maybe the egyptian government will lobby for the installation of cameras
on commercial aircrafts to make sure no copy pyramids are build.
-b
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071209-ifpis-european-christmas-list-content-filtering-and-p2p-blocking.html
Imagine a world in which a single industry could control an entire
continent's access to particular web sites, force ISPs to install
expensive deep packet inspection gear that would search the complete
Internet data streams of millions of users, and force Internet
applications to conform to its design parameters or risk being blocked.
If you're a European consumer, this might sound like a paranoid
dystopia, but it's actually a vision of paradise—if paradise were
designed by the IFPI.
In a recent memo to European legislators, the worldwide music lobby laid
out its vision of a world in which all ISPs adopted three "feasible and
reasonable options" to help address copyright infringement on their
networks.
It's a familiar troika: content filtering of audio files using
fingerprinting technology, protocol blocking of "specific P2P services
that are known to be predominately infringing," and blocking access to
specific web sites such as AllOfMP3 (as in Denmark) and The Pirate Bay.
The plan is neither "burdensome or expensive," says IFPI, and it doesn't
cause any problems for "regular service." Sadly (and shockingly!), ISPs
in question haven't warmed to the plan voluntarily. As IFPI so
delicately puts it, "This cooperation has not been sufficiently
forthcoming from ISPs in Europe so far."
The EFF, which posted a copy of the memo (PDF), is worried that the
proposal could well gain favorable attention from European lawmakers who
are currently considering a bill that calls on "Internet service
providers to apply filtering measures to prevent copyright
infringements." The group sent a letter of its own (PDF) to the European
Parliament, pointing out that making the IFPI's wishlist into law could
have some drawbacks.
Much like the music industry list, the EFF's objections are
unsurprising. Automated filtering solutions could negatively impact
education and research, harm European innovation, and weaken privacy
protections by setting up deep packet inspection gear in every European
ISP. In addition, the filtering would have little effect on copyright
infringement because file-swappers would simply encrypt their
communications. And don't forget mashups! What would happen to our mashups?
But many legislators don't care about mashups. Fortunatetly, the EFF has
another argument likely to carry some sway in Europe: the shadow of
totalitarian spy services. This sort of powerful, intrusive filtering,
set loose across most of Europe, also has huge potential for abuse. "Any
country that has a centralized system in place to pry into all its
citizen's private communications," says the EFF's Danny O'Brien, "and
then preemptively sever those which it deems 'unsuitable,' creates both
a very disturbing precedent, and a dangerously powerful tool vulnerable
to misuse."
With or without new legislation, though, it looks like the EU is about
to get new criminal (not just civil) penalties for certain kinds of
copyright infringement. The European Parliament passed the controversial
IPRED2 legislation back in April, but owing to legal uncertainties
surrounding the failed European constitution, it hasn't been clear that
the EU has the authority to create new criminal law like this.
According to EFF Europe's "Copycrime" web campaign against the bill,
this issue was settled in late November after a ruling from the European
Court of Justice. That ruling said that the EU can enact criminal law
but cannot control the penalties that each state imposes. IPRED2 could
well be adopted, though the specific penalties it prescribes for
copyright violations would be out.
