Something very similar was planned for the UK, ith ISPs acting as copyright police. I think our government supported it, Im not sure what has happened with the issue, whether it is definately happening here or not. Filesharing is still atracting lawsuits here, there was stuff on the news a few weeks back about how various people have been sent letters claiming they have illegally downloaded & shared pornography, and its probably happening with games too. There was some discussion about how much tese people are being fined, how the companies doing the detection and threatening are taking most of the fine, and only a small percentage of it goes to the entity whose copyright has been violated. There are also suggestions that the wrong people are being written to, either due to bad detection, incorrect IP-time data, or other people using their broadband via open wifi. The latter is certainly an issue as there has been some encouragement by the likes f BT to get people to open up their wifi, so that there are a lot of hotspots people can use for free.
Personally I dont put this stuff in the same boat as net neutrality issues, the term is already in danger of becoming meaningless by being applied too broadly, but this stuff is certainly a related issue in some sense, it is about internet freedom. Still you now I dont agree with the notion that companies will try to block indie content in future, as they already have a huge advantage in terms of promotion and monetarization mechanisms, and the indies are no threat. The main threat to indie content distribution is either government censorship if 'dangerous radical ideas' are rampant on the net in a future world where there is lots of unrest, or from people struggling to host the content due to either the video hosts closing down or people not being able to afford internet access due to economic depression. Cheers Steve Elbows --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, "Heath" <heathpa...@...> wrote: > > Another example of how important net neturality is....and how much > harder it's becomeing for the net to remain netural. From CNET > > http://tech.yahoo.com/news/cnet/20081219/tc_cnet/8301102331012691493 > > The scary thing for us is this....how much longer till they start > limiting us....don't think they won't try.... > > > > - The music industry's highly controversial strategy of suing > customers for file sharing has mostly ended. > > The Recording Industry Association of America said Friday that it no > longer plans to wage a legal assault against people who it suspects > of pirating digital music files. What the RIAA should have said, > though, is that it won't go after most people who illegally file > share. My music industry sources say that the RIAA will continue to > file lawsuits against the most egregious offenders--the person > who "downloads 5,000 or 6,000 songs a month is still going to get > sued," a source at a major record company told me. > > The strategy of suing music fans has long been criticized by artists, > consumers, and even some record-label executives. Critics have said > it alienates music buyers and more importantly has been ineffectual. > Now, the music industry has a new form of protection: Internet > service providers. > > According to a story in The Wall Street Journal (subscription > required), which broke the news about the RIAA's new strategy, > unidentified Internet service providers have agreed to "reduce the > service," to chronic file-sharers. Exactly what a reduction of > service may include isn't specified, but likely means ISPs will limit > a user's bandwidth, a practice known as throttling. > > The way the new enforcement system will work is that the RIAA will > alert an ISP that a customer appears to be file sharing. The ISP will > then notify the person that he or she appears to be file sharing. If > the behavior by the customer doesn't change, then more e-mails will > be sent. If the customer ignores these e-mails, then the ISP may > choose to reduce service. If all else fails, they can choose to > discontinue service. > > Under the plan, which was brokered by New York State Attorney General > Andrew Cuomo, the music industry will not know the customer's > identity. I doubt this will be enough to prevent some Internet rights > groups from complaining. The fact of the matter is that ISPs have now > gone into the enforcement business, and this has always been one of > the greatest fears of those who have wanted ISPs to remain neutral. > > Heath > http://heathparks.com >
