[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Why Your Business Should Worry About the ISP Copyright Fight here

[blankp3kh]

Sounds a *lot* like this could be the beginning of the end for free *and* paid WiFi access from public hotspots.

Once again, the greedy incompetents in Big Entertainment, who still don't seem to understand this whole internets business, are trying to bully other people into doing their work for them.

[foodandart]

More to the point, you can threaten the ISP with the ULTIMATE sanction and CANCEL service.

Remind them of how much yearly you give them, and remind them that the RIAA and MPAA are NOT obligated to compensate them for that *loss* of your business.

I mean, this deal is going to ONLY be a benefit to hollywood and the labels, so make the ISP understand that as you're leaving.

[Greycoat]

The ISP will purposely assume the role of being a "bureaucrat". They will not look into your defenses when falsely accused. They will just say we can't give legal advice and you should consult an attorney. They will stay as "uninvolved" as they possibly can leaving it to you to resolve the matter while your service is disrupted. As foodandart noted, if enough people say take off the imposed restriction or cancel my account. The ISP will get the hint. I also note those who oppose political websites not to their liking would be encouraged to make false claims to squelch political dissent not to their liking, i.e. particularly the Left, who is enamored with "speech codes" and who think the First Amendment only applies to things they like, going after websites (conservative) that don't worship their Messiah in the White House.

[kyanwan]

Downloads up, dinosaur media sales down. In other news, retailers of stone tablets, hammer & chisel sets, and cuneiform tablets are moving to ban paper & pencil sales.

I think it's time for the RIAA and MPAA to realize that old media dies and gets replaced by new. Who wants to carry around a bag of CDs when you can carry your iPod - with thousands of songs? They need to step into the 21st century. Old media is over, it's gone, give it up.

[CarlosVerduzcopqhk]

lol, they will not take away your internet, but they will lower the speed, in that case, what do they expect to happen? a person paying $35 for dial up speed, please. Any action taken against any user will end up in the user cancelling their service, and seeking alternatives.

[stewdanko]

You people and this article are ridiculous. Do you actually think they are looking to take down a McDonalds or Starbucks Wifi spot to stop music downloads?

This would be more a Bitorent or Napster style site.

Could this article be more hysterical and inflammatory? Why don't you take the security measures off your your intellectual property and see how long YOURS lasts.

You people and this article are ridiculous. Do you actually think they are looking to take down a McDonalds or Starbucks Wifi spot to stop music downloads?

This would be more a Bitorent or Napster style site.

Could this article be more hysterical and inflammatory? Why don't you take the security measures off your your intellectual property and see how long YOURS lasts.

You people and this article are ridiculous. Do you actually think they are looking to take down a McDonalds or Starbucks Wifi spot to stop music downloads?

This would be more a Bitorent or Napster style site.

Could this article be more hysterical and inflammatory? Why don't you take the security measures off your your intellectual property and see how long YOURS lasts.

[NickShaheendz05]

This is the reason I choose comcast.because of their stance on this issue. But in the result of disrupting my service. AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN !!!


Ps: at&t I'll follow path of least resistance.

[Papaspud]

I will just continue to do all of my torrenting at college like I always do, I don't think they are going to shut them down. This is just a BS witch hunt to try and squeeze a few more dollars out of their broken marketing model.

[ConwayTheContaminationistod8r]

Big deal, just use anonymous, decentralized peer-to-peer.

[DKant]

Piracy might well need to be fought but trying to win the 'war' by investing in better 'armor' while continuing to fight with sticks is just stupid. Trying to suppress piracy is hopeless - it's just too easy and convenient Instead one must compete with piracy to make obtaining content legally easier and more painless. Today getting legal content is a pain in the butt, you have to deal with region restrictions, device/copying restrictions and what not. If purchasing all content digitally were easier, more readily available, more reasonably priced and more device-agnostic, I doubt how many legitimate users would actually go towards torrents. Services like Hulu are already doing that - if broadband gets better it will only get easier for everyone to access and enjoy the content.

