UK's SOPA - the Digital Economy Act

[Wicky_42]

Passed quietly in Labour's death throws, the Digital Economy Act forces ISPs to monitor everyone's internet usage and potentially disconnect anyone caught file-sharing.

But piracy's bad, so that's cool, right?

Never mind the costs (which will, naturally, fall onto the consumer), the invasion of privacy from having all your internet usage logged, the fact that similar measures in France yielded absolutely no chance in legal purchases of music despite the industry's claims and hopes and the expenses and privacy invasion forced on the people.

Never mind that taking households off the web would be bad for both the economy and society.

Never mind that an IP isn't a person, it's an address.

This act isn't an apocalypse, and it's not quite as bad as SOPA as far as I can see, but it does allow government censorship of whatever sites they want, and it is a ridiculously heavy handed way of attempting to combat piracy that many IPSs don't feel happy implementing.

I'm just a little surprised that with all the ACTA and SOPA chat going around that no-one seems to care about us poor Brits

Info links for your education and perusal:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Economy_Act_2010
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/24/contents
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/mar/06/internet-provider-lose-challenge-digital-economy-act
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17270817
and an earlier article for a little history:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/may/28/digital-economy-act-isps-data?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

 

[Shivarage]

It's official... 2012 really is the year of the Sopacalypse

 

[Edible Avatar]

Do what we did in the states: post a article on facebook, get your friends informed, email your representatives, sign peitions, and make a ruckus. Don't lie down when they shove in the fist 0_0

 

[Shivarage]

Do what we did in the states: post a article on facebook, get your friends informed, email your representatives, sign peitions, and make a ruckus. Don't lie down when they shove in the fist 0_0

I would imagine we prefer a good ol' fashioned riot in the streets xD

 

[Edible Avatar]

Do what we did in the states: post a article on facebook, get your friends informed, email your representatives, sign peitions, and make a ruckus. Don't lie down when they shove in the fist 0_0

I would imagine we prefer a good ol' fashioned riot in the streets xD

Thats so crazy...it might just work! btw, is there any peition a non-UK person can sign?
Captcha: Play ball!
Wow, how very....normal of you, captcha.

 

[Realitycrash]

I have an interesting question: How would YOU try to stop piracy, without infringing on privacy?
Piracy is obviously illegal, and while we don't want a big-brother state, how are we going to stop piracy without making it easier for the police to crack down on crime?
The only way I see piracy stopping is some sort of more effective digital tracking. Sadly.
I mean, take the original Humble Indie Bundle, you know, the one that you could play 0.01USD for?
25% still chose to pirate it. Shows that the problem isn't with the prices, but how comfortable people are getting away with an easy crime.
Maybe if they made the actual transaction easier (Paypal is a ***** for plenty of people living outside of the US), but I doubt it would solve the problem with regular-priced games.
Piracy is like shoplifting candy, really. It isn't considered that much of a crime, and so many do it simply because you can get away with it, even easier than shop-lifting.

So; If not SOPA or something similar, how would YOU stop piracy?

Edit: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/05/humble-bundle-gives-pirates-what-they-want-gets-ripped-off.ars
Humble Bundle Pirated.

 

[Shivarage]

So; If not SOPA or something similar, how would YOU stop piracy?

Maybe charge your customers reasonable prices?

 

[Realitycrash]

So; If not SOPA or something similar, how would YOU stop piracy?

Maybe charge your customers reasonable prices?

So, you did not read my post. Read my post again, especially the part that clearly says "25% pirated the Humble Indie Bundle", a bundle of games they could pay any amount of money they wished for, even 0.01USD.
After you read that, you come back with an actual, thought through answer.

 

[Burn2Feel]

Despite this being in active use for a few years now (or at least some form of it) I've yet to meet a single person who has been prosecuted or punished by this act. Goes to show how impossible it is to stop all piracy while keeping the internet free.

 

[lacktheknack]

So; If not SOPA or something similar, how would YOU stop piracy?

Maybe charge your customers reasonable prices?

They are, considering the resources required to make the bloody things.

And you said this in response to the Humble Bundle being 25% pirated, so that makes this the worst post of the day.

 

[Realitycrash]

I have an interesting question: How would YOU try to stop piracy, without infringing on privacy?
Piracy is obviously illegal, and while we don't want a big-brother state, how are we going to stop piracy without making it easier for the police to crack down on crime?
The only way I see piracy stopping is some sort of more effective digital tracking. Sadly.
I mean, take the original Humble Indie Bundle, you know, the one that you could play 0.01USD for?
25% still chose to pirate it. Shows that the problem isn't with the prices, but how comfortable people are getting away with an easy crime.
Maybe if they made the actual transaction easier (Paypal is a ***** for plenty of people living outside of the US), but I doubt it would solve the problem with regular-priced games.
Piracy is like shoplifting candy, really. It isn't considered that much of a crime, and so many do it simply because you can get away with it, even easier than shop-lifting.

So; If not SOPA or something similar, how would YOU stop piracy?

Edit: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/05/humble-bundle-gives-pirates-what-they-want-gets-ripped-off.ars
Humble Bundle Pirated.

the transaction is easy, you dont need paypal, amazon payments works just as well. Anyone who pirates those bundles is scum. Just flat out.

Yes, yes, we all know. I don't want to start a flame-war, I just want to know what other solutions people think we have.
I'm not pro SOPA, or ACTA, but one have to ask oneself..How can we stop piracy if we can't make those that pirate feel unsafe? What kind of technological advancement can both stop piracy yet does not infringe on privacy?

