UK file-sharers will be 'cut off'
Discussion
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8219652.stm
Scaremongering or really going to happen??! As I understand, it is impossible to tell what people are sharing across P2P or Torrent. So how can anyone (Govt, ISP, whoever) say whether a user is down/uploading legal or illegal files???
Scaremongering or really going to happen??! As I understand, it is impossible to tell what people are sharing across P2P or Torrent. So how can anyone (Govt, ISP, whoever) say whether a user is down/uploading legal or illegal files???
Just another case of a totally inaccurate headline for sensationalist purposes. I'd expect it of the Metro or a Red Top, but it seems even the BBC are getting in on the act.
Compare:
Compare:
BBC headline said:
UK file-sharers to be 'cut off'
To:BBC article introduction said:
The UK government has published new measures that could see people who illegally download films and music cut off from the net.
The amendment to the Digital Britain report would see regulator Ofcom given greater powers to tackle pirates.
The technical measures are likely to include suspending the net accounts of "hardcore copyright pirates".
No mention of piracy in the title, no mention of "file sharers" in the article. The amendment to the Digital Britain report would see regulator Ofcom given greater powers to tackle pirates.
The technical measures are likely to include suspending the net accounts of "hardcore copyright pirates".
They have been looking at doing this for a while
UK.gov revives net cut-off threat for illegal downloaders
UK.gov revives net cut-off threat for illegal downloaders
The fact remains that probably 99% of filesharing is illegal downloading of copyrighted material.
At the same time, I am sure that also 99% of the people who download music/films/software would NEVER go to a shop to steal CD's/DVD's etc. Surely the only real difference is the medium?
Illegal downloading has become socially acceptable, but remains illegal. I don't have any problem with it being blocked.
P.S. I have no personal involvement/axe to grind. Don't work in the music industry etc.
At the same time, I am sure that also 99% of the people who download music/films/software would NEVER go to a shop to steal CD's/DVD's etc. Surely the only real difference is the medium?
Illegal downloading has become socially acceptable, but remains illegal. I don't have any problem with it being blocked.
P.S. I have no personal involvement/axe to grind. Don't work in the music industry etc.
Why can't the industry adapt.
All I bloody want is £15 a month to watch unlimited movies.
I pay £13 for my unlimited cineworld pass, but a lot of the times I don't want to sit in the cinema to watch a film.
Subscription based services are the future of music and movies. Even if they don't realise it yet.
All I bloody want is £15 a month to watch unlimited movies.
I pay £13 for my unlimited cineworld pass, but a lot of the times I don't want to sit in the cinema to watch a film.
Subscription based services are the future of music and movies. Even if they don't realise it yet.
sunbeam_alpine said:
The fact remains that probably 99% of filesharing is illegal downloading of copyrighted material.
...
Illegal downloading has become socially acceptable, but remains illegal. I don't have any problem with it being blocked.
P.S. I have no personal involvement/axe to grind. Don't work in the music industry etc.
Or the IT industry I hope....
Illegal downloading has become socially acceptable, but remains illegal. I don't have any problem with it being blocked.
P.S. I have no personal involvement/axe to grind. Don't work in the music industry etc.
The problem is that over 90% of the bandwidth for consumers is consumed by less than 1% of the actual users. Since everything is based upon the cheapest price, we have a bizarre situation! Why on earth should I (who doesn't download dodgy recorded films from a handcam in a foreign cinema) pay or have my bandwidth reduced because of someone else? Ok, its not quite as simple as that, but the principle is the same.
The business model is based on volume and the bigger ISP's simply do not have enough revenue coming through to take the next steps at increasing speed, performance or available bandwidth. There is enough people complaining at the moment, and there is nothing that they can do about it currently. Given that the vast amount of this traffic is illegal (technically), it isn't difficult to take this to the next stage - just cut them off and suddenly your network runs like it is supposed to and everyone is happy - except the VERY small number of people who say that its an infringement of their civil liberties or similar.
Its a hard one to justify in reality and something that will gather pace as the problems get worse.
Maybe the future is subscription based? Spotify is potentially changing the face of music distribution for the better and it won't be long before someone does this for films too. Though the size of decent quality movies is the big issue here. The average bandwidth for consumers is just over 4Mbps and a decent quality film will take hours to download - not a fair use of the available network and its massively worse with HD content. If anything its the downloaders that are holding things back anyway - without the investment to improve bandwidth it won't get better, and they demand more bandwidth.... something has to give!
Given a decent speed network with good bandwidth, there is no reason why a subscription service couldn't work - but of course, lovefilm.com does a brilliant system of £3.91 a month and you can get pretty much anything you want and its good quality (even HD in some cases), includes the extra's and delivered to your door.... what can be better than that? Oh and its DVD / BD based - what's wrong with that? Of course you can rip the films to your laptop / iPod if you want and its not a problem.
