What Is Happening to Stop Online Intellectual Property Theft?
There is a world wide conversation going on right now concerning intellectual property theft. It involves governments, the internet service providers ("ISP"s), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and their foreign counterparts and many other interested parties.
Generally, these conversations involve the options available to stop the wholesale theft of intellectual property. Options under discussion are:
- "3 Strikes" (France has enacted this. UK considering.)
- Choruss (Blanket College Campus Music Licenses - February 26, 2009)
- IP Blocking (i.e., internet address blocking by ISPs.
- Content Filtering by ISPs to detect and block the transmission of intellectual property by individuals or entities that are doing so illegally.
Some Specific Company Solution Provides
There are major concerns with both methods, but the good news is that (1) methods exist to halt online intellectual property theft and (2) they are currently in use to solve it and other problems.1 IP blocking (also called "blacklisting") and content filtering are not illegal or unprecedented in use, though so far, they are controversial with regard to being used to stop online piracy. However, Italy's Supreme Court ruled Dec. 2009 that…
"ISPs can be forced to block BitTorrent sites, even if they are not hosted in Italy or operated by Italian citizens2."
So, the fight is on and this ruling is an important milestone.
Sources
- What is BitTorrent? What is "Traffic Shaping?
- BitTorrent Protocol Encryption
- ISPs Throttling BitTorrent
- BitTorrent Terminology Definitions
- Wikipedia Tracker Page
- Top Trackers
- What is an "Announce URL" (Note: This piece is written to BitTorrent sites, so when they say "your tracker," they mean the tracker used by the BitTorrent site.)
- Top Ten BitTorrent Sites
- What's Getting Ripped Off the Most
- "Dynamic Swarm Management for Improved BitTorrent Performance"
- "BitTorrent vs Usenet"
