Quote:
Originally Posted by RawAlex
At some point, the ISPs will end up being forced to take action to avoid legal liablity. Many ISPs already block standard outgoing email ports to avoid simple minded spammers, so in some ways they are already controlling and checking what their clients do. Examining at least in passing all non-port80 traffic would likely be a good way to spot people serving files, and then you can check to see what files they are offering. You don't have to check every data packet of every user, just run a big sample, find out who is doing what, and then look at them more closely.
The traffic shaping software has been pretty effective (read so effective people noticed) so it wouldn't be hard to use that same sort of data to target network users and check to see if they have potentially illegal content.
P2P isn't that easy to hide, no matter how much they try.
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I agree in some respects but controlling an email port is a little different to monitoring what people are sending and recieving and stopping a few packets here and there isnt very scientific - more like shooting a gun at a target with the lights turned off.
Also controlling ports isnt that useful because i can tell a newsreading prog to download stuff from newsgroups via port 80 - which an ISP can never block because its a standard web port.
Ultimately file sharers will find alternative routes.
The real issue that needs looking at is
WHY people do it. I personally dont think poverty is the only reason, I'm sure a lot do it just because they can - many are totally ignorant of what copyright even is.
I think DRM is a major problem too - people hate it.
Go over to amazon and look at the reviews for electronic arts "spore" game - masses of negitive reviews all concerning DRM.
If you buy that game you can only install it 3 times and then no more - ever. Get the hacked copy that was released hours after it went on sale and you can install it all you like.
Whos being punished there? It didnt stop hackers or people downloading it.
the same with itunes. I refuse to buy anything from there because we've seen several online music stores close this year and people who paid for stuff are told "tough luck, sorry".
Amazon USA and play in the UK both sell mp3's with no DRM, which really is the way forward. If its accessible and inexpnsive people are more likely to pay.
Once you find out 'why' then people can start asking 'how' to fix it.