In other words, they should be looking to invest in broadband infrastructure and open up the Internet EVEN further, rather than trying to shut it down! This move stinks of bureaucracy and is a step backward in every possible way. I hope it gets shut down by the Courts.

[Boletusedulis]

I spilled my drink on the walk home yesterday. I spent the rest of the night stomping on the ants that came to eat the sugar. My foot got sticky, and I got tired, but the ants kept coming back. Should I go get another drink, or spend the rest of my life trying to keep the ants from enjoying the spilled one?

[CaniblCat]

"...required to prove a negative--which, as in criminal law, is harder than proving a positive..."

Is it me, or does that sound a lot like Guilty Until Proven Innocent?

[TomFrenchrktv]

If this scenario played out as you say then some business owner will take the ISP to task through the courts for causing their business to fail. The costs then to the ISP would be too great. I don't believe that ISP's will do more than warn the consumer about what is happening otherwise they will have to provide some sort of help to those who are innocent. Actually what will happen is that they will start to monitor these perpretators to see if they truly are illegally downloading and then they will pass that information along to all concerned parties. If you are a business owner and someone is illegally using your service to download these media services wouldn't you want to know it so you can take necessary actions. Certainly if you are a private citizen and someone is illegally using your service to do this wouldn't you want to know? I would so I could stop it.

[Candide08]

If people's internet access is cut off - how many "movie packages" will be affected?

Was the loss of that revenue included in the calculations?

[Ralphh93f]

Copyright infringement is larceny. If you do not steal other people's copyrighted materials, you have nothing to worry about. Many of the people whining about this just don't like paying for their products when they have become so accustomed to stealing them.

This is sensationalism, pure and simple.

Copyright infringement is larceny. If you do not steal other people's copyrighted materials, you have nothing to worry about. Many of the people whining about this just don't like paying for their products when they have become so accustomed to stealing them.

This is sensationalism, pure and simple.

[BruceGaincx8d]

@TomFrenchrktv: I would certainly react if I found out someone was stealing my content and feel very strongly about it. In fact, I recently learned someone had published an article I had written verbatim and had the gall to sign their name to it (it was a larger national newspaper, as well). However, in this context, the mechanism of matching file-sharing activity to IP addresses and then alerting the ISP companies of the "violation" is just not a good a practice--for one thing, it is too easy to use fake IP addresses and innocent people thus get caught in the crossfire.

[TabPbn1g]

My wife and I were going to switch to AT&T but after find out this there is no way I am doing it. My current company is not apart of the agreement and while we do not download stolen content there is not a chance I want to be a part of something that is going to limit my access from public hot spots because the ISP is jumping in bed with the Media companies. As much as I agree stealing is bad I do not wish to be punished for other peoples actions and I should not have to be.

I am pretty sure the companies that follow through with this are going to start loosing potential new customers just like myself.

[JasonDerago7n1b]

This is all about greed and the "rich getting richer." These music business execs and music artist are already making millions and millions of dollars from itunes downloads, concerts, clothing, ringtones, these people just keep getting richer and are still crying because they want more. It should be legal to download anything you want off the internet as long as you don't distribute it out, such as downloading movies and burning them on DVD's and selling them to make a profit. But like I said before just another example of the rich wanting to get richer while the poor keep on getting poorer. Don't we as American's pay enough money out every single day for BS? I live in North Carolina and we have property taxes on all cars, federal and state taxes, paying taxes everytime you buy something at the store, taxes here and taxes there, taxes on lottery ticket winnings, there is pretty much a tax for everything and where is all this money going? Into the politicians pocket! Food prices continue to go up and gas prices continue to sky rocket. It's almost so bad that everybody has to have a 4 year college degree just to get a half crap job that you still can't afford to live comfortably. I say screw the music business and the movie business.

[DhBarroyy5]

There is a big difference between business and home users - RIAA be damned - ISPs will need to tread carefully or they will find themselves on the wrong end of lawsuits from the other end.
Those of us that provide professional recommendations as to which ISPs our clients use will be watching. If you are an ISP that screws with our clients, expect us to new clients to go elsewhere.