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Study: Anti-Piracy Warning, "Education" Systems Aren't Working

A new study out of Australia has found that graduated response anti-piracy programs simply don't work. A new research paper from Monash University studied anti-piracy systems that have been deployed in France, New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea and the UK. In all of those cases, the systems include not only repeated warnings, but levels of punishment for repeat offenders ranging from disconnection to fines.

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France was one of the first countries to impose laws that require ISPs terminate the service of users who repeatedly engage in copyright infringement.

Under French rules, copyright offenders are tracked by a newly-created taxpayer-funded agency dubbed Hadopi and a hired company named Trident Media Guard (TMG). Hadopi then works with ISPs to obtain personal information and threaten and or fine repeat offenders.

But researcher Rebecca Giblin has found that some three years on, HADOPI has been largely ineffective at reducing piracy, and consistently failed to actually penalize or track repeat offenders. In the first three years of operation, Giblin notes just four subscribers have been prosecuted. of them were convicted, but only of failing to "appropriately secure internet connections," not copyright infringement.

Programs in the UK, South Korea and Taiwan have similarly struggled to show any meaningful reduction in piracy since inception. A program running in New Zealand did correspond with a reduction in BitTorrent use, though Giblin notes evidence suggests those users simply fled to other distribution methods (back to UseNet, obscuring traffic via VPNs).

"There is no evidence demonstrating a causal connection between graduated response and reduced infringement. If 'effectiveness” means reducing infringement, then it is not effective,' Giblin concluded.

In other words, the entertainment industry and ISPs continue to play a futile game of Whac-A-Mole, and the best way to combat piracy continues to be to offer high quality, inexpensive broadband-based content distribution platforms.

The study comes on the heels of news that the U.S. anti-piracy "six strikes" system developed by incumbent ISPs and the entertainment industry similarly hasn't had any notable impact on BitTorrent traffic. That program varies by ISP and includes everything from temporary content filters to connection throttling for repeat offenders.
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Probitas
@teksavvy.com

Probitas

Anon

punished for not securing the wireless??

That's private property and users should be able to do what they wish with them. Granted it should be done anyway, but the open internet movement does like to push the whole open net concept asking users to keep their wireless unsecured for just that purpose. This isn't just an attack on pirating but on the entire concept of open internet. It's like a software developer demanding one user per package. But with internet, you can share, and if your bandwidth allows, many people can piggy back without having to pay for their own provider. And I think that's the main thrust of this. Thou Shalt Not Share Thine Internet!
axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC

axus

Member

Re: punished for not securing the wireless??

Someone running open wireless is really an Internet Service Provider, and should be held to their standards. Being an ISP isn't a crime, though it's usually against your own provider's terms of service.

As an ISP, you need to be able to respond to lawful requests. Typically you'd do this by closing your wireless, because you have no way to identify the people using your network without security. Still, government shouldn't be forcing ISPs to keep records until some crime is actually proven.

Probitas
@teksavvy.com

Probitas

Anon

Re: punished for not securing the wireless??

That's true too, though I think this is more about putting ISPs in an untenable situation. By forcing them to do the job of the law enforcement, it puts them in a position of having records of possible law breaking without having performed any enforcement. It may open them up to lawsuits just on that basis.

Legally speaking, law enforcement should be left to law enforcement agencies. ISPs did not purchase a law enforcement right when they opened up shop. But they are now being forced to do so. As such, if they bungled information storage, they have an out by claiming it's not their business to perform law enforcement tasks, they are not obligated to spend money to do so since that is not why they are in business (the business license they have is for providing service to customers, law enforcement agencies are not, technically speaking, customers unless they actually pay said provider for internet access, since that's their business, internet access.)

Hard to understand why so much compliance, except that government agencies can afford to throw money away in court to force them to comply without winning a legal judgement (high costs most third party providers aren't interested in spending for one thing, or even incumbents, even if in the right) to force them to do so. Which is why the incumbents are PAID for the service in the most part, but they could refuse. Strange why they aren't standing up for privacy laws. Except it must be VERY lucrative to do so.
jjeffeory
jjeffeory
join:2002-12-04
Bloomington, IN

jjeffeory to axus

Member

to axus
That's an offensively silly comment to make. someone having an open wireless connection is NOT an ISP, they simply have an open access point on their device. Pretty different on the whole.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to Probitas

Member

to Probitas
said by Anon80:

That's private property and users should be able to do what they wish with them.

