Monday, June 25, 2012

The "Three Strikes and your out" principle

This principle as been one that the architects of those drafting rules to control copyright and provide protection against violations.

The concept of the 3-strike principle is that you will have your access to the Internet blocked and/or face prosecution if you are caught participating in P2P downloading copyright protected material more than 3 times.

I have followed the progress of these protections for a number of years. As far as I know there are few jurisdictions that actually have legislation in place that actually enforce this. Many nations have discussed it, including the US and Canada but only some European nations, namely France and some others, have laws in place and are actively enforcing them.

I have reservations on how such provisions can be implemented. Especially in the UK as it is my understanding that there is actually competition in this market space. Unlike here in Canada where often there is only a limited choice of ISP.  I presume that a "Violators List" will also include not only past infractions but also those with other ISPs.

Banning an individual from Internet Access

Now this is a concept in itself! Shutting down a connection through an ISP is only a very small part of this. Also it is very naive in it's approach - what about those who have Internet presence from within the Internet? The Technology Muse is a case in point here, how is banning the individual who is the Muse from a point of entry going to stop the existence?

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