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edesignuk

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Mar 25, 2002
19,232
2
London, England
The UK government has published new measures that could see people who illegally download films and music cut off from the net.

The amendment to the Digital Britain report would see regulator Ofcom given greater powers to tackle pirates.

The technical measures are likely to include suspending the net accounts of "hardcore copyright pirates".

It is believed that Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has intervened personally to beef up the policy.

The Digital Britain report, published in June, gave Ofcom until 2012 to consider whether technical measures to catch pirates were necessary.

However, according to a statement from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills released on Tuesday, that timeframe is now considered "too long to wait".

Stephen Timms, minister for Digital Britain, explained the change of heart.

"We've been listening carefully to responses to the consultation this far, and it's become clear there are widespread concerns that the plans as they stand could delay action, impacting unfairly upon rights holders," he said.

ISPs have repeatedly argued that it is not their job to police the web.

There is likely to be widespread anger over the tougher stance being adopted by the government.
BBC.

Bloody Mandelson, isn't it about time he got himself fired again?
 

iPhone 62S

macrumors 6502a
Aug 18, 2009
993
0
I still don't see how they will work out who are pirates, apart from the pathetic method of looking at IPs in torrent swarms, which has been proven time and time again to not work at all as it frequently finds the wrong people.

All this sort of stuff will do is encourage people to use VPN, proxies and sites such as Furk.

When will they get the message that you cannot stop piracy? At least not like this, anyway.
 

iBlue

macrumors Core
Mar 17, 2005
19,180
15
London, England
I do wonder when one day the gov will start to focus on frying the bigger fish, after shooting them in a barrel, that is. :rolleyes:
 

arkitect

macrumors 604
Sep 5, 2005
7,047
12,027
Bath, United Kingdom
"Ooooooh, hark at her…"
So, Mandy, define "hardcore copyright pirates".

Why doesn't he just f**k off permanently to Corfu and go sponge off his billionaire friends, ****.

I do wonder when one day the gov will start to focus on frying the bigger fish, after shooting them in a barrel, that is. :rolleyes:
Agreed. Easy targets like "forennahs" and "pirates" are all fair game for Labour.
 

Schtumple

macrumors 601
Jun 13, 2007
4,905
131
benkadams.com
"Ooooooh, hark at her…"
So, Mandy, define "hardcore copyright pirates".

Why doesn't he just f**k off permanently to Corfu and go sponge off his billionaire friends, ****.

Hahaha, christ, that made me laugh.

But yeah, in all seriousness, nothing good will come of this...
 

Abstract

macrumors Penryn
Dec 27, 2002
24,835
847
Location Location Location
All this sort of stuff will do is encourage people to use VPN, proxies and sites such as Furk.

When will they get the message that you cannot stop piracy? At least not like this, anyway.

They don't need to stop it completely in order for it to be effective. If it stops half the downloading population from piracy, it will be considered quite a major success.
 

iPhone 62S

macrumors 6502a
Aug 18, 2009
993
0
They don't need to stop it completely in order for it to be effective. If it stops half the downloading population from piracy, it will be considered quite a major success.

But it won't! It won't stop hardly anyone from pirating anything, like I said it will just encourage people to cover their tracks!
 

edesignuk

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Mar 25, 2002
19,232
2
London, England
The Register also have an article on this.
The unscheduled changes to the Digital Britain consultation also envisage a more powerful, direct role for Lord Mandelson. Despite denials last week, the news will reignite speculation that the First Secretary of State's stance against illegal peer to peer was hardened by a summer holiday meeting with Hollywood mogul David Geffen.
What a cock. Just crawl in to a hole and die Maddy.
 

arkitect

macrumors 604
Sep 5, 2005
7,047
12,027
Bath, United Kingdom
Hope someone hacks his family PC and does a file search for p2p files. Bet either himself or someone in his fam have got pirated files downloaded..

*pffft* Don't kid yourself.
Our Master of the Universe, Baron Mandy of Foy and Hartlepool, aka Nu-Labor Kiss of Death, has got more important things to do.

This guy is seriously bad news — even his friends would agree…
;)
 

arkitect

macrumors 604
Sep 5, 2005
7,047
12,027
Bath, United Kingdom
"Peter just doesn't get the internet..."

