Japanese ISPs The Latest To Bow To Pressure From The Entertainment Industry

from the but-how-will-nuclear-secrets-be-leaked-now? dept

It’s no secret that the entertainment industry’s anti-piracy strategy over the past year or so has focused increasingly on putting legal or peer pressure on ISPs to handle the problem, and there have been quite a few “success” stories (though, the long-term impact may be a lot less successful). The latest is that a bunch of Japanese ISPs have agreed to cut off the users of the incredibly popular “Winny” file sharing application (found via Slashdot) if the entertainment industry alerts them to the IP addresses of excessively heavy users. The ISPs will try to send warning messages to the account holders, but then will cut them off (either temporarily or permanently) if they don’t change their usage. It’s not clear how carefully the ISPs will review the information sent to them by the industry, or what form any “appeals” process might take. This is unlikely to be particularly effective, but Winny has long been a target in Japan. The creator of the software was found guilty of violating copyright laws even though there are plenty of legitimate uses of the software. Still, however, the press likes to focus on the more sensational data leaks that happened via Winny, including Japan’s nuclear secrets.

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Comments on “Japanese ISPs The Latest To Bow To Pressure From The Entertainment Industry”

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8 Comments
sonofdot says:

What about the guy who invented the "copy" command

Shouldn’t someone be suing the guy that invented the “copy” command? In fact, there are many copy commands, in various operating systems. I can use any one of them to copy “protected” content from one device to another. How long before that becomes “illegal” to use?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: What about the guy who invented the "copy" com

Not long now my friend. If you have been following everything with the Net Nutrality , and copy rights stuff from the RIAA/MPAA (which i am sure you have). You will remember the news story about the couple in Tuscon AZ that are in court right now squaring off with the RIAA over 52 or 54 music files that he ripped to his computer and converted them from .WMA to .MP3… The RIAA is trying to make it illegal for anyone to rip to there computer, and also make changes to copy righted material. It’s not going to be long before you see them trying to abolish the Copy, and Paste functions.

Ajax 4Hire (profile) says:

One day, someone will be illegitimately wronged

A business will blocked by a spineless ISP due to a paper tiger “take-down” notice.

Money will be lost, true grounds for law suit.
Real damages that can be assessed against both offending parties: ISP and issuer of “take-down”.

It is sad that it takes a court-order to get someone to do the right thing. How litigious the US has become where any action s requires a waiver; any upset is met with lawyers in suit. When businesses like an ISP respond to the fear of law suits.

The end is near;
or maybe has already
and we missed it in our rush to sue.

George says:

Makes Sense

Isn’t this the solution we want. It allows content makers fight copyright theft, without forcing ISPs to look at the information packets. It’s a good compromise. sure it’s bad for those stealing movies, but then again, they’re stealing. And it’s better than the alternative.

P2P puts a lot of strain on networks. We want to increase broadband deployment but the cost of starting an ISP is so large that sometimes it isn’t profitable to start networks in rural areas and P2P adds to that cost. Take Brett Glass owner of Lariat an ISP in Laramie, WY. He bans P2P because of the strain and cost it adds to the network. That may be extreme, so Japan’s going after pirates may strike a good balance. Here’s the link to how P2P affects smaller ISPs by Brett Glass.

http://www.brettglass.com/ITIF/

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