RIAA’s New Piracy Plan Cuts Off People Without A Fair Trial
By stormy at 20 December, 2008, 11:19 am
After the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) revealed its new scheme for punishing suspected music sharers, several problems have surfaced about the plan.
The RIAA’s new scheme involves forcing ISP’s to cut off piracy suspects from the internet, instead of tracking them down using suspicious methods and then suing them.
The new plan circumvents the law, and puts the power directly into RIAA’s hands, which means that more innocent people than ever will get harassed by the RIAA.
The solution that leaves every one (sort of) happy, is for the RIAA to start a legal peer-to-peer (P2P) network that for a small monthly charge, lets you download all the music you want, legally. But when has the RIAA ever listened to anyone?
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I am truly surprisedthat someone hasnt taken out the RIAA yet, I really am.
jess
http://www.privacy.es.tc
This article is only telling part of the story. People suspected of piracy will get written warnings and then reduced bandwidth before they are cut off “without a fair trial”.
The idea of putting people back in court to argue their warnings is laughable. I think everyone agrees (even the RIAA, at this point) that the general idea is to send LESS people to court.
It doesn’t matter if you get repeated written warnings, if you aren’t doing anything wrong. You can’t prove that you’re innocent - what are you going to say “No, I didn’t download that?”
This is a smart PR move on the RIAA’s part. Now they don’t have to spend any money, they don’t get bad publicity, and they can silence anyone they like. It keeps the ISPs happy, because they don’t have to worry about legal threats.
The only one who loses is, as always, the average citizen.
We should implement the same arrangement in the US as they have in Canada. In Canada a few cents is added to the sale of all blank media to cover royalties for RIAA and MPAA, and in exchange Canadians are not hassled for filesharing.
The bigger picture which no one is mentioning is what year are we now in? 2009 (soon)! Cutting off someones internet access?? The internet is increasing becoming essential for survival in our society whether it be related to personal living OR professional living. I know ISPs have had the ability to cut off access for years now for any # of reasons, but increasing the frequency and scope of this monstrous move is not going to be pretty. I guess copyright infringement is now the equivalent of cyber-predation of children. Oh my! What will happen to VoIP lines and shit? If wired(less) living is becoming the norm, this is very dangerous!!!! Love you all.
If a person who was not actually sharing music was accused of doing so, perhaps they could assert a slander (per se, as we all know it is an illegal activity) claim against the record companies. Or, if their internet connection was slowed or cut off as a result, they could claim tortious interference with their contract with the ISP, which may allow for consequential and punitive damages.
Last I checked, no trial is required for a person to be cut off from a non essential service.