Broadband forum: Poll: Should your ISP have a say in what type of content you are uploading/downloading?

I would think it depends on a few things:
- Is your ISP required to track all downloads? This is usually because of some law passed with the monitory support of the movie or music industries which finds it way to certain pockets.
- Is Homeland Security being used by the movie industry, again? I belonged to a forum and went to it one day and saw a page which said it was closed down by HS because of possible terrorist activity. I went to another forum and told them and they said to take a pic of it. So I went back and the page now said it was closed by the music industry because of illegal downloads. What a joke. Who has whom in whose pocket. So is HS on the ISP's case or even the music or movie industry?
- How can they tell which zeros and ones downloaded were from a movie? The movie might have been put there to catch people who downloaded from that IP..
- As laws are passed by those in power (that is the money power) more and more of your items will be tracked. Probably looking for terrorist activity by the music industry.
Well that was fun. All kidding aside, big business does not want you to get music or movies free. Therefore they will put pressure an ISPs to track people. Be aware - be smart.

I pay for a service from my ISP, not to act like my mommy.

In a word, No. If subscribers start pulling their service from these ISP's and hitting therm in the pocket their attitude would change. Sadly that won't happen. Most people today can't be bothered with a little inconvenience (obviously business accounts may be different) we need to start raising the roof over ISP expanding their theoritical police powers.

Your post as well as mine and several others is marked as monitored.What does that mean to you?In the sense that no one is supposedly monitoring "your" activity.I am well aware they monitor mine.

they should keep their noses from where it doesn't belong, all they're going to do is lose subscribers

The U.S.P.S. respected the privacy of its patrons for many years. ISPs are paid for the bandwidth used, they should have nothing to say about how you utilize that bandwidth, some are gamers some attend classes and some watch movies or TV shows. Could you see the U.S. Postal Service opening each envelope that it received for delivery?

"In times of unrest in a city or on suspicion of illegal or terrorist activities, the select individual could be monitored[...]"
This is what is being done, the general public's traffic is NOT being monitored, only those who have been confirmed distributors of infringing content, such as copyrighted music or movies.

"[...]but that also needs to be verified and approved for authenticity."

Again, that is how it works. The RIAA or MPAA work with law enforcement agencies. When you torrent and seed a file, you can see who else you are seeding/downloading the file to/from (your "peers"). That information is public if you are downloading the file; therefore, if an agent from the RIAA or MPAA download that file to see who is seeding their content, they now have proof (IP addresses of the seeders) that those people are distributing infringing content. Once they see your IP address on that list, the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution comes into play. You see, if law enforcement (in this case anyone working with the RIAA/MPAA) has proof that you are involved in illicit activity (in this case, distributing infringing content; proof being your IP address), they now have the right to monitor your traffic to check for that material.

"ISP will be subject to lawsuits from individuals as well as groups, if they indulge in unlawful spying."

It is not against the law for them to do so, and we can't really complain, seeing as we broke the law. If they are, in fact "spying" on your traffic, then by all means, toss them a lawsuit. Your impact will still be minimal, as these are powerful and rich companies.

"As many others before me have said, paying for the service to use does not give them the right to analyze and oversee what I do with the service."

On the contrary, you are paying for the ISP to provide you with service, under their Terms and Conditions. It is against the ISP's Terms and Conditions to use their service to distribute or download infringing content, and under those Terms and Conditions, the ISP has the right to terminate your service if they hear that you are breaking their rules. When the RIAA/MPAA tells the ISP that you are distributing infringing material, the ISP monitors your traffic so they can find out if that is true.

"[...] In software parlance, I could relate it to a software vendor selling financial software to individuals, but all the date the individuals records can be seen by the software company!"

Your analogy doesn't hold up, friend. No where in the software vendor's Terms and Conditions can it say that they can take your personal information, as that is against the law. If the police come banging at your door with a warrant, then your financial information recorded in that software can be viewed.

You get these Cease and Desist letters in your inbox only when you've done something wrong, and after the RIAA/MPAA and a law enforcement agency has taken notice of you. It is illegal for an ISP to monitor someone's Internet traffic without reason provided to them by a law enforcement agency, or (but not "and") notification to the End User. If your traffic was always being monitored, you'd get a notice every time you visited The Pirate Bay or Demonoid, but you don't, do you?

Notice how the Cease and Desist emails mention perhaps an artist's name, say, Disturbed, followed by the record company, Warner Bros., then their lawyers, GrayZone Inc.? That's because these people have taken the proper legal steps necessary to implicate you as a distributor of their copyrighted content.

If your ISP can tell you what you can or cannot use the internet for then the telephone companies will be lining up to censor our telephone calls and the utlities companies will be telling us how much gas, water and electrical power we are allowed to use and what uses they can be put to. The ISP is just another utility providing access to a data pipe. There are people out there who create and access illegal content or conduct illegal activities but that is like making the car companies and road owners liable for car accidents and gun manufacturers responsible for armed hold ups.

If the legal process continues along these lines it will soon be the case that the electricity suppliers are held accountable for deaths due to electrocution, the gas company will be responsible for those people who gassed themselves to death, and the water company will be charged for domestic drownings. The hand that pulls the trigger is responsible for the injury, not the gun maker or the bullet manufacturer. Similarly the body attached to the keyboard is guilty of cybercrime, not the ISP.

There are countries fighting for freedom and here we are trying to be controlled by the state through ever increasing regulation and permitting unacceptable litigation. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!

As an old developer, the copying of work done toward the view of grabbing a free copy is just not ethical or right. There are laws to make such actions so. In a manner of speaking, you're stealing from the producer of the product. We have kids, house payments, bills of all sorts, just like most everyone else, and this reduces our ability to keep the debt lion away from the door.

That being said, who will keep things fair AND safe for both, the producers and the consumers? Only entity I can think of would be the ISP. If you are being 'ripped off' by some thief swiping files through your WiFi router/modem, wouldn't you like to know about it? These things (the infringement notices) can be costly both financially and reputation wise. There are horror stories being told about how the 'Industry' organizations are very militant about the problem and have no problem tracking down and suing the 'pirates' that violate their perceived rights.

If you didn't download anything, someone stole bandwidth from you that YOU paid for. What to do? Basically change the WEP or WPA settings, pass codes etc on your WiFi router/modem (assuming you had it set) and keep it secret (if you don't have it set, get busy and set it)! Tell NO ONE what those settings are! Sometimes, people that are authorized to use your 'network' will share settings with their friends with disastrous results, costing YOU! Protect yourself! Don't know how? Go see your local computer guy and ask for help.

ISPs should not have a say.

However, they need to have a say since they get just as involved in these legal battles over copyrighted material as anyone else.

It's like a landlord who rents out a building that is used for drug manufacturing or trafficking. The police can seize the building. Between the criminal and the landlord, the landlord looses the most.

It's the same for ISPs. Copying Copyrighted material may not seem like a big deal, but it has become one. ISPs simply can not afford the legal battles where they become involved with it.

In the 1980s, Canada purchased a monitoring system from the USA (Called Cobra) for monitoring phone lines and computer traffic. Back then, there was Packett Mail instead of the Internet. I read in the 1990s where the system was monitoring all Internet traffic too. Then I read several years ago that Cobra had been replaced by a completely new more efficient system.

Your privacy has been an illusion for decades....

As an employee of an ISP, I deal with the the notices sent to us by our pipe provider. In short the message is to stop the infringement by the customer assigned to the IP address or we as the pipe provider to your company will be force to suspend your company's service to the world wide web. I'm sure there are laws provided to the video company being infringed upon that allows them to force this upon the companies involved because of the customer's illegal infringement. Also no customer information is released as to who the customer is that's using the IP address. I'm sure if a court ordered it we, the ISP, would be required to provide it. We've never had a case go that far since all parties ceased their usally accidental infringing.

If the ISP is also a provider of download facilities (like movies ala cable services) then they would have the right and do to monitor illegal downloads. If the ISP is nothing but a transport then the question comes are they being contracted by another service/company to provide this service? If so then gotta say yes they have the right to monitor and question downloads. Unfortunately the ISPs are contracting to provide this service and we have probably received notice of their new job. Buried in all of the EMAIL flack we get everyday (and probably marked as junk mail) was a notice that your ISP has taken on this new security watchdog job. I like so many installed a wireless network along time ago and failed to secure it properly, until recently when I noticed some neighbors using my network. Well they aren't now so I am a little more assured that things like movie downloads will not be happening without my consent. So does an ISP have the right to monitor and police movie and other licensed material downloads
YES if they are a contracted to provide the service to another company/service.

Imagine the Carbon Tax they could collect.