In an article written about a year ago by Ben Jones on TorrentFreak.com, there is the idea of a restriction on the Internet, created by a lawmaker himself.
Congressman Howard L. Berman wanted to stand up against piracy by creating a law against Internet pirating and getting the ISP involved. The ISP is the Internet service providers, which are the companies that make the Internet available to our homes using dial up or DSL. Berman, representing Hollywood, wanted to control the amount of piracy on the Internet, by enforcing a law that basically controls what someone could do on the Internet involving downloads.
Here was Berman’s plan:
• Sending letter’s from ISP to the internet user if they have accessed any pirated content.
• It is comparable to wiretapping of phone lines.
Problems with this plan:
• There is no concept of “fair use”.
• Letters are sent out automatically, making generalizations about the incidents.
• Letters seemed to give the idea of intimidation and a way in which people will give money to ISP for no reason.
• There is no way to tell what is actually copyright material that’s being downloaded.
• ISP has things to do (like getting customers)! They can’t waste time on piracy letters.
• And since almost every thing is downloaded and breaking the copyright laws, people would be receiving letters continuously.
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2 comments:
I feel like this article is just another example of policy-makers not being completely informed on the issues. The problem with most members of congress is they see a problem and automatically want to fix it with the most drastic measures. Also another issue I have with lawmakers is there constant need to create more laws and regulations not revise the ones already in place. More specifically Congressmen Howard L. Berman is suggesting something that seems like an evasion of privacy. The software would have to track what people are doing at all times sending them letters when they do even the most remotely illegal thing.
Not only does this hurt the consumer but also the Internet Service provider they have to take time to create this software send it out and keep up with the maintenance on top of their already difficult job of attracting new users and maintaining their service. All in all Congress needs to figure out that it is not the people in the wrong it is the law.
I think politicians and law-makers need to educate themselves more thoroughly about certain topics before they propose laws and ideas. In this case, he clearly was not aware of the flaws in his plan. If the ISP detects that a client has copied a piece of work on the internet, which is usually illegal, then it will automatically send a letter to the location of the person who did it. What if the person was doing something that wasn't illegal? Something that maybe is covered by fair use? Also the system would cost a lot of money to make, and would cost even more money when people fight back against the system with lawsuits, which is likely to be what would happen.
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