 

[Keava]

I have an interesting question: How would YOU try to stop piracy, without infringing on privacy?
Piracy is obviously illegal, and while we don't want a big-brother state, how are we going to stop piracy without making it easier for the police to crack down on crime?
The only way I see piracy stopping is some sort of more effective digital tracking. Sadly.
I mean, take the original Humble Indie Bundle, you know, the one that you could play 0.01USD for?
25% still chose to pirate it. Shows that the problem isn't with the prices, but how comfortable people are getting away with an easy crime.
Maybe if they made the actual transaction easier (Paypal is a ***** for plenty of people living outside of the US), but I doubt it would solve the problem with regular-priced games.
Piracy is like shoplifting candy, really. It isn't considered that much of a crime, and so many do it simply because you can get away with it, even easier than shop-lifting.

So; If not SOPA or something similar, how would YOU stop piracy?

Edit: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/05/humble-bundle-gives-pirates-what-they-want-gets-ripped-off.ars
Humble Bundle Pirated.

You can't. You never will. No matter how many restrictive laws You come up with there will be always someone who will get the copyrighted product illegally, through internet or thanks to DVD burners - doesn't matter. Piracy existed long before people had broadband internet and will continue to exist.

What an artist/developer/publisher can do however is first - stop punishing those who buy things legally in the first place. That's no way to fight piracy, if anything that makes people want to pirate more, just to "stick it to the man".
Second thing is - provide proper service for your legal consumers. Release quality products at prices matching said quality. Give your consumers options to actually check your product before they buy it, don't hide behind excuses.
Why you think iTunes became so popular? Why Steam became so popular? They made things less restrictive, allowed for a lot of convenience and gave much more flexibility to individual content creators.

Some people will never pay for music/games/movies. They still won't pay even if you make piracy impossible with a magic spell. All studies, researches and surveys show that while there is huge % of people who use internet that download things illegally, same time on average, the same group spends way more on books/music/movies/games than those who do not use internet.

Further more there has been several examples of artists increasing their income by sharing parts of their work on the internet. Neil Gaiman noticed that after putting out his book for free on the net, the sales of his all books went up by 300% the following month. Since then he had pretty straight forward stance on it - > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qkyt1wXNlI

 

[vrbtny]

It's official... 2012 really is the year of the Sopacalypse

Except for the small fact this bill was passed in 2011....or 2010, one of the two. It just came into effect this year.

 

[Mayhemski]

I have an interesting question: How would YOU try to stop piracy, without infringing on privacy?

Regulate online advertising. Penalise advertisers who allow there ads to appear next to content that infringes on creative rights. Not going to happen as Google don't like the idea of having to spend money regulating there cash cow that is adwords.

Beyond that digital piracy will always exist, people will pirate/crack content for the technical challenge before you even get into any other reasons. But if you remove the ability to cash in on it it may reign in some of the excesses.

As to the OP the fact BT deployed Phorm (deep packet inspection tech) into there systems and seemed quite annoyed when they had to stop I don't think cost is a big issue for tracking tech, the marketing data alone will be worth a fortune.

 

[Crazycat690]

If any of this bullshit gets passed I swear I'll tell the government to fuck off and I'll start a hippie society in the middle of nowhere and they can do whatever they want without my taxes etc.

 

[Realitycrash]

I have an interesting question: How would YOU try to stop piracy, without infringing on privacy?
Piracy is obviously illegal, and while we don't want a big-brother state, how are we going to stop piracy without making it easier for the police to crack down on crime?
The only way I see piracy stopping is some sort of more effective digital tracking. Sadly.
I mean, take the original Humble Indie Bundle, you know, the one that you could play 0.01USD for?
25% still chose to pirate it. Shows that the problem isn't with the prices, but how comfortable people are getting away with an easy crime.
Maybe if they made the actual transaction easier (Paypal is a ***** for plenty of people living outside of the US), but I doubt it would solve the problem with regular-priced games.
Piracy is like shoplifting candy, really. It isn't considered that much of a crime, and so many do it simply because you can get away with it, even easier than shop-lifting.

So; If not SOPA or something similar, how would YOU stop piracy?

Edit: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/05/humble-bundle-gives-pirates-what-they-want-gets-ripped-off.ars
Humble Bundle Pirated.

You can't. You never will. No matter how many restrictive laws You come up with there will be always someone who will get the copyrighted product illegally, through internet or thanks to DVD burners - doesn't matter. Piracy existed long before people had broadband internet and will continue to exist.

What an artist/developer/publisher can do however is first - stop punishing those who buy things legally in the first place. That's no way to fight piracy, if anything that makes people want to pirate more, just to "stick it to the man".
Second thing is - provide proper service for your legal consumers. Release quality products at prices matching said quality. Give your consumers options to actually check your product before they buy it, don't hide behind excuses.
Why you think iTunes became so popular? Why Steam became so popular? They made things less restrictive, allowed for a lot of convenience and gave much more flexibility to individual content creators.

Some people will never pay for music/games/movies. They still won't pay even if you make piracy impossible with a magic spell. All studies, researches and surveys show that while there is huge % of people who use internet that download things illegally, same time on average, the same group spends way more on books/music/movies/games than those who do not use internet.

Further more there has been several examples of artists increasing their income by sharing parts of their work on the internet. Neil Gaiman noticed that after putting out his book for free on the net, the sales of his all books went up by 300% the following month. Since then he had pretty straight forward stance on it - > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qkyt1wXNlI

Yes, Gaiman did increase his booksales, I'v both read the article and watched the interview, but that's beside the point.
They (the industry) will never accept that you "can't fight it", and before the digital era, piracy was never this wide-spread in so many areas, going so far as to be considered something "everyone" does, or have done. Back in the days, not everyone had a bootleg music-tape. This is much, much bigger. And it's too much money, way more than before. Music, videos, games, books, you name it.
So sure, "don't fight it, try to create a better servicefor legal customers" is a solution, but it isn't going to ever be enough for the industry.
Got any other suggestions?