U2's manager might love the idea of legally-mandated filtering, but the head of the RIAA says that there's no need for such an approach in the US. The RIAA still wants to see a thousand filters bloom, of course, but it holds out hope for a "marketplace solution" to the issue. Cary Sherman, the RIAA chief, made his comments today at a Washington, DC tech conference where he expressed his differences with U2 manager Paul McGuinness. McGuinness generated applause in Cannes this week at a music industry event by calling for mandatory content filtering at the ISP level. "Paul is European," said Sherman, according to CNet, "and in Europe there has been much more of a regulatory approach to these issues."
The RIAA does not support this approach in the US, opting instead to back the tradeoffs of the DMCA. That law allows ISPs a "safe harbor" for the content passing through their networks so long as they respond to takedown notices and legal requests in a timely fashion. But the group welcomes voluntary filtering of the kind promised by AT&T. This is sometimes said to be in the best interests of ISPs because it can help them control bandwidth. Verizon, which has bandwidth to burn, though, has showed no interest in becoming a copyright cop.
View: Full Story @ ArsTechnica
That's exactly it. They know they could push things from something they can watch over to something that even the NSA is going to have a tough time tracking.
You also have to wonder about the real numbers. Every year the record industry, games industry, movie industry, and software industry continue to rake in record profits, so is piracy really as bad as they say? It really only hurts small developers, because the big companies with control of marketshare can afford the lost revenue.
Our government works for the BPI apparently, not us.
Do they not filter in Canada?
w00t! i'm planning on upgrading to FiOS as soon as it's available in my area anyways. this is just another bonus for switching
fyi i don't download music nor do i buy cd's. i just listen to the radio if i want music. but i hate the thought of my ISP filtering / throttling anything
it's like prying eyes for the internet.
There are some ISPs who block access to thier news servers binaries groups, but thats more because of financial reasons. Those that do this are those who tried to garner a market by offering unlimited access at ridicilously low prices. ($18 for internet up to 20 mb, voip, television) They see the law as fine way to negate on their contract (unlimited access) whilst blaming the lawmakers. One obviously does not need 20 mb bandwidth for chatting on msn.
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