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Obama And ISP’s To Launch Largest Digital Spying Scheme In History (Must Read)

If you download potentially copyrighted software, videos or music, your Internet service provider (ISP) has been watching, and they’re coming for you.

Specifically, they’re coming for you on Thursday, July 1.

That’s the date when the nation’s largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users’ bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials.

Word of the start date has been largely kept secret since ISPs announced their plans last June. The deal was brokered by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and coordinated by the Obama Administration. The same groups have weighed in heavily on controversial Internet policies around the world, with similar facilitation by the Obama’s Administration’s State Department.

The July 12 date was revealed by the RIAA’s CEO and top lobbyist, Cary Sherman, during a publishers’ conference on Wednesday in New York, according to technology publication CNet.

The content industries calls this scheme a “graduated response” plan, which will see

-Time Warner Cable

-Cablevision

-Comcast

-Verizon

-AT&T

and others spying on users’ Internet activities and watching for potential copyright infringement. Users who are “caught” infringing on a creator’s protected work can then be interrupted with a notice that piracy is forbidden by law and carries penalties of up to $150,000 per infringement, requiring the user to click through saying they understand the consequences before bandwidth is restored, and they could still be subject to copyright infringement lawsuits.

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Response: This is much worse than SOPA/PIPA and ACTA. It doesn’t necessarily censor the internet but it spys on everything you do. Your ENTIRE web history will be watched and recorded and might even assist the government. This was coordinated by Obama and his administration with the help of the MPAA and RIAA.

What is so dangerous about this is that this is not a law it is a policy adopted by several companies. That means this will not be debated in Congress and you will agree to be spied on by signing a contract with the company.

Internet censorship is becoming a reality and now the corporate elite will legally be able to spy on you. If we spread this and cause an uproar like what we did with SOPA, maybe they will back down. Either way people NEED to know about this.

Spreading the word but also adding a few points from the Cnet article (the one NOT paraphrased here and only linked to) that may calm a few followers down if they see this.

First off, they only list the above providers and “others”, leading me to believe that this policy is NOT going to be implemented by all ISP companies.

“Most of the participating ISPs are on track to begin implementing the program by July 1.” BEGIN IMPLEMENTING, meaning that for the moment nada is happening. This also means it is not instant. This also means that, most likely, they WON’T look at what you have done in the past (this is a guess, don’t take my word guys).

“Setting up an antipiracy program like this could take a year. He told CNET following his panel that the process isn’t as easy as turning on a switch.” Again, not instant.

“Each ISP has to develop their infrastructure for automating the system,” Sherman said. They need this “for establishing the database so they can keep track of repeat infringers, so they know that this is the first notice or the third notice. Every ISP has to do it differently depending on the architecture of its particular network. Some are nearing completion and others are a little further from completion.” I take this as “this will be harder for each company and some may not even be close to ready by the start date”.

“[It] requires that ISPs send out one or two educational notices to those customers who are accused of downloading copyrighted content illegally. If the customer doesn’t stop, the ISP is then asked to send out “confirmation notices” asking that they confirm they have received notice. At that time, the accused customers will also be informed of the risks they incur if they don’t stop pirating material. If the customer is flagged for pirating again, the ISP can then ratchet up the pressure. Participating ISPs can choose from a list of penalties, or what the RIAA calls “mitigation measures,” which include throttling down the customer’s connection speed and suspending Web access until the subscriber agrees to stop pirating.” It seems more like they are going to fling out notices first, let you slide, and THEN bust your ass if you do it anyway. They also mention nothing about turning your net off, just making it shit.

“not one of the service providers has agreed to permanently terminate service.” AH LOOK! THEY CAN’T SHUT OFF YOUR SERVICE AFTER ALL (yet).

This is more for me to calm myself down than anything else, I tend to over do it when I freak out. So I did some digging. I don’t agree with ANY of this (but ISPs already track you technically, this just makes it so they can let you know they KNOW what you are doing), but I see what this is coming from and why, and considering downloading copyrighted content is illegal I can kinda understand it.

Doesn’t mean I’m not freaked out and pissed off to hell and back about the sheer INVASION OF PRIVACY, but it makes me less so. Sort of.

FOR FUCK’S SAKE.