Beginning today ISP's will enforce a six strike rule

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

[img/]http://cache.ohinternet.com/images/5/52/7proxnew.jpg[/img]

Seriously.

This is so ludicrously easy to beat, it might as well not even exist.

You can't control the internet. You simply can't. Every time you come up with some new security measure, there's ten thousand [s/]brilliant[/s] [s/]genius[/s] [s/]awesome[/s] horrible, evil, naughty pirates who immediately circumvent it.

 

[DoPo]

So, are they sending warnings if you use a torrent client at all? Do they send warnings if you go to a site that hosts torrents? Or do they only send warnings if you download an actual bootlegged file?

Ding! Correct question. The article didn't make it clear at all and nobody seems to be actually questioning it.

My college already institutes a one strike rule. Get caught once and your room loses internet privileges.

Has that rule ever been enforced?

They blocked all the major torrent and pirate sites, replacing them with a warning banner of some kind. They also monitor downloads coming from those sites and a few others that aren't blocked outright. I am not sure about the criteria that they search for, but my friend who works in tech support here says he has gotten a calls related to it./quote]

Umm that's a weird policy your college has. Like, why do they allow downloading torrents to begin with? My university just blocks pretty much all optional ports, so you can't use bittorrent (well...you know - outright). You can request a port to be open for you but you also have to specify a reason and the traffic there is being monitored if it conforms to that reason. I find this policy better than immediate banning, appeals and such.

 

[Genocidicles]

Another pathetic attempt to stop the inevitable. You'd think they would've learned by now.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Who's terrible idea was this? And was their name 'Canute'?

 

[Sku1c]

Time to drive through town, find all the open/poorly protected wifi points and start downloading.

Also, pretty much every highschool/college is a pirate nest (mine where at least).

 

[tippy2k2]

I'm all for combating piracy but this just seems like a really silly and terribly ineffective way to do it.

Then how would you combat piracy?

The way I'd fight it is a way that will not make game companies happy...

Stop fighting it.

Seriously. Just stop it game developers. I've made my opinion on piracy [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.401447-Opinions-You-Just-Dont-Understand#16537172] well known on this website so regulars are well aware that I am not a fan of piracy.

With that said, every anti-piracy move companies make just doesn't work or pisses people off. They're throwing pebbles into the river and then wondering why their dam isn't working.

1. DRM: There's only been one "successful" DRM to my knowledge and that was Assassins Creed 2 (a likely MILLION dollar DRM that did get cracked about a month after release). In fact, the DRM worked so well that most people who bought the game couldn't play either...whoops.

2. Fines: Whether you think game companies should be allowed to sue for their content being taken, there is no possible way for you to look like the good guy by suing Grandma Pirate for $200,000 because they downloaded a Frank Sinatra CD.

3. Even the harmless ways of fucking with pirates isn't a great idea...

http://www.cracked.com/article_19162_6-hilarious-ways-game-designers-are-screwing-with-pirates.html

I know you're not getting money from them right now game industry but fucking someone's game up is not a great way to try to win them over...

EDIT: Tippy2k2 clarification of what I meant here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.401986-Beginning-today-ISPs-will-enforce-a-six-strike-rule?page=2#16582324]

Actually, I've had one idea that I think would possibly help (probably not but I'm not paid enough to figure this stuff out):

Instead of sending "Stop doing this or we'll gimp your system/fine you so much that you could send a small country food to live on for a week" notices, send polite letters asking that if they enjoyed what they pirated, consider supporting the developer by purchasing the game or purchasing the sequel later.

*I wrote this just before work and I'm flying out the door. If I skipped a anti-piracy measure (or make a mistake as seen in my edit), my bad. Likely though, I wouldn't be a fan of the measure...

 

[Heronblade]

The only reason I'm not behind this is the difficulty of enforcing it without getting people not guilty of pirating swept up along with the rest.

