[LINK] Other forms of copyright theft

[Kim Holburn]

This ISP is deleting everyone's files, assuming them to be copied  
illegally.  Is this copyright theft?

<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070627-isp-as-copyright-cop- 
aussie-isp-kills-all-user-multimedia-files-nightly.html>
> ISP as copyright cop: Aussie ISP kills all user multimedia files  
> nightly
>
> By Eric Bangeman | Published: June 27, 2007 - 09:01AM CT
>
> Envision a world where your ISP does the copyright policing at the  
> behest of the movie studios, television networks, and music labels,  
> where no copyrighted content stays up on a user's account for more  
> than 24 hours. It sounds like a dream for Big Content, but it's  
> also a nightmare for customers of Australian ISP Exetel.
>
> An Exetel support page which features the top ten support questions  
> from the previous month. A frequently asked question from customers  
> is why their multimedia files keep disappearing from their  
> accounts. Exetel says that it takes a "hard approach to copyright  
> issues," and since April 2005 the ISP has run a script that deletes  
> all multimedia content with common extensions  
> including .avi, .mp3, .wmv, and .mov.
>
> That would certainly have the effect of removing any copyrighted  
> content that shouldn't be there, but it also makes it hard for  
> customers to share their own slideshows, home movies, and music,  
> because, as Boing Boing notes, Exetel will automatically delete  
> content that isn't infringing. "Sorry you can't watch the clips of  
> Junior's footy match, mum. My ISP nuked it last night."
>
> Customers can opt out of the nightly multimedia sweep by sending an  
> e-mail asking that their accounts be exempt from the automatic  
> nuking. In order to preserve files from automatic deletion, the  
> account-holder needs to affirm that he or she is indeed the  
> copyright holder of the files, that there is no copyright on the  
> files, or that the copyright holder has granted permission for the  
> files to be hosted.
>
> NBC/Universal general counsel Rick Cotton would love this. Last  
> week, he called for ISPs to spend more of their time spying on  
> users while suggesting that Safe Harbor provisions protecting ISPs  
> for liability in the case of users posting copyrighted materials be  
> stripped from the law. Cotton believes that service providers do  
> only the bare minimum necessary to comply with the DMCA. He'd like  
> to see broadband ISPs forced to use "readily available means to  
> prevent the use of their broadband capacity to transfer pirated  
> content."
>
> AT&T broadband customers take note: this is what the future may  
> look like for you. AT&T has said that it plans to develop and  
> deploy the means to keep illicit copyrighted material off its  
> network. Chances are that it will be a far more sophisticated tool  
> than Exetel's automated script, possibly something along the lines  
> of traffic-shaping hardware that is able to detect what protocol is  
> being used by looking at the packets.
>
> Australian law may be one reason that Exetel is so aggressive about  
> copyright enforcement, but the ISP's approach of treating its  
> customers as being "guilty until proven innocent" is disturbing. If  
> Big Content gets its way, it's an approach that will become more  
> common.

--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request

Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961