might be prosecuted for stealing.

 

[Woden]

Because it means you didn't secure your wireless properly? No brainer

Most ISP's now give their customers a free router, heck on Sky you *have* to use their router. The router comes pre-configured and with no instruction to change keys or security settings.

While ISP's are selling there service as an easy-to-use no technical knowledge required product, they have to take some of the blame when things go wrong.

 

[krooton]

Where has this sense of entitlement for free content come from? It seems as though people are actually offended that they might be prosecuted for stealing.

I pay my tv licence, and thus have paid for the BBC shows I download

 

[JBod]

I'd tell your company to bugger off and mind your own business. I'd let them decide if the £1000s if would cost your company in taking me to court would be worth it over a few episodes of American TV shows.

The ISPs are not wanting to go to court or take you to court. All they do is exercise the right to terminate your contract at any time.

But you are quite correct with the above statement just wrong about how you are thinking it. The ISP will not want to be taken to court by some corp giant because one of their customers was downloading an American TV show and the ISP did nothing about it.

 

[JBod]

Most ISP's now give their customers a free router, heck on Sky you *have* to use their router. The router comes pre-configured and with no instruction to change keys or security settings.

While ISP's are selling there service as an easy-to-use no technical knowledge required product, they have to take some of the blame when things go wrong.

Quite correct, times have moved on since I worked in abuse or dealt with connectivity. The era I am referring to was during the 512 -> 2048Mbit days, before ADSL+ or ADSL2. Must customers had a green sting ray Alcatel USB modem and any wifi was purchased from a dullard with a purple shirt.

 

[JBod]

I personally don't think he's ever set foot in an ISP's office, unless it was to empty the bins.

This is the only suitable response to such nonsense ->

 

[estebanrey]

The ISPs are not wanting to go to court or take you to court. All they do is exercise the right to terminate your contract at any time.

But you are quite correct with the above statement just wrong about how you are thinking it. The ISP will not want to be taken to court by some corp giant because one of their customers was downloading an American TV show and the ISP did nothing about it.

Well I've been with my ISP for about 6 years now in which time I would have knowingly and unknowingly downloaded hundreds of gigs of copyrighted material and they've never sent so much as en email to me.

BT on the other hand have sent my mate a letter in the past. On receiving it it he cancelled his contract with them and now uses a dongle which isn't registered to his name and how do you stop these PAYG type dongle things?

 

[joxang]

This here has a more comprehensive overview of the situation for those interested.

http://www.dailytech.com/New+Zealan...Illegal+Downloads+in+a+Month/article25235.htm

 

[JBod]

Well I've been with my ISP for about 6 years now in which time I would have knowingly and unknowingly downloaded hundreds of gigs of copyrighted material and they've never sent so much as en email to me.

BT on the other hand have sent my mate a letter in the past. On receiving it it he cancelled his contract with them and now uses a dongle which isn't registered to his name and how do you stop these PAYG type dongle things?

Hey I am not arguing for or against anything just explaining what ISPs do. I am guessing from your mates reaction he was guilty

 

[estebanrey]

Where has this sense of entitlement for free content come from? It seems as though people are actually offended that they might be prosecuted for stealing.

Copying <> Stealing.

I wonder if when 3D printers and scanners are the norm you'll be banging on about people 'stealing' things like weed grinders and spanners.

 

[beamer]

No, what's embarrassing is that you don't understand the difference between copyright infringement and stealing.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/60/crossheading/definition-of-theft

It is impossible to steal digital "property".

The comparison to child-porn is frankly disgusting.

To suggest that copyright infringement should be treated by society the same as paedophilia is laughable.

An act of paedophilia almost always destroys the life of a child whereas an act of copyright infringement means a milligram less cocaine for the A&R man next month.

It's embarrassing, isn't it?