It is all too easy for these people to jack into the next door neighbor's network in order to steal shit without risking their own service.

 

[mew4ever23]

So what happens if you break 6 strikes and keep going? According to the article, nothing. Not going to do much to the pirates, and innocent parties are going to get caught up in it. This is going to be a nightmare to enforce, and as a result, largely ineffective.

 

[nexus]

Evidence, what's that?

I wish I could point my finger and say guilty at anyone I wanted.

Guilty. You, guilty. Guilty. You too, over there, you're guilty too. Deny them, bring them to court, ostracize them, deny them services, ruin their lives. We don't need no stinking evidence, we just need to say so.

(I don't actually wish I had that power. I'm not a gross person.)

 

[SquidVicious]

After MegaUpload and Demonoid went down last year my pirating days came to an end. Honestly if I'm after a TV episode or a new album it's just easier and more convenient to look it up on Spotify or Amazon then trudging through file hosting site after file hosting site, with each one throttling the download speed unless I give them money.

 

[Antari]

So I guess they've never heard of encryption or proxies huh? And considering its the USA, won't this just create other ISP's who won't restrict them? Competition is king after all.

 

[SecondPrize]

I know you're not getting money from them right now game industry but fucking someone's game up is not a great way to try to win them over...

How is it their game if they pirated it? I don't think those were attempts to win anyone over, just frustrated devs giving the finger to those who've pirated their wares.

 

[Zenn3k]

So I'll just go get some proxy and IP spoofers then? Yeah I'm not scared.

 

[Rastien]

This just reminds me of the law they passed in the UK last year about policing the internet effectivly the law got passed, what changed? fuuuuuck all for a start BT can't even support/repair their current infastructure let alone add more shit to it costing huge amounts of money to moniter everyone... stupid people passing stupid laws without looking into the actual physical capability to pull it off.

Trying to police the internet is like a man fighting a tidal wave with a stick no matter what he does it's going to be pointless.

 

[Tom_green_day]

What about internet providers outside of US? Are they doing anything?

 

[bananafishtoday]

So I guess they've never heard of encryption or proxies huh? And considering its the USA, won't this just create other ISP's who won't restrict them? Competition is king after all.

Ha... no.

ISPs here exercise extraordinary monopoly power because they are not required to share/sell access to their infrastructure. This creates an enormous (almost insurmountable) hurdle for any new ISP looking to enter the market. The established ones typically have gentlemen's agreements within their own industries not to encroach on each other's territory. To wit, I live in New York. In the largest and densest city in the country, every apartment I've ever had, I had a choice between the one cable provider or the one DSL provider that my building happened to be wired for.

The reason that the MPAA/RIAA see dealing with the dominant ISPs directly as viable is because it's virtually impossible for new ISPs to supplant them.

 

[Whitbane]

What about internet providers outside of US? Are they doing anything?

God, I hope not. Come on, Canada, let me find a reason to like you again.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Yawn.

Canada's had something like this for over a year now. I'm behind a VPN, I use PeerBlock and I'm pretty stingy with my seeding. I still receive the occasional angry email (once every three or four years), but that's only when I've been careless enough to resort to flagged torrents.

Find a good tracker, and you'll find the community tends to watch out for its own. Checking out the comments section of each torrent you're interested in is a good way to see if a heads-up applies.

 

[Yopaz]

So, are they sending warnings if you use a torrent client at all? Do they send warnings if you go to a site that hosts torrents? Or do they only send warnings if you download an actual bootlegged file?

I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually considering the mere use of torrents a copyright violation; too few people, even a few posters on this site, think that the only use for torrents is for illegal file sharing. Never mind that many people use them in perfectly legal ways for fun, school, or in my case, work.

Yeah, I would like to know this too. I installed utorrent to download Black Mesa and the mirror sites were painfully slow. I then used it for Humble Bundle the next time and since then I haven't really used it, but it does have its uses for helping those who want to distribute legal content, but wants to save money on servers.