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Ottawa moves to quash file swapping

3chordcharlie

3chordcharlie

Diamond Member
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The federal government announced several proposed changes to Canada's Copyright Act on Thursday, aimed at stopping file sharing using programs like Kazaa.

If the amendments become law, internet service providers would be forced to make records of users who swap large numbers of songs or other material ? like movies and television programs ? online.

According to the announcement, the changes would "clarify that the unauthorized posting or the peer-to-peer file-sharing of material on the Internet will constitute an infringement of copyright.
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edit - see title: some reporters should not be allowed to write titles. Or at least someone should take away their thesaurases (thesaurasi?)

I suppose this had to happen eventually. I hope that as legislation catches up with the reality of file-sharing, we might see some reduction in the sort of copy-protection that also hampers fair use of media (i.e. if it becomes easier to catch and prosecute people who are doing somthing wrong, there will be less need to try to stop others from making a legitimate copy of something they have purchased).

I'm not a big fan of the music and movies industries' business models; I think they could do better if they reorganized (subscription fees for unlimited movie rentals are a good example of something they have allowed, which is a good idea), but they are so intent on maintaining direct control of every copy of everything they 'own' that I doubt it would ever happen.
 
How can an ISP track what I'm doing on a P2P? Sure, I'm going throug them, but this would require tons of work to intercept and properly archive such information.
 
Originally posted by: Skoorb
How can an ISP track what I'm doing on a P2P? Sure, I'm going throug them, but this would require tons of work to intercept and properly archive such information.
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I would assume they just have to log filenames, but honestly networking isn't my strong suit, so I really don't know what's involved.
 
I just posted this question in OT.

Convenient having that kind of resource so close at hand, no?
 
TCP/IP operates in packets, meaning that everything coming through the ISP is just unorganized electronic chatter until reassembled at the client.

For them to record what you swap they'd have to spy.
 
Why are users of an internet service not entitled to a degree of privacy? Maintainance of logs of user's activities is not much different than snooping through an individual's mail, from a moral perspective.
 
Originally posted by: MadRat
TCP/IP operates in packets, meaning that everything coming through the ISP is just unorganized electronic chatter until reassembled at the client.

For them to record what you swap they'd have to spy.
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Which takes a F***load of extra hardware and resources... $40 a month is enough.... 🙁
 
Originally posted by: aidanjm
Why are users of an internet service not entitled to a degree of privacy? Maintainance of logs of user's activities is not much different than snooping through an individual's mail, from a moral perspective.
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They still have rights over your connection. If you do things illegal like hacking or looking at child pornography. You WILL get cought, and very quickly. A couple years ago some kids got busted for hacking the servers at cableone's offices and messing with the config file on their cable modems. Trust me, cable one gave them a new one.
 
Isn't it ironic how ISP's get left holding the bill on enforcement policies. The RIAA, or its Canadian equivalent, should need to pay the ISP for spying on a suspect. And then the RIAA/eq. should have to try to collect compensation from the offender. Making society pay for the benefit of a select few holding a monopolu is nonsense.
 
FRUUU FRUUU FRUUU LLLAAAAA
the b!t¢h can't even show "non-partisanry" when dealing with major companies like Corus and Quebecor buying 2-3 radio stations and a few tv networks in the same city and saying that all their newsroom will stay independent... She will never side with the people... that was even worse when she was minister of culture in the province of Quebec... Other problematic file include the closing of CHOI-fm and the overfinancing of the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp)

I just hope that they'll stop taxing CDRs. after all it was meant to compensate the artists for copying...
 
Is this the state of affairs ?

What kind of society is this where stealing is ok as long as you can't be caught ? Is that the kind of world people want to live in ?
 
Originally posted by: Tom
Is this the state of affairs ?

What kind of society is this where stealing is ok as long as you can't be caught ? Is that the kind of world people want to live in ?
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It's sketchy - according to current laws, P2P sharing of copyrighted materials is not illegal in Canada; that is going to change, which is fine.

It's a matter of privacy concerns; i.e. how much unbridled power should anyone have to investigate you? It's just like everything else; you need a warrant to search private property; so should it be the same for file sharing? It's really more of a privacy issue than anything else.
 
