CatPuke and dansmug used our newssubmit to tell us about an article on MSNBC that might scare a lot of internet users. It seems that the MPAA, the organistation that should defend the rights of the American Movie industry, is currently actively tracing movie swappers.
The movie swapper will get a takedown notice and if the user doesn't remove the violating movies, the account will be suspended, and you can say goodbye to your internet connection. The tracing process goes automated, the users are found by software that also detects their ISP:
The software cruises file-swapping networks like Gnutella to find copyrighted materials, hunts down the IP address of the poster, then discovers which Internet service provider is being used. Soon after, the MPAA sends its form letter to the ISP. Under the Digital Copyright Millennium Act, Internet providers are compelled to stop distribution of copywritten materials when they are notified, so the ISP in turn forwards the note to the user, along with a threat of disconnection. |
Expect more threats as time goes by '” in 2001, 54,000 letters went out. The rate has now doubled, with 50,534 takedown notices sent by June 30 of this year, keeping Internet service providers very busy chasing down copyright complaints.
'We are continuing to fine-tune the system," said Ken Jacobsen, senior vice president and director of worldwide antipiracy efforts at MPAA. While the firm began sending takedown notices in late 2000, efforts continue to ramp up, to keep pace with increased movie swapping online.
As dansmug added, it's about time the protocol we reported about earlier will be implemented. That will stop the MPAA from finding you, if you swap illegal movies that is, but nobody does that of course...
Source: MSNBC.com
