Things are beginning to spiral out of control in the file-sharing world. ISPs are being sued by the entertainment industry, while seemingly giving up on suing individuals. Some college students are still under the gun, however not nearly enough are facing prosecution to make any real difference.

The latest insanity is from Ireland, where the IFPI, who just barely represents the 4 major music labels internationally, has decided it's in the best interest of everyone to sue the ISP Eircom. Why Eircom? Apparently Eircom, according to the IFPI, isn't doing enough to prevent piracy on their network. Additionally, the IFPI charges that Eircom is 'making available' pirated content.

But realistically, the IFPI, or any industry trade group for that matter, is simply running out of people to sue. Suing P2P developers doesn't work, suing individual file-sharers doesn't work, so the only ones left are the ISPs. The ISPs, such as Eircom, have been reluctant to install anti-piracy filters for the simple reason that they won't work in the long run. Even if it was possible to intercept a transmission between two peers, discover it was pirated material, and block the transmission, by the time such an endeavor rolled out, file-sharing technology would already be on the next plane. Is it possible to filter pirated content? Maybe for a short time. However file-sharing technology is constantly moving forward, and at a faster pace than filtering technology.

On the other side of the pond, file-sharers in the United States are faring somewhat better. With the exception of AT&T, ISPs in the US have been generally reluctant to filter unauthorized material, largely for the reasons in the previous paragraphs. Comcast hasn't exactly filtered content, yet they are "delaying" BitTorrent uploads. Although ultimately the upload goes through, the delaying tactic is visually not much different to the end user who expects immediate results.

Now, Comcast feels their argument equates to reasonable bandwidth management, and that very well may be the case, however the FCC isn't too happy that Comcast wasn't initially transparent about their policy.

"A hallmark of what should be seen as a reasonable business practice is certainly whether or not the people engaging in that practice are willing to describe it publicly," the Wall Street Journal quoted FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

As it seems, the FCC isn't too happy with Comcast and the public is furious. What are the ramifications of Kevin Martin's statement? Many are hoping for a realistic policy supporting net neutrality, and not just a simple fine.

This story is filed in these Slyck News categories
File-Sharing/P2P Related :: Other

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