Britain's six largest ISPs and BPI join forces to attack illegal filesharing

[Phormic Acid]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Provided that it's illegal downloaders that are targeted I personally have no worries about this.

As suggested by Kymmy, it’ll all come down to the method used. The BBC’s article is similar to the Telegraph’s. However, it’s different in emphasizing ‘suspected.’

Net firms in music pirates deal

The deal, negotiated by the government, will see hundreds of thousands of letters sent to net users suspected of illegally sharing music.

If hundreds of thousands of letters are to be sent out, the diligence afforded to each one is likely to be very low. The BPI could:

1. Connect to, and transfer enough data through, the connections belonging to each of those hundreds of thousands of subscribers, to ensure their evidence is of a sufficient level; or,
2. Hoover up all the IP addresses that have been submitted to trackers, without testing the accuracy of those addresses.

If we’re into the hundreds of thousands of subscribers, I’d have to assume it’s number two. As has been mentioned here before, the paper Why My Printer Received a DMCA Takedown Notice explains why this methodology is unsound.

If one of those letters turns up on my doormat, copies are going to be sent to both Virgin Media and the BPI with a covering letter demanding a retraction. It would seem more sensible to send out a general letter to every subscriber. Even if the ‘informative letter’ lacks the claim of a specific infringement that previous letters have had, limiting a letter’s distribution would make it an implied accusation.

[djdust]

So, has anyone on here received any of these letters from VM then? If so, does it give details of what you're supposed to have been guilty of sharing?

[dev]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

For clarification.

The BPI whichever method they use gets the IP/DATE and TIME of the person who they have confirmed is file sharing (probably from the P2P networks). They then pass on this information to the ISP's, The ISP's without divulging the users details to the BPI send the user the letters that have already been linked to in this thread.

The only way the BPI will ever get information from the ISP's is via a court case in which they'd have to ask a judge to order an ISP to divulge the information.

Kymmy

exactly, the BPI are doing nothing that me or you can't do, you start a torrent up, look at the IP addresses and then you *can* contact the ISP the IP belongs to and tell them what a user was downloading, the ISP then yells at the user. ISPs have been sending these letters out for years.

[chamoan]

A few things that bother me with all this, even if everyone said ok this is a fantastic idea let's pay a fee and carry on with merry downloading till your heart is content.
This is the BPI who is making some money out of this, how long is it going to be before the movie, and software, and games industry jump on this bandwagon? Everyone is going to be wanting to make you have a license.

They should not expect people to pay more for crap they wouldnt pay for to begin with, that would be like a top premier league team being religated, and then charging more for tickets next season cos they cant afford to lose the money.

Secondly they are targetting "file sharers" if my understanding is correct? What's to stop everyone jumping over on to newsgroups where you dont have to "share" anything, and tell the bpi, isps go stick it where the sun dont shine. (and no i dont mean Scotland lol)

Also with news providers such as Giganews which offer ssl, surely then if you got a letter, you could bring a case against your ISP for breaching your privacy?

Forcing people into something they dont like or don't want to do, will only make them all rebel.

to: The Government, BPI - as max and paddy once said in an episode, If you play with feathers, you gonna get your arse tickled .

[PeteTheMusicGuy]

I think ISPs and the BPI could be paying a few peoples houses off by the time this is over

If I get one of these letters they can expect to find themselves in court and I will . Easy money

[Phormic Acid]

Originally Posted by djdust

…does it give details of what you're supposed to have been guilty of sharing?

The original letters that came in envelopes threatening disconnection did include allegations of specific infringements. Example copies are on The Register website. There are links to them in the article Virgin Media and BPI join forces to attack illegal filesharing. I’ve not seen anything that suggests what the letters for the new carpet-bombing approach will contain.

[ultimate]

Does this affect http downloads using SSL?

How about Rapidshare and Megaupload?

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by ultimate

Does this affect http downloads using SSL?

How about Rapidshare and Megaupload?

As with the NEWSGROUPS comment it isn't really rellavant as truthfully no-one knows what method the BPI is using...

BUT.. it is likely that P2P applications (i.e..anything that shares a file from your own storage via your own connection) is probably the source of the IP's that the BPI are passing to the ISP's.

Kymmy

[Horace]

There might be a knock-on effect to Usenet, since ISP's might be more pro-active towards complaints against uploaders but directly this will probably only affect public P2P where your ip is visible to all downloaders, Gnutella which includes Limewire and Bearshare probably being the most prolific at the moment. If you see those installed on your kids computer and you get a letter then you know why.

[Kymmy]

That's the thing, the emphasis is on sharers and not downloaders, usenet I think will be safe for the time being...

Though the BBC news report on this subject at midday did keep saying "DOWNLOADING" but I think that's more ignorance on thier part.

Kymmy

[BenMcr]

thinkbroadband.com have a response from Be broadband for all those interested

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/3...e-sharing.html

[SOSAGES]

this would only be vaguely usefull if it happened 8 years ago..

ive yet to read/listen to anyone who actually has a clue how it all works on the tv or radio.

also if you do get a letter thats your fault for not being super sneaky and covering all your bases.

oh and remember its illegal!

[eth01]

you've been watching the news then................




SEARCH.

[dev]

Originally Posted by chamoan

They should not expect people to pay more for crap they wouldnt pay for to begin with, that would be like a top premier league team being religated, and then charging more for tickets next season cos they cant afford to lose the money.

so i'll be around 7ish at your house to take the keys to your house, i mean i wouldn't pay for your house but...

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

The only way the BPI will ever get information from the ISP's is via a court case in which they'd have to ask a judge to order an ISP to divulge the information.

Kymmy

And in my opinion will be the next step.

However i can also see the BPI offering money to VM in return for that data as people's data will be sold by VM to anyone for advertising shortly anyway. Its a logical step on the road to our ISP selling us down the road.