arstechnica.com — One Australian ISP has taken a troubling approach to copyright enforcement: it deletes every multimedia file in its users' accounts, every night. Users can opt out of this with an e-mail, but its actions paint a disturbing picture of what life could be like if ISPs decide to turn into lapdogs for Big Content.
Jun 27, 2007 View in Crawl 4
knightmareincJun 27, 2007
but dont worry guys, Net Neutrality is a solution for a problem that doesnt exist.
nobogeys217Jun 28, 2007
I am just pissed about at&t tracking what its users download. Its stupid and seems like invasion of privacy. I dont care if I am paying to use their serfvice. I dont want them tracking what I download. I'm switching to comcast.
chaddlesJun 28, 2007
Under Australian Law, the ISP/website host is subject to penalties if it authorises access to copyright material. See the following case: <a class="user" href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2006/187.html">http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2006/187.html</a>In this case, the hosting company's client had a website linking to infringing mp3 files (none were hosted on the site - only links), and both the client and the hosting company were penalised for authorising access to copyright material. The judgement found that the hosting company could have easily prevented the access, and that they were making commercial gains by ignoring it.So there is a case to be made for web hosting companies in Australia to take a heavy-handed approach... after all, they're legally obliged to police the content they host - something that is impractical to say the least. They've given clients an opt-out option by asking them to confirm that they have rights to publish the material, presumably shifting the legal onus away from the company.I don't think I'll be using exetel while they are taking this approach to compliance, but what is really to blame here is the ridiculous, impractical internet copyright laws that require the hosting company to police not only hosted content but also hosted links! Thank the Howard government for that :-/see also:<a class="user" href="http://forum.exetel.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=18996">http://forum.exetel.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=18996</a>
rgucciJun 28, 2007
if they had information that it was illegal then no. but if you are paying fedex to store your goods and then at midnight tonight they just took them all out of the warehouse and burned them without so much any evidence that it may be illegal, then that's a cause for alarm.
rgucciJun 28, 2007
as has been pointed out by others, the ISP is only deleting files on the ISP servers. the problem is they are deleting all media files, whether or not it is copyright-infringing.
subliminalurgeFeb 20, 2009
"Why would anyone use email for filesharing?"Because not everyone knows about the better ways.When my sister in law recently asked me for some songs she was looking for, it was 1000% easier to just email them to her than try to walk her through, over the phone, downloading, installing, and using a bittorrent client.
subliminalurgeFeb 20, 2009
They're not.