American ISPs to spy on you, starting July 12th

[Reacon]

If you download potentially copyrighted software, videos or music, your Internet service provider (ISP) has been watching, and they?re coming for you.

Specifically, they?re coming for you on Thursday, July 12.

That?s the date when the nation?s largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users? bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials.

Word of the start date has been largely kept secret since ISPs announced their plans last June. The deal was brokered by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and coordinated by the Obama Administration. The same groups have weighed in heavily on controversial Internet policies around the world, with similar facilitation by the Obama?s Administration?s State Department.

The July 12 date was revealed by the RIAA?s CEO and top lobbyist, Cary Sherman, during a publishers? conference on Wednesday in New York, according to technology publication CNet.

The content industries calls this scheme a ?graduated response? plan, which will see Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and others spying on users? Internet activities and watching for potential copyright infringement. Users who are ?caught? infringing on a creator?s protected work can then be interrupted with a notice that piracy is forbidden by law and carries penalties of up to $150,000 per infringement, requiring the user to click through saying they understand the consequences before bandwidth is restored, and they could still be subject to copyright infringement lawsuits.

Participating ISPs have a range of options for dealing with customers who continue to pirate media, at that point: They can require that an alleged repeat offender undergo an educational course before their service is restored. They can utilize multiple warnings, restrict access to only certain major websites like Google, Facebook or a list of the top 200 sites going, reduce someone?s bandwidth to practically nothing and even share information on repeat offenders with competing ISPs, effectively creating a sort of Internet blacklist ? although publicly, none of the network operators have agreed to ?terminate? a customer?s service.

http://www.rawstory....eme-on-july-12/

[Bryan R.]

Those who want to download illegally will find other ways. All this legislation and bureaucracy will do is cost the industry incredible amount of money and all they will get in return is small fraction of those people to stop. All the while we lose more and more freedom.

[Solid Knight]

I hope they do. I'll make a botnet download gigs and gigs of legal files just to bog it all down.

[Amarok]

Time Warner and Comcast already do this and have done so for years. They may just be stepping it up slightly though.

[remixedcat]

Heres a solution...make the content cheaper,provide superior sound and service and ppl will stop,pirating.. Adapt or die. damn they are seeming like this is thier temper tantrum from hell.

Obama needs to say no to these creeps.all this crap is doing is pereventing the real crminials that steal ppls cc.data from being brought to justice.

Also the ppl who are posting cp have way less survaillence than ppl that dowload music. They also get less punishment as well.. This disgusts,me.

[Krome]

All of these PIPA, SOPA, ACTA was monopolize by the Republican. I see many of those bills are introduced by the Republican party that the RIAA and MPAA paying those Republicans to pass the bill. And then put the blame on Obama. Like the Universal Health Care, the Republican is trying very hard to paint a bad image with a well crafted clause to take it down and put the blame on Obama. Dirty and stupid tactics.

[Osiris]

This will stop a few people, but the moderate-hardcore downloaders and more so the proliferators of it will find other ways to keep downloading and sharing so once again a really poor choice of solution. In any event between this, SOPA, and the reborn TIA program you guys may as well just sit back and get reacquainted with 1984 :p

[Nihilus]

"They can require that an alleged repeat offender undergo an educational course before their service is restored. "

Seriously? Anyone know who is paying for these courses? The people caught downloading, or the government? Either way it sounds like a tremendous waste of tax payers money, and even greater waste of time and energy. The idea of "educational" courses on not pirating stuff just makes me chuckle to myself.

[Skyfrog]

They can require that an alleged repeat offender undergo an educational course before their service is restored.