I wasn't aware you were knowledgeable of private property laws in France.

Granted it should be done anyway, but the open internet movement does like to push the whole open net concept asking users to keep their wireless unsecured for just that purpose. This isn't just an attack on pirating but on the entire concept of open internet.

Go ahead and keep your connection open and when someone download child porn over YOUR connection YOU will be the one arrested.

buzz_4_20
join:2003-09-20
Dover, NH
(Software) Sophos UTM Home Edition
Ruckus R310

1 recommendation

buzz_4_20

Member

The Truth...

A percentage of people are going to Pirate content... Not Even if it's $0.01 a movie.

Many consumers will buy content, if it's priced well and easily accessible.

People want control of the content they buy. IE - You buy a blu-ray copy of the movie, they want to be able to watch it on their TV, Phone ETC... without extra licenses. They want USE IT as they see fit. Not redistribution just using it withing their home ecosystem.

Things that are not working...
Content EXCLUSIVITY Deals.
Pirate Warnings
Threats
Lawsuits for Downloading
Paywalls
Blocking Websites
Blocking Services
34764170 (banned)
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON

34764170 (banned)

Member

Re: The Truth...

said by buzz_4_20:

Many consumers will buy content, if it's priced well and easily accessible.

Exactly, that means no DRM either.

TechyDad
Premium Member
join:2001-07-13
USA

1 recommendation

TechyDad to buzz_4_20

Premium Member

to buzz_4_20
Things that do work: Offering content at a reasonable price with as few restrictions as possible. e.g. Netflix.

Of course, the content providers see Netflix as "The Enemy" and not "Their Best Hope To Reduce Piracy." Imagine if the content providers opened their vaults and gave Netflix their entire back catalogs for streaming. Even if it was everything 2 years old and prior. Most people wouldn't bother pirating and would just stream via Netflix. (Like you said, some people would still pirate, but we can ignore those people as they would pirate no matter what.)

EDIT: Just to comment on "buy a copy and use it as you see fit": You can buy a DVD, rip it, and use the digital file on many devices. Of course, tools to do this are technically illegal because breaking the encryption on DVDs *might* lead to piracy. (Never mind that it's been broken for years.) It should be legal to rip content you've purchased, legal to use that content for your own (non-commercial, personal) purposes, and just illegal to share that content with someone else without consent of the copyright holder. (So ripping the DVD to view in your living room? Legal. Streaming the DVD rip to your phone/tablet to view on the road? Legal. Giving the DVD rip to your friends to watch? Not legal.)
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd to buzz_4_20

Premium Member

to buzz_4_20
Regionalization also needs to be eliminated. Content should always be released globally on air and online at the same day(timezones and intl. Dateline permitting of course).

If a show releases in the US at 8pm there is no reason for it to not show up in the UK until three months later.

The problem is the entertainment industry wants to purely tackle piracy with easy to crack DRM and buying laws. Rather than looking at the reasons that honest people pirate. One of the number one reasons for piracy among people who would willingly buy is that the content is not available in their region, or in a format they prefer.(for many people googling a torrent is still easier than rip with AnyDVD-HD and process in Handbrake.)
Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL

Joe12345678

Member

Re: The Truth...

Also tv rights for shows in us and Canada need to be more in sink.

I had to view Continuum season 1 on line and it took a long time for it to air in the USA. At least season 2 was only a few weeks later then Canada so I viewed it on sci fi.
Joe12345678

Joe12345678 to buzz_4_20

Member

to buzz_4_20
also

Disney Vault and other stuff like it.

abandonware

only offing content as part of a big pack of content that you may only want one game or movie or show out of.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd

Premium Member

Re: The Truth...

said by Joe12345678:

also

Disney Vault and other stuff like it.

abandonware

only offing content as part of a big pack of content that you may only want one game or movie or show out of.

This is where the legal system could come down on things, I would love to see a judge pull up Amazon and see a movie is out of print and dismiss the case telling the copyright holder they failed their end of the bargain by pulling the film from stores.

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

KrK

Premium Member

It's our draconian Copyright laws that aren't working

Just look at the situation with Google's Adsense that DSLReports is in right now.

All thanks to out of control copyright legal shenanigans.