The business model is based on volume and the bigger ISP's simply do not have enough revenue coming through to take the next steps at increasing speed, performance or available bandwidth. There is enough people complaining at the moment, and there is nothing that they can do about it currently. Given that the vast amount of this traffic is illegal (technically), it isn't difficult to take this to the next stage - just cut them off and suddenly your network runs like it is supposed to and everyone is happy - except the VERY small number of people who say that its an infringement of their civil liberties or similar.
Its a hard one to justify in reality and something that will gather pace as the problems get worse.
Maybe the future is subscription based? Spotify is potentially changing the face of music distribution for the better and it won't be long before someone does this for films too. Though the size of decent quality movies is the big issue here. The average bandwidth for consumers is just over 4Mbps and a decent quality film will take hours to download - not a fair use of the available network and its massively worse with HD content. If anything its the downloaders that are holding things back anyway - without the investment to improve bandwidth it won't get better, and they demand more bandwidth.... something has to give!
Given a decent speed network with good bandwidth, there is no reason why a subscription service couldn't work - but of course, lovefilm.com does a brilliant system of £3.91 a month and you can get pretty much anything you want and its good quality (even HD in some cases), includes the extra's and delivered to your door.... what can be better than that? Oh and its DVD / BD based - what's wrong with that? Of course you can rip the films to your laptop / iPod if you want and its not a problem.
off_again said:
Given a decent speed network with good bandwidth, there is no reason why a subscription service couldn't work - but of course, lovefilm.com does a brilliant system of £3.91 a month and you can get pretty much anything you want and its good quality (even HD in some cases), includes the extra's and delivered to your door.... what can be better than that? Oh and its DVD / BD based - what's wrong with that? Of course you can rip the films to your laptop / iPod if you want and its not a problem.
Never underestimate the bandwith of a truck full of DVDs at 60mph...
I looked into that lovefilm.com site.
£3.91 gets you 2 films a month.
You have to go up to £9.99 to get unlimited.
All this postage seems like a right royal waste of time when I can click a link on a website and have a movie in under 45 minutes most of the time.
Unless the movie companies can adapt and offer an equal service to that offered by bittorrent sites, they don't stand a bloody chance.
Effectively you pay for a lesser service.
Legal bittorrent and a reasonable price? (Sub £20)
I would sign up so fast. I'm all for supporting movies, actors and the whole industry.
But not when they act like assholes.
£3.91 gets you 2 films a month.
You have to go up to £9.99 to get unlimited.
All this postage seems like a right royal waste of time when I can click a link on a website and have a movie in under 45 minutes most of the time.
Unless the movie companies can adapt and offer an equal service to that offered by bittorrent sites, they don't stand a bloody chance.
Effectively you pay for a lesser service.
Legal bittorrent and a reasonable price? (Sub £20)
I would sign up so fast. I'm all for supporting movies, actors and the whole industry.
But not when they act like assholes.
I think it would be a bit of a mountain of work to achieve.
Who will pay for it? The government, to save the media industry a pretend amount they make up as a 'loss' despite 99% of which is copied would never be bought, at our expense, hmmm, will never happen.
So basically, it's just posturing. Can you imagine the ISP. Hello sir, you are using lots of bandwidth, but have no idea why. Looks like lots of peers sharing data on an encrypted link.
Oh yes, I play encrypted stream peer to peer games all the time. Oh.
Oh.
How the hell would they EVER find out without coming into your home and watching you at it? It's not like those who are really bad for it won't see it coming and hide their hdd's round a mates house!
Dave
Who will pay for it? The government, to save the media industry a pretend amount they make up as a 'loss' despite 99% of which is copied would never be bought, at our expense, hmmm, will never happen.
So basically, it's just posturing. Can you imagine the ISP. Hello sir, you are using lots of bandwidth, but have no idea why. Looks like lots of peers sharing data on an encrypted link.
Oh yes, I play encrypted stream peer to peer games all the time. Oh.
Oh.
How the hell would they EVER find out without coming into your home and watching you at it? It's not like those who are really bad for it won't see it coming and hide their hdd's round a mates house!
Dave
Morningside said:
Perhaps someone could do a film/DVD version of Spotify?
cut off? All they would do is somehow piggyback off the back of other connections.
The thing is, those who get so many that they have so much traffic it must only be oodles of films etc, would not buy/rent those oodles of films anyway.cut off? All they would do is somehow piggyback off the back of other connections.
The 'soft' user who gets one or two a month probably doesn't give a crap if they watch them or not, so they won't rush out to buy them instead.
I really can't see the record co's and so on losing billions at all. People just won't buy the stuff if they have to pay the prices asked.
I suppose this is just an easier way to spy on ISP/users as Labour like to do... spy on everyone at our cost for no real benefit to anyone. Fantastic.
Get ready for any policy to make absolutely no difference at all, yet cost us all in privacy and £££ from our pockets!
Dave
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