RIAA Abandons Mass Lawsuits, Will Work With ISPs To Cut Off P2P FileSharers

[DudeAsInCool]

In a stunning reversal of its failed policies, Ars Technica and The Wall Street Journal report that the music industry is going to abandon it's mass lawsuit approach against file-sharers, and instead attempt to work with ISPs to go after P2P users.

According to the articles, they are already in deep discussions with the ISPs, and are working out a 3-Strike program similar to the one recently adopted in France. You can expect the movie industry to jump aboard soon after, and expect to see P2P users adopt advanced encryption technologies.

Graphic via Ars Technica

[Redneck4sure]

Interesting article and some of the links on it at Ars Technica are worth a read also. I didn't read the article in the other link. (Wall Street Journal)

Edited December 19, 2008 by Redneck4sure

[DudeAsInCool]

Here's another pov:

RIAAs New Plan Cuts Off People Without A Fair Trial

[DudeAsInCool]

A writer for Wired weighs in with G4TV and he thinks this is not good news as innocent people could be disconnected from the web, or have no legal recourse if they are. Or... if you are like me in live in LA, and you only have one internet provider (Time Warner), what do you do if you are knocked off the web by mistake?

[Redneck4sure]

Maybe when they cut off a couple of politicians by mistake we will see some regulation. More providers are implementing bandwidth caps anyway. We will be in for some changes in the next year I believe. It will save me money. I can downgrade my connection speed, stop buying hard drives, drop my RapidShare, and reduce the number of cds I buy from few to none. I will have hours of extra time to spend on projects around the house or capping liberals.

[DudeAsInCool]

Maybe when they cut off a couple of politicians by mistake we will see some regulation. More providers are implementing bandwidth caps anyway. We will be in for some changes in the next year I believe. It will save me money. I can downgrade my connection speed, stop buying hard drives, drop my RapidShare, and reduce the number of cds I buy from few to none. I will have hours of extra time to spend on projects around the house or capping liberals.

Did you know that Youtube accounts for 25 percent of all Google searches? Video over the web is growing. Why the internet providers would cap broadband use in light this fact makes no sense. They just want to better monetize their already obscenely profitable businesses.

[Redneck4sure]

Did you know that Youtube accounts for 25 percent of all Google searches? Video over the web is growing. Why the internet providers would cap broadband use in light this fact makes no sense. They just want to better monetize their already obscenely profitable businesses.

Internet providers claim that 5% of users are responsible for 50% of their capacity. If they can get rid of that 5% then they can add more users without spending a dime on their infrastructure to increase their capacity. Good business sense.

Content providers such as Youtube, emusic and such will feel the pinch. If you are paying per meg will you watch as many vids? Stream a football game? Listen to the radio online? If your provider caps your service at a fixed amount and cuts you off if you exceed it will you "waste" as much bandwidth?

I'll use mine for paying bills and email. The music collecting is done. I don't need a fast connection to pay bills. I'll downgrade my speed and save money.

It is interesting that the providers are increasing speeds but whine if you use it. Did they really think that people wanted broadband to do email? All these predictions of getting HD movies downloaded from the net and other things that use a lot of bandwidth aren't going to happen if the providers refuse to provide the capacity. That seems to be what is happening. AT&T is doing a pilot test in an area now and they plan to charge $1 per gig if you go over the very low cap that they set. If you get a movie that is 5gigs from a site that charges and then have to pay AT&T another $5, will you still want that movie? I won't. AT&T wins because I didn't use their capacity, the movie site loses. If I do get the movie, AT&T still wins because they got my $5 and it cost them about 2 cents. I am a captive subscriber. Last time I checked I have no alternative to AT&T. When they start capping in my area I will check again to see what is available. If the alternative providers do the same then that's it. I'll be back to doing projects around the house.

...and cappin' liberals.

[DudeAsInCool]

They will be in for a real war if they dare cap our bandwidth use ... the Internet will rise up like they did against the RIAA

[Redneck4sure]

They will be in for a real war if they dare cap our bandwidth use ... the Internet will rise up like they did against the RIAA

Many providers are already doing it. The range of the caps that I have seen range from 60gigs to 250gigs. Pretty cute difference don't you think? We will just have to wait and see how it shakes out. Verizon has said they have no plans to cap but AT&T said that last year and now they are testing it on real live people.

I would also like to point out that the RIAA is alive and doing well. In spite of the fact that I have pirated 2500 trillion dollars worth of albums, the record companies are still in business too. I'll at least have some tunes to listen to while I'm doing projects.

...and cappin' liberals.

[vernarial]

I'll take one of those liberal caps if you are just giving them away. I'll take the first one if you have them in stock, or the second one if not.

[DudeAsInCool]

Hey Red, i will take one of those hats in blue

[Redneck4sure]

Hey Red, i will take one of those hats in blue

I'll take 2 of them!

... next time I go hunting I can take a dump in one and cover it with the other.