Who is batting for file-sharing proposals?
Link…

Resistance is building… let's hope Mandy meets his Waterloo. :)

And here as well. Link…
Internet service providers (ISPs) have reacted with anger to new proposals on how to tackle internet piracy.

The government is proposing a tougher stance which would include cutting off repeat offenders from the net.

UK ISP Talk Talk said the recommendations were likely to "breach fundamental rights" and would not work.

Virgin said that "persuasion not coercion" was key in the fight to crack down on the estimated six million file-sharers in the UK.

TalkTalk's director of regulation Andrew Heaney told the BBC News the ISP was as keen as anyone to clamp down on illegal file-sharers.

"This is best done by making sure there are legal alternatives and educating people, writing letters to alleged file-sharers and, if necessary, taking them to court.

But introducing measures to simply cut people off will not work, he said.

"Disconnecting alleged offenders will be futile given that it is relatively easy for determined file-sharers to mask their identity or their activity to avoid detection," he added.

There are also concerns that the method of identifying offenders using the IP address of a specific machine may punish those who share a web connection.

A spokeswoman for Virgin Media was concerned that a "heavy-handed, punitive regime will simply alienate consumers".

It was also concerned about the costs of implementing such a system.
 

cuestakid

macrumors 68000
Jun 14, 2006
1,775
44
San Fran
Here in the US, a bill(the higher education bill) was passed last year stating the following

* provide annual disclosure/warnings to the students applying for or receiving financial aid, stating that:
o
o P2P file sharing may subject them to civil and criminal liability;
o summary of penalty for violation of copyright laws;
o University’s policy of disciplinary action for using university’s IT for unauthorized downloads; and
o the actions that the University takes to detect such activities;
* develop plans for offering alternative to illegal downloading or P2P distribution; and
* develop plans to deter illegal downloading.

http://www.bizorigin.com/2007/riaa_nuclear_option
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2326961,00.asp
 

iPhone 62S

macrumors 6502a
Aug 18, 2009
993
0
Cheap secondhand laptop, portable storage, and other people's networks -

Can the ISPs track and identify the person hacking/waltzing on to the networks of others?

Cheers,
OW

Nope. The guys who run the network might be able to find your MAC address, but that's utterly useless for tracking you.
 

anim8or

macrumors 65816
Aug 16, 2006
1,362
9
Scotland, UK
How exactly can they tell what you are downloading isnt legal....?

I use iTunes and XBOX Live ALL THE TIME!

Can they tell that when i do venture to share a TV show with friends or upload work via online storage that one is legal and one isnt?

Surely in finding out exactly what people are uploading and downloading is a breach of our right to privacy??
 

iPhone 62S

macrumors 6502a
Aug 18, 2009
993
0
How exactly can they tell what you are downloading isnt legal....?

I use iTunes and XBOX Live ALL THE TIME!

Can they tell that when i do venture to share a TV show with friends or upload work via online storage that one is legal and one isnt?

Surely in finding out exactly what people are uploading and downloading is a breach of our right to privacy??

They monitor p2p networks and send IPs on them to the high court, get the details, and send letters or whatever to the people.

The problem is that by the time the process is complete, that IP is usually being used by someone else, so they end up going after the wrong people.

The other problem is, like I said before, the people who do pirate will just take measures to keep themselves hidden and nothing will change.
 

anim8or

macrumors 65816
Aug 16, 2006
1,362
9
Scotland, UK
They monitor p2p networks and send IPs on them to the high court, get the details, and send letters or whatever to the people.

The problem is that by the time the process is complete, that IP is usually being used by someone else, so they end up going after the wrong people.

The other problem is, like I said before, the people who do pirate will just take measures to keep themselves hidden and nothing will change.

I would assume that the extreme pirates that they talk of are the ones who download GBs of illegal downloads a month, week or even day..... I know that my TV shows watching probably only accounts for 10-15% of my upload and download amounts.

Its always the same case.... some people take advantage so the rest of us have to suffer because of others' greed.
 

iPhone 62S

macrumors 6502a
Aug 18, 2009
993
0
I would assume that the extreme pirates that they talk of are the ones who download GBs of illegal downloads a month, week or even day..... I know that my TV shows watching probably only accounts for 10-15% of my upload and download amounts.

Its always the same case.... some people take advantage so the rest of us have to suffer because of others' greed.

By others' greed, do you mean the entertainment industry? Because, honestly, the truth is they arn't loosing anything like what they are making out.
 

barkmonster

macrumors 68020
Dec 3, 2001
2,134
15
Lancashire
Maybe a protester could throw toxic waste over Mandelson this time instead of custard?

How am I going to time-shift shows that UK networks are too dumb to put on their main channel till the 4th series, constantly move the schedule around and then just when they get their act together, lose it to a paid for but still commercial filled, Cable/Satellite only channel?

I need my fix to make up for all those lousy shows like One Tree Hill, reality TV and those endlessly cheap to produce C list celebrities crowing on about their top 100 favourite whatever type shows that just waste 3 hours of scheduling where they could be showing something decent instead.

I can't wait ages for the UK DVD releases of a show I've watched 4 seasons of. I'm talking of course about this show:
 

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iPhone 62S

macrumors 6502a
Aug 18, 2009
993
0
Maybe a protester could throw toxic waste over Mandelson this time instead of custard?

How am I going to time-shift shows that UK networks are too dumb to put on their main channel till the 4th series, constantly move the schedule around and then just when they get their act together, lose it to a paid for but still commercial filled, Cable/Satellite only channel?

I need my fix to make up for all those lousy shows like One Tree Hill, reality TV and those endlessly cheap to produce C list celebrities crowing on about their top 100 favourite whatever type shows that just waste 3 hours of scheduling where they could be showing something decent instead.

I can't wait ages for the UK DVD releases of a show I've watched 4 seasons of. I'm talking of course about this show:

That's another thing, I don't see why we can't legally torrent TV shows anyway. We can record them from TV legally to watch whenever we want un-DRM'd, but not download them... Why?
 

barkmonster

macrumors 68020
Dec 3, 2001
2,134
15
Lancashire
That's my exact point. It's basically time shifting. It's not like your getting something comparable to DVD.

DVD: - 720 x 480/576 Anamorphic Video, 24 bit audio, menus, extras, deleted scenes, high bitrate etc...

Blueray: 1920 x 1080, uncompressed 24 bit audio, menus, extras etc...

Xvid/DivX: 640 x 352, 128Kb Mp3 audio, graphical junk all over the picture from the network (ads for shows coming up, network logo).

Recording directly from TV with a DVD or Hard Disk recorder would only give you all the overlays and stuff from a DivX file, just at DVD quality. You'd still have every incentive in the world to buy the DVD.

I don't want to turn this into a discussion about Apple's iTunes store but as for "legal" alternatives to digital downloads, I'm sticking with music only after the experience I had when I bought an episode of Family Guy from the iTunes store...

It had a big black square in the corner for most of the title sequence with the logo "TV14DSLV".

It lacked additional scenes of the DVD version, you'd assume Apple would at least be selling the same product in digital form.

Why was it worth £1.79 when I can buy 13 episodes on DVD with extras for £16
 

iPhone 62S

macrumors 6502a
Aug 18, 2009
993
0
That's my exact point. It's basically time shifting. It's not like your getting something comparable to DVD.

DVD: - 720 x 480/576 Anamorphic Video, 24 bit audio, menus, extras, deleted scenes, high bitrate etc...

Blueray: 1920 x 1080, uncompressed 24 bit audio, menus, extras etc...

Xvid/DivX: 640 x 352, 128Kb Mp3 audio, graphical junk all over the picture from the network (ads for shows coming up, network logo).

Recording directly from TV with a DVD or Hard Disk recorder would only give you all the overlays and stuff from a DivX file, just at DVD quality. You'd still have every incentive in the world to buy the DVD.

I don't want to turn this into a discussion about Apple's iTunes store but as for "legal" alternatives to digital downloads, I'm sticking with music only after the experience I had when I bought an episode of Family Guy from the iTunes store...

It had a big black square in the corner for most of the title sequence with the logo "TV14DSLV".

It lacked additional scenes of the DVD version, you'd assume Apple would at least be selling the same product in digital form.

Why was it worth £1.79 when I can buy 13 episodes on DVD with extras for £16

Yup, it's a huge rip-off.

I also see nothing wrong with ripping DVDs for private use. I mean, I've got a fully legal DVD which I can watch, and I just want to see the film on my iPhone, so why should I buy the same thing again just to have it on another device? It's utterly stupid.

TBH though, I highly doubt anyone will get done for ripping DVDs for personal use, same as with CDs (yes, ripping your own CDs is illegal too under British law).
 
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