Comcast working on new anti-piracy scheme, moving beyond “Six Strikes” - Polidicks

[quote="Ars Technica"] Comcast is developing a new scheme to combat digital piracy in the United States, according to a new report from Variety. The country’s largest cable operator “has begun preliminary discussions with both film and TV studios and other leading Internet service providers about employing technology, according to sources, that would provide offending users with transactional opportunities to access legal versions of copyright-infringing videos as they’re being downloaded.” [B] Variety also reported that in “the new system, a consumer illegally downloading a film or movie from a peer-to-peer system like BitTorrent would be quickly pushed a pop-up message with links to purchase or rent the same content, whether the title in question exists on the [video-on-demand] library of a participating distributor’s own broadband network or on a third-party seller like Amazon.”[/B] Comcast, unlike most of its other ISP competitors, also owns vast media holdings. The company's assets include Universal Pictures, NBC, and other cable TV channels—so Comcast could stand to directly benefit from pushing its customers to buy its own products. [B] "Obviously, giving people accessible, affordable alternatives to illegal downloading will reduce infringement," Sherwin Siy, the vice president of legal affairs at Public Knowledge, told Ars. "But complaining that the CAS [Copyright Alert System, aka the "Six Strikes" rule] doesn't lead right to an online store probably isn't the real problem. Or if it is, new problems are raised, such as, whose store and whose content? Comcast has the distinct advantage of being one of the biggest ISPs and simultaneously a massive content producer." "All of the same questions that have applied to CAS as it got underway apply here, and now a few more: what's the buy-in among other ISPs?" he added. "Other copyright holders, big and small? What role and voice will consumers have in this process? And if there's a financial transaction built in to this system, how do you prevent it from incentivizing false positives or even from becoming a form of blackmail? All of those questions need to be answered before this gets underway, otherwise it could look like you're using the trappings of the law to market your services." [/B] Technical details of the proposed unnamed scheme were not disclosed. The cable giant, along with five other major American ISPs, began using the CAS in February 2013. The Center for Copyright Information, the group behind CAS, has yet to reveal any data since its implementation.[/quote] [url="http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/08/comcast-working-on-new-anti-piracy-scheme-moving-beyond-six-strikes/"]Source[/url]. This has the potential to lead to some really awkward situations, especially with HBO shows.

[QUOTE] the new system, a consumer illegally downloading a film or movie from a peer-to-peer system like BitTorrent would be quickly pushed a pop-up message with links to purchase or rent the same content [/QUOTE] yay malware!

how about doing the basics first like actually providing a decent internet service

That doesn't necessarily sound too awful, it certainly doesn't sound as intrusive as something like SOPA

I'd be more concerned that they can magically execute arbitary code [editline]6th August 2013[/editline] Unless they push it into webpages, which they shouldent do because that breaks a LOT of shit and causes problems with SSL

[quote]"Obviously, giving people accessible, affordable alternatives to illegal downloading will reduce infringement."[/quote] This is honestly the biggest factor in fighting against piracy. Dumb legislation and arbitrary junk like that won't do much at all, because it's still convenient, easy, and relatively safe to pirate stuff. If you don't want people to download your movies, music, or shows, then give the consumers a way that's just as (or more) convenient for them to access that material, and with value that they can't refuse. Things like Netflix are a good example of how we should adapt our distribution models. I would gladly pay cable prices for Netflix, of fifty to sixty bucks a month, if I had unlimited access to a library that actually included the latest episodes of currently airing shows and new movie releases, rather than just an odd smattering of hit-or-miss content. However, I'm extremely unlikely to go drop twenty dollars for a DVD that I may only watch once or twice before letting it gather dust on my shelf. The old models of content distribution just can't keep up with want people want these days.

this new method is already dead before it's born. this is a Miscarriage of anti-priacy because of popup blockers.

Netflix has a long way to go honestly, I took a month trial and after a while it started feeling like I was walking through an old Blockbuster, it's not cool that movies just disappear.

[quote]Obviously, giving people accessible, affordable alternatives to illegal downloading will reduce infringement[/quote] This is the bit they really need to focus on, thought they're going about it the wrong way. I like Mr. Siy, he sounds like he has the right idea. I'm rather worried about how this would work. I'm pretty sure you can't just make a pop-up appear on someone's screen willy nilly, there needs to be a program on the computer waiting for the signal to display a pop-up.

[QUOTE=Kondor;41736696]how about doing the basics first like actually providing a decent internet service[/QUOTE]Comcast is decent as hell for me, just expensive. Don't know what you're talking about.

[QUOTE=Jad Hinto;41736830]Comcast is decent as hell for me, just expensive. Don't know what you're talking about.[/QUOTE] Yeah, it's just really where you live like Comcast has been great to me for the most part.

The problem in my area is that it is a choice between DSL and Comcast... if you want anything north of 20 mbit/s in my neighborhood your only choice is to use them. All DSL plans are also limited to 900 kbit/s upload. Comcast did double our speeds a few weeks ago, to 55 mbit/s down 11 mbit/s up, so that was pretty nice. I would be interested to see how this sort of thing is implemented, Probably via DNS. To this day I have yet to hear any warnings from them regarding anything, and afaik they aren't enforcing bandwidth restrictions either currently.

I've never had dealings with Comcast, but God help anybody who is under Charter's oppressive heel. Those unscrupulous fucks have a monopoly in my area, and they're well aware of it. They will literally steal from you, charging you for products and services you don't have and didn't order, just because the know you haven't got any other choice. The only time I have [I]ever[/I] gotten a billing issue resolved under them (I found out that I had been charged for a year of their cable television package. I don't own a TV) was when I took it to the Better Business Bureau.

I would be much more worried about the deep packet inspection and thus privacy intrusion this new system would have. Your ISP will essentially track anything you download using the bittorrent protocol. Not that this matters anyway with the whole NSA scandal and all.

[QUOTE=POLOPOZOZO;41736792]Netflix has a long way to go honestly, I took a month trial and after a while it started feeling like I was walking through an old Blockbuster, it's not cool that movies just disappear.[/QUOTE] It probably won't grow that much because the holders to the rights of content wanna charge out the ass for anything good and people went ape shit when Netflix tried to raise its fee.

They'll never get it. All the DRM and "anti-piracy" measures in the world won't do shit. People will STILL pirate no matter what. It sounds fucked up, but these companies need to deal with it and accept it.

[QUOTE=Saxon;41737347]It probably won't grow that much because the holders to the rights of content wanna charge out the ass for anything good and [U][B]people went ape shit when Netflix tried to raise its fee[/B][/U].[/QUOTE] As they should. Taking it in the ass is how we allowed the film and music industry to have the bullshit levels of power they do in legal circles. Netflix should have known better, a person will only pay so much for convenience, once you cross the threshold they will leave for the better alternative. Services like Netflix already have the odds stacked against them because their primary competition (piracy) is free. They thought they had some kind of good-will and leverage with their customers based on an inflated sense of self-worth; they didn't and now they're losing ground. Compete or die, welcome to the market.

Oh, I thought they were going to move to 5 strikes.

Would a 3rd party Malware software not block issues like these? Seems pretty petty, anyway.

[QUOTE=Kondor;41736696]how about doing the basics first like actually providing a decent internet service[/QUOTE] Comcast in my area is wonderful. I've had the service for over a year and there's never even been an internet outage at my house. I also download at higher than my provisioned rates

[QUOTE=maurits150;41737308]I would be much more worried about the deep packet inspection and thus privacy intrusion this new system would have. Your ISP will essentially track anything you download using the bittorrent protocol. Not that this matters anyway with the whole NSA scandal and all.[/QUOTE] Protocol encryption or the equivalent option in your torrent client will block them from seeing exactly what you are sending/recieving through the bittorrent protocol. They will know you are torrenting, but not what, which basically defeats this countermeasure as most clients have it on by default. The only way they could see what you are doing at this point is sniffing your HTTP traffic, which raises even more questions, never mind this seems to imply they can arbitrarily execute javascript or something to push a popup to you whenever the system wants. Anyways, copyright enforcement seems to be highly dependent on your local office/datacenter. In all the years I had Comcast when I was still living in the mainland I never once got letters from them about the probably terabytes of stuff I've torrented in the past decade or so.

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;41736754]This is honestly the biggest factor in fighting against piracy. Dumb legislation and arbitrary junk like that won't do much at all, because it's still convenient, easy, and relatively safe to pirate stuff. If you don't want people to download your movies, music, or shows, then give the consumers a way that's just as (or more) convenient for them to access that material, and with value that they can't refuse. Things like Netflix are a good example of how we should adapt our distribution models. I would gladly pay cable prices for Netflix, of fifty to sixty bucks a month, if I had unlimited access to a library that actually included the latest episodes of currently airing shows and new movie releases, rather than just an odd smattering of hit-or-miss content. However, I'm extremely unlikely to go drop twenty dollars for a DVD that I may only watch once or twice before letting it gather dust on my shelf. The old models of content distribution just can't keep up with want people want these days.[/QUOTE] Between Amazon, iTunes and YouTube rentals I've never felt it necessary to pirate a movie I want to watch. Not to mention you can get used DVDs and Blu Rays on Amazon and eBay for really cheap. People just feel entitled or don't care, that's all this comes down to.

[QUOTE=Jad Hinto;41736830]Comcast is decent as hell for me, just expensive. Don't know what you're talking about.[/QUOTE] 250gb cap and very inconsistent internet speeds (sometimes really slow, sometimes really fast)

[QUOTE=Tobba;41736728]I'd be more concerned that they can magically execute arbitary code [editline]6th August 2013[/editline] Unless they push it into webpages, which they shouldent do because that breaks a LOT of shit and causes problems with SSL[/QUOTE] And is illegal in some places

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;41736754]This is honestly the biggest factor in fighting against piracy. Dumb legislation and arbitrary junk like that won't do much at all, because it's still convenient, easy, and relatively safe to pirate stuff. If you don't want people to download your movies, music, or shows, then give the consumers a way that's just as (or more) convenient for them to access that material, and with value that they can't refuse. Things like Netflix are a good example of how we should adapt our distribution models. I would gladly pay cable prices for Netflix, of fifty to sixty bucks a month, if I had unlimited access to a library that actually included the latest episodes of currently airing shows and new movie releases, rather than just an odd smattering of hit-or-miss content. However, I'm extremely unlikely to go drop twenty dollars for a DVD that I may only watch once or twice before letting it gather dust on my shelf. The old models of content distribution just can't keep up with want people want these days.[/QUOTE] The problem is you can create as many new an innovative distribution services as you want, but the studios are still stuck in the stone age. I'm getting close to cancelling Netflix because they keep deleting shit over contract disputes with the content providers. I was so excited to see Season 5 of Fringe up on Netflix last week, watched a few episodes, then all the new episodes were deleted. I got an e-mail a few hours later saying they pulled it because of issues with the contract. I wanted to watch The Twilight Zone. When I first signed up for Netflix they had every season except #3 due to contract disputes. Okay, no biggie. Went to watch it today and they removed three whole seasons due to the same contract disputes. Now they only have 40% of the series up.

I'm okay with Fairpoint. Yeah, it is slower than most, but I expect that living out in the sticks. But, other then that, they're struggling enough for customers that they can't afford making people angry by capping or throttling, and they look the other way whenever it comes to piracy. [editline]6th August 2013[/editline] of course it is also fucking way too expensive but it is either this or dial up and i'm not going back to dial up

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;41737275]I've never had dealings with Comcast, but God help anybody who is under Charter's oppressive heel. Those unscrupulous fucks have a monopoly in my area, and they're well aware of it. They will literally steal from you, charging you for products and services you don't have and didn't order, just because the know you haven't got any other choice. The only time I have [I]ever[/I] gotten a billing issue resolved under them (I found out that I had been charged for a year of their cable television package. I don't own a TV) was when I took it to the Better Business Bureau.[/QUOTE] Wait a second, how in the fuck can they get away with that shit? Honestly, i though AT&T having a monopoly in my area was bad, that's fucking criminal there. All i deal with is a data limit, slow speeds and a shitty modem that would cost too much to replace. I'm just hoping some good Fiber Optic based service can activate in our town, it's pretty bad when the local jail has faster internet than most of the country. I've been seeing some signs on the streets near the more residential area in this town, and i hope to fuck that it isn't going to be owned by Charter or Comcast.

my isp recently got bought out by comcast and it went from a good willed local sort of operation where i once literally got a call from them saying i can't download games on torrent sites the day after they come out (unless i install peerblocker) or else they'd have to start counting strikes against me to comcasts utter buttfuckery where they have so far lowered the quality of all of our services and also raised the price slowly since taking ownership by a few dollars a month and totally destroyed the bundling deals that made this isp reasonable before not to mention, the people who worked at our isp pre-buyout were basically all it professionals and could actually do their fucking jobs. (problem's on our end? i'll fix that for you right now. no mentally challenged customer support people angrily reciting that i probably just need to restart my router and that if that doesn't fix it i can have their manager call me tomorrow) these days the entire company seems to be a fucking call center with their only hiring requirement being a ged.

It shouldn't be the ISP's job to fight piracy. Instead the focus should be creating accessible, affordable, and reliable internet. Until then they can get off their high horse, they charge ridiculous rates for subpar internet. A lot of places get locked in to this monopoly due lack of ISPs so the competition can do what they want. Let "hollywood" and their distributors deal with piracy. Once they stop pushing out junk and stop trying to sell shit at retarded prices people will start buying products.

[QUOTE]Obviously, giving people accessible, affordable alternatives to illegal downloading will reduce infringement[/QUOTE] This sounds like a good idea but I'd be worried if my ISP was inspecting everything I download and displayed pop-ups on my computer.