File Sharers Won’t Allow A Target on Their Hard Drive
Some well meaning copyright defenders have decided that the best way to end piracy is to make the ISP responsible for policing its own networks. On the surface it seems like a fair proposition. Why shouldn’t the Internet Service Provider be responsible for how its own network is used? Find any abusers, give them a chance to repent, and if necessary, shut off their bandwidth. Yes, it sounds simple enough, except for one detail—it won’t work. Why?
If the Internet was like Dodge City in the 1800s, then a team of well intentioned, quick draw US Marshals could be expected to tame the law breakers. Unfortunately, the Internet is virtual in nature and was created with its own laws of the digital jungle. One of those laws—which overrides all else—is that by design, information online is porous. Data slips through the internet like water through a screen door. For every imaginable digital lock there is a digital key.
The plan being suggested by many these days is that the ISP should carefully monitor its users by IP address to see who is consuming extra large chunks of bandwidth and warn them against sharing content illegally. Peer2peer file sharers, however will not stand around waiting for a target to be attached to their hard drives. They have already created new hacks for P2P networks that obscure the user’s true IP address making them invisible to the ISP. Go take a look at BTGuard–Anonymous Bittorrent Services (http://btguard.com). This site advertises, “BTGuard gives you an anonymous IP address and encrypts your downloads. Not even your ISP will know what you’re doing.”
A few months ago UK Broadband company TalkTalk echoed these issues. When asked about making the ISP responsible for enforcing piracy it told Sky News, “It’s profoundly unfair—it is like making a bus company responsible for shoplifters who use their buses to get to the shops. It is futile since people will switch to undetectable methods and encrypted services.”
Asking ISPs to police the Internet is unrealistic.
What To Do?
No one in the history of the Internet has ever been able to illegally download even a single track without an Internet connection. So the answer is simple. Mandate that all ISP users pay a content fee before they get connected. Looked at another way, they are paying on the way into the store. For more details on such a plan and how it might work visit here.
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It seems like the simple answer, but it is beyond audacious of us musicians and writers to expect all internet users to pay for internet piracy. That is the same as forcing all people to bear the cost of stolen gasoline whether they they walk to work or not.
In return for paying, consumers get unlimited access to enjoy the music. There are lots of things in our society that we are forced to pay for.
We are 10 years now into the digital era and the industry continues to shrink. Is there a better solution? If so, I’d love to hear it, and adopt it.
David,
To me the piracy problem begins at the point of the exchange of CD or mp3 because at that point the buyer has the song in their possession and is capable of making choices that can hurt the industry. From that point it becomes a power struggle of the label trying to remain the source of the music.
The only way I see the industry regaining the control of distribution is for pay up front stream-only music. (Kind of like XM radio but you get to listen to the song you want when you want). You can create playlists and mixes just like in iTunes but you never actually have the song on your hard drive. The music never actually changes hands and is truly a licensed scenario. This will make “copying” songs impossible…except the classic low-quality live recorded versions.
Besides this is the direction radio is going. We can actually use this digital age to our advantage now that wifi is all around us, 3G and now 4G is taking over our roadways and soon internet radio will be available in vehicles.
I really believe its the only (and probably the best) way to regain control and stop the hemorrhaging.