Source: C|Net
By: Greg Sandoval

All Cathi "Cat" Paradiso knew for sure, as she learned that her Web access was being shut off, was that she was losing her struggle to stay calm.

To Paradiso, the customer-service representative from Qwest Communications on the phone with her could have been speaking Slovenian for all the sense she made. Paradiso understood only snatches of what the woman said: her Internet service was suspended... Hollywood studios accused her of copyright violations... she illegally downloaded 18 films and TV shows..."Zombieland," "Harry Potter," "South Park..."

Paradiso, a technical recruiter who works out of her home near Pueblo, Colo., would eventually be cleared. Last week, Qwest had a technician investigate--after CNET began making inquiries--and he discovered that her network had been compromised, according to Monica Martinez, a Qwest spokeswoman. So Paradiso is off the hook, but she wants to know what would have happened had she not made such a stink. There was no independent third party to hear her complaint. There was no one to advocate for her.

If ISPs are to become copyright cops, a role that companies such as Comcast, Verizon, Cox, and others appear to be warming up to at the request of the entertainment sector, then what Paradiso's case suggests is that there's a need for better safeguards to prevent innocent people from being wrongly accused and cut off from the Web.

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Last post made by: zerpotod@yahoo.com on Feb 1 2010, 09:30 AM

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
By: Richard Esguerra

Remember what put the debate over net neutrality into high gear? In 2007, EFF and the Associated Press confirmed suspicions that Comcast was clandestinely blocking BitTorrent traffic. It was one of the first clear demonstrations that ISPs are technologically capable of interfering with your Internet connection, and that they may not even tell you about it. After receiving numerous complaints, the FCC in 2008 stepped in and threw the book at Comcast, requiring them to stop blocking BitTorrent. The Comcast-BitTorrent experience put net neutrality at the top of the FCC agenda.

Yet now that the FCC has formally issued draft net neutrality regulations, they have a huge copyