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

Therein lies the crux of the matter. The authorities KNOW that illegal goods are being transported, and they DO patrol the highways, conducting random stops. They CAN search the trucks, where there is "reasonable cause", and they use "tricks of the trade" to conduct searches, bluffing their way through some to obtain permission where there are no other legal grounds. If we all KNOW that illegal activities are "going on"... do we then give the authorities the power to search whoever and whenever they feel like it? Crooks will always find a way to work around the law, the law abiding citizens are the ones who get caught up and inconvenienced.
I myself have nothing to fear from authorities conducting random searches - there is nothing for them to find!
As for illegal internet "traffic".... essentially, one only gets caught when they enter a site to steal the content... you leave your calling card everytime you visit any site. Your travels ARE tracked... but not the content you have... that is, until you are observed doing the deed - so... what honest person will object to the dishonest being tracked??

There. Now it's both private systems.

In order

1] Spam, they are deleting much of the spam before it gets to you. Spam counts in the multi-millions per day now and all ISPs siphon of spam when it arrives in their servers, before it gets to you.

The spam 'you' see is the stuff that gets through, a very small proportion of the spam you would otherwise get. Most spam nowadays is caused by user intervention, logging onto suspect sites, leaving email addresses posted in web sites where they shouldn't, and so on.

2] Stop all viruses. How do they do that? Most malware nowadays is accepted by the user, from "fly-by" web site visiting. The browser is the gateway to this and the user is the one who uses the browser. Other malware is often distributed by email attachments, and more often than not those emails comne from already infected computers belonging to relatives and friends who are unaware that they have infected computers. I trust you are not one of those.

3] Eliminate all ads. Strange, I have no problem with ads. But then I use a browser which has "Add-ons" I can use to prevent those. It is sad that others are unaware of these.

Apart from that though, the internet is a commercial area where many online shops and businesses conduct their business. Are you saying they should not advertise?

Yes, ISPs could analyse everything we download into our browsers. I hope they don't do that for everything though because broadband is so much faster than dial-up. If they did that, we would be back to dial-up speeds again.

Mark

FCC rules?!? Please no. I know you said "moderated by first amendment protection", but the FCC is an out-of-control, corrupt, unnecessary, unreasonable, inconsistent, (IMO at least) unconstitutional agency, whose activities and standards for broadcast--even at their most ideal, if there were ZERO corruption--are developed, adjusted, and structured for television and radio, thus extremely unfit for a transition to the internet. I don't even feel that the internet should be lumped in with other forms of broadcast, as it is primarily a 2-way medium in which the user is interactive on levels both highly personal and highly accessible/accessed, people live on the internet now (like it or not), and to come in and attempt to impose such highly subjective "boundaries" or limits is awful presumptuous and ignorant as I highly doubt that's going to go over too smoothly. If it does, then it's pretty hopeless anyway. Please, no offense to the poster, I agree with pretty much everything else you were saying. I couldn't leave this part alone though.

The only problem with this is that the customers really have no options aside from disconnection which for some people would be unthinkable and for others likely impossible. The ISP's can really just completely abide any restriction or probe they want, and our only option is cutoff. Sure, you CAN survive without it, but with the amount of integration, it would be considerably more difficult than even before the internet came in and made it all easier and easier because people expect and even just assume you have access now. If not, then there must be something off, but worse, correctly implies correspondence would be more difficult. Even if you never use it, it should be available to you at least, right?

My ISP is a tool for acquiring information and a roadway for information transport. What I transport on a highway when I transport and what I do with what I transport is MY business and MY responsibility. Censorship Nazis only target the ISPs because it would be too difficult/costly to target and charge individuals. They are only lackeys for an Industry that believes it can be paid again and again for one product... only because they have gotten away with it for decades.

I've been saying this about the RIAA/MPAA for years. It's a desperate grasp to try to hold on to the business model that favors only them. They don't want to have to come up with a new one where they won't be able to screw the artists, the fans, event locations, and pretty much everyone involved, and then practically get thanked for it by all at the end of the day. Those days are over thanks to the internet, piracy or no. New system, new model. Sorry, old guys.... but not really sorry at all. You had a long, profitable run at everyone's expense. Be happy and move on now.

We have a problem these days with information starting out as a cure for say "illegal downloading" then escallating to all personal and buisness activities you have undertaken. These then inevitability fall into the wrong hands and then were do we go.
Instead of tracking down the downloaders shut the sites!! or block them.
ISP's its down to you.

The RIAA/MPAA are the ones IMO that are illegally obtaining 'evidence to using entrapment measures by hiring false uploaders to post rigged torrents. I understand the ISPs only notify you if they recieve a complaint from RIAA, but to me that complaint is based on information that was illegally (or SHOULD be) obtained itself and therefore is useless. There are 'Laws' on the books that have been there for decades and written to cover 'favored' entities that are just wrong. COPYRIGHT LAWS! PLEASE! How many basic designs have been copied, reworked and improved and are valuable resources we uses everyday? What if the basic designs had never been allowed improvement or modification except by the originators? We would ALL be driving 'Model-T's'! Technology has advanced to allow file transfers between individuals and it will happen no matter what they do. It's time for the Movie and Music industry to realize they can no longer be paid time and time again for a single product. No OTHER industry to my knowledge receives continious payments forever like THEY want. I buy a movie,game,program, it's MINE to use or share as I please. I don't send my lawnmower manufacturer payments each time I mow my lawn. Why, I OWN it. I use my time, my computer and my knowledge to do anything and the result is MINE.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrent_poisoning noted this years ago.
Bob

I have read all of the posts on this forum, and thought I would run some ideas out there. First, let me say I don't support the selling/buying of items that are not legally obtained by the seller. I wanted to clarify what it means to commit a crime of "copyright infringement". This act is committed by recording,downloading programs,movies,music,data with the intent to sell or reproduce to sell said material. Thus causing loss in revenue / profits of said producers of such item/s. Now to say that p2p sharing is illegal, is saying that if you/I were to buy a game from a retail store. We wouldn't be allowed to take said game to your friend or families house and let them play it. Now you/I could play it ourselves, but if we let them play then we are breaking the law. Just as if we were to download a music file from Itunes and let others hear it. That as well would be illegal . Now you ask "Why would that be ?". The answer is simple, you shared a product with another person/s who didn't purchase the right to the product or use of said product . If we are going to use this rule then in fact that shall change everything we do in everyday life. ie.(riding in car you don't own,watching your neighbors T.V for super bowl, eating your g/f fries, playing poker on sat. night. unless you all bring your own deck. etc.) So many things can be affected by a "sharing law". Now the companies will say " We are losing billions to piracy and pirates are making off with it.". Well that is absurd, Who in the right mind is gonna pay for something they can get from their friend down the street for free. Now I do agree if your selling /buying bootleg stuff that is on you but , you can get it on the net for free from your friend . Another point I want to bring up these site megaupload,piratebay,btjunkie and so on and so on . These sites were not funded on the sale of pirated products. They made money to run by who? You guessed it ADVERTISERS that want to sell would be visitors products. Every site has them and relies on them to exist,coding is not free, power is not free, food is not free. So Advertisers make money and pay sites to host their ad or banner on said sites. The officials have not held any of them responsible for funding said "illegal activity" but, if I were to fund drug dealers,car theft,bank robbers. I would be an accessory to the crime and go to jail. Why, you ask ? These same Advertisers make money and that money comes with TAXES wich goes where? The Goverments pocket. No one in congress on any level would jepordise their stocks in said companies. Now to answer the original question " Should an ISP have any say in what you download or upload?". The answer is NO. What I use the internet for is my own damn bussines, If i want to watch 50 hrs of porn a week, so be it . I want to find out if the moon landing was real and want to download a video of it . If I want to share my Game i bought with my Facebook friends, so be it . If law makers want to take away our freedoms , then I say we the people take back our country AGAIN!

W~