One thing to bear in mind is that maybe 90% of users with broadband [non-business] probably don't leave their systems on 24/7.
All the ISP's have to do is to see which connections are using up their bandwidth 24 /7 to give them an idea on who to start spying on.

Its not in their favour to do this work, as it will give the most vociferous ISPs a bad name - and they WILL lose business.

If a law is passed in this country [uk], i can only see that the ISPs would have to find evidence on a few customers before they start losing 10% or more of their customers.

For the more 'slack' ISPs, they would eventually get all the extra business.
 
Originally posted by: montag451
One thing to bear in mind is that maybe 90% of users with broadband [non-business] probably don't leave their systems on 24/7.
All the ISP's have to do is to see which connections are using up their bandwidth 24 /7 to give them an idea on who to start spying on.
.
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True, except that there's a very large immigrant poplation which uses the Internet extensively, to catch radio from home countries, speak to relatives via Voip and so on.... and if they dwonload music, they specialize in 'ethnic', which is hard to pursue... And then, getting on their case won't look good at the federal level...

 
I like the current stance of the government. This push for regulation is a lost cause and not worth our efforts. I mean unlike hard drugs or other illegal acts, nothing about our society is affected by filesharing.

For many years the record industry has used the radio as a way to promote their music. The problem is, the independent artists had a horid time getting into this market as it was dominated by a couple companies, an effective monopoly. Today people have this huge communication network at their fingertips, this is where the record industry should focus their efforts. The idea of online promoting, file sharing and online distrobution is good for independents, consumers, artists etc. I will garantee that there are hundreds of bands out there that would not be making any money right now without the promoting ability of the internet, information and product sharing. The record industry really needs to adapt itself and embrace technology, they will come out on top in the end.

Also, some don't look at the good things that filesharing has done. It has allowed widespread use of the internet, increased internet connections, more computers sold, the whole mp3 and audio player market, spyware (industries protecting and implementing), burners, harddrives, montors, speakers.

The only reason the media revolution was created was because people were able to access this vast amounts of information and had access to free music. Filesharing has given us so much more than it has taken.

You have to realize who we are helping with this policy. It is not the consumers or artists (traditionally been screwed over by the record industry), it is the record companies. But there are a few things to notice about this.
a) record industry are making massive revenues
b) still screwing over artists
c) limiting promotions could potentially give negative effects on revenues
d) investing in lawsuits is just delaying the inevitable, think of the years they wasted not positioning themselves with the internet promotions/sales.
 
Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
Originally posted by: Tom
Is this the state of affairs ?

What kind of society is this where stealing is ok as long as you can't be caught ? Is that the kind of world people want to live in ?
Click to expand...

It's sketchy - according to current laws, P2P sharing of copyrighted materials is not illegal in Canada; that is going to change, which is fine.

It's a matter of privacy concerns; i.e. how much unbridled power should anyone have to investigate you? It's just like everything else; you need a warrant to search private property; so should it be the same for file sharing? It's really more of a privacy issue than anything else.
Click to expand...


Our privacy rights flow from being part of a civil society, where the expectation is that people will obey the law because it is the law, not because they might get caught.
 
Originally posted by: Tom
Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
Originally posted by: Tom
Is this the state of affairs ?

What kind of society is this where stealing is ok as long as you can't be caught ? Is that the kind of world people want to live in ?
Click to expand...

It's sketchy - according to current laws, P2P sharing of copyrighted materials is not illegal in Canada; that is going to change, which is fine.

It's a matter of privacy concerns; i.e. how much unbridled power should anyone have to investigate you? It's just like everything else; you need a warrant to search private property; so should it be the same for file sharing? It's really more of a privacy issue than anything else.
Click to expand...


Our privacy rights flow from being part of a civil society, where the expectation is that people will obey the law because it is the law, not because they might get caught.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I follow; are you taking a position on this?
 
Originally posted by: Tabb
Originally posted by: MadRat
TCP/IP operates in packets, meaning that everything coming through the ISP is just unorganized electronic chatter until reassembled at the client.

For them to record what you swap they'd have to spy.
Click to expand...

Which takes a F***load of extra hardware and resources... $40 a month is enough.... 🙁
Click to expand...

Oh, little over $1 a day for a broadband connection and most likely hundreds of dollars in software/music isn't cheap enough?

 
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