Interesting developments in the SOPA/PIPA..

electric_mayhem

http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/mpaa-tech-officer-paul-brigner-switches-sides-in-internet-fight-report/

Paul Brigner, whom the MPAA hired in January 2011 as its chief technology officer, has left the industry’s trade and lobbying organization, CNET reports. He’s now a major critic of legislation championed by the MPAA such as the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act that stalled in Congress earlier this year because of swelling opposition to bills that initially looked like sure bets. “I firmly believe that we should not be legislating technological mandates to protect copyright — including SOPA and Protect IP,” Brigner says. “Did my position on this issue evolve over the last 12 months? I am not ashamed to admit that it certainly did,” Brigner writes in a statement on CNET. “The more I became educated on the realities of these issues, the more I came to the realization that a mandated technical solution just isn’t mutually compatible with the health of the Internet.” An MPAA spokesman had no comment for CNET on Brigner’s about-face. Last month Brigner became director of the North American Regional Bureau of the Internet Society, an organization whose stated goals include “the continued evolution and growth of the Internet for everyone.”

Switching sides, eh? Surprising for this casual observer.

Zhurrie

Good to hear but sadly the big money is on the RIAA/MPAA side. I work in IT at a high level and have designed and run a number of large/global networks. I have worked in academia as well as private/public businesses of varying size. When I was working for a fairly large university I was strong-armed by the RIAA/MPAA numerous times and with a number of tactics. I held my ground and refused to give in to their demands. If I did not have the ethical, technical, and personal background I have I probably would have caved. I didn't. It was ugly and of course at a point the university was just willing to give in to make it all go away, regardless of how completely against their own policies it was. That is scary. I can't get into a ton of specifics but at one point they tried to force the installation of an "Audible Magic" (http://www.p2pnet.net/story/37361) and we were to relinquish all control and data with no explanation, limits, or input from myself or my dept. They have bought and paid for their power and their will and SOPA/PIPA have already been shown to be unnecessary with Megaupload and other raids and strong-armed shuttering of numerous sites regardless of country or law. I want to believe this could signal something even remotely positive, but I don't see it. Luckily I had moved on from that situation, but I have fought for digital rights since the inception of the EFF and I will continue to no matter how futile it is in the face of money and corruption.

JohnTilton

the funny thing is how the MPAA claim that hollywood employs something like 2-3 million people, when it's actually closer to 400k. The companies that do actually employ millions of people are the companies in the tech sector. Even though there was some bad reporting by RT on the Netflix PAC recently, when you looked into it you become aware that Netflix is actually on our side as consumers. They are getting tired of some of the lobbying that is going on which is only benefiting larger media corporations so that they can keep controlling how we receive entertainment. Tiered internet would destroy the way the internet functions. it works in cable tv because it is consuming only, there is no putting in your own 2 cents on tv. More companies need to do what Netflix is doing by putting money into pushing net neutrality and getting rid of bandwidth caps, it is what will be better for everyone, I'm talking to you Google, you would be a freaking powerhouse in lobbying and a champion of people's right to share and create. cable tv, vhs, cassette tapes, cd burners, all of these things that the MPAA and RIAA have claimed would destroy their business did nothing of the sort. When companies want to push laws that make it easier for them to not have to innovate, then the market becomes dull and all that it does is allow laziness in business. this is not what a free market is about, if you fail to adapt, then you should and will die. darwinisn in economics makes me all fuzzy.

Modern_Lover

Yeah. There are certainly arguments to be made about piracy perhaps doing more good than harm, but it really does come down to the fact that SOPA and PIPA aren't good for the internet and won't really do much to stop copyright violation. Zhurrie is right that they have a lot of money and power but I think things are different now. Their power is real and worrying, but the big backfire of SOPA and PIPA is a huge number of people getting educated about net neutrality and its importance, even people in Congress. The internet is probably going to change, and not necessarily for the better, but I think that the importance that the internet as it is today holds to almost everyone under 60 and quite a few above, is something that won't change. Whether you use it for free dirty movies or for research, or to connect with people, or most likely all three, people who use the internet are the vast majority, and a lot of them won't take losing it, or the parts of it that matter to them, without a fight.

Zhurrie

Currently what I see is data mining and a push to "web 4.0" which is all about dropping anonymity and systems and methods for efficiently churning through massive amounts of data for marketing or other purposes. It isn't good for anyone but the big companies and govt. There is a big push for this right now at a high level and I see it happening regardless of SOPA/PIPA.

Already as of July 12th all ISPs will be deep packet inspecting, logging, and reporting everyone's traffic and use to the RIAA/MPAA. That was slipped in under the radar and still is pretty well covered up across the board. That is scary. It is analogous to wiretapping. It is all under the guise of piracy/copyright but that is complete bullshit. I highly recommend everyone learn about Tor and use it. This has nothing to do with if you have anything to hide or not, it is about a major loss of privacy and being done without the support of the people.

electric_mayhem

when does the Internet become an "Utility" like water, sewer, heat and the like?

Years or months?

Torchsong

when does the Internet become an "Utility" like water, sewer, heat and the like?

Years or months?

I'll go within 5 years.

JohnTilton

when does the Internet become an "Utility" like water, sewer, heat and the like?

Years or months?

When bandwidth caps are gotten rid of or made illegal, that would be one thing I wouldn't mind the government stepping in on. In a way, limiting the amount of bandwidth that someone uses in a month is limiting free speech, it may be a stretch but it is a plausible argument that should be made.

Currently what I see is data mining and a push to "web 4.0" which is all about dropping anonymity and systems and methods for efficiently churning through massive amounts of data for marketing or other purposes. It isn't good for anyone but the big companies and govt. There is a big push for this right now at a high level and I see it happening regardless of SOPA/PIPA.

Already as of July 12th all ISPs will be deep packet inspecting, logging, and reporting everyone's traffic and use to the RIAA/MPAA. That was slipped in under the radar and still is pretty well covered up across the board. That is scary. It is analogous to wiretapping. It is all under the guise of piracy/copyright but that is complete bullshit. I highly recommend everyone learn about Tor and use it. This has nothing to do with if you have anything to hide or not, it is about a major loss of privacy and being done without the support of the people.

This is why everyone should have gotten more upset about ACTA, this what that agreement allowed. A agreement that everyone in the country is held to yet it wasn't written by elected officials and wasn't even voted on.

The current bill that is being shotgunned through is CISPA, a cousin of SOPA and PIPA. The only way to stop these types of things from happening is to get rid of the clueless people that are in the House and Senate. Other than that, make it illegal for elected officials to receive donations from these private interests to push legislation that only benefits those private individuals while hurting the general population. I know one thing for certain is that I will not support an internet provider that wants to look into what I'm doing on the internet. Why you might ask? Because it's none of their goddamn business. @zhurrie, it isn't all ISP's that are doing the monitoring though, only the ISP's that have parent companies that also happen to be owned my major media companies (Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable). This is why I will be going with another ISP after I make my move. Although even this effort by them will be futile because if people really want to pirate content, they can and will, and there is no way they would be able to know without breaking an encrypted connection, and I would like to understand how they expect to do that quickly enough for all the connections they see coming through for all of their customers. Are they going to store all the packets and put them in a queue to be inspected? That would take almost unthinkable amount of storage and processing power. It just doesn't seem possible. All that this effort will do is catch the people that are downloading things from the pirate bay easier.

JohnTilton

This might interest you @zhurrie

http://m.cnet.com/Article.rbml?nid=57412225&cid=null&bcid=&bid=-281

Zhurrie

...it isn't all ISP's that are doing the monitoring though, only the ISP's that have parent companies that also happen to be owned my major media companies (Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable). This is why I will be going with another ISP after I make my move. Although even this effort by them will be futile because if people really want to pirate content, they can and will, and there is no way they would be able to know without breaking an encrypted connection, and I would like to understand how they expect to do that quickly enough for all the connections they see coming through for all of their customers. Are they going to store all the packets and put them in a queue to be inspected? That would take almost unthinkable amount of storage and processing power. It just doesn't seem possible. All that this effort will do is catch the people that are downloading things from the pirate bay easier.

It is not all ISPs but the majority and the large ones which make up the bulk of Internet access in this country. However, many of the smaller ones end up routing through the larger ones or are essentially resellers and they will be affected.

I can't go too deep into the details but yes latency will be an issue with the solutions in place. Depending on how it is implemented in each case will either make it more or less of an issue. It is complete bullshit though.

As for that link... it will never happen. There are major flaws to that setup and it won't go anywhere. I'd love to be more optimistic there, but not a chance.

JohnTilton

are they imposing the monitoring on companies that rent access to the lines from them as well?

Greg

Yesterday afternoon, CISPA passed a rules vote which makes way for full vote despite a likely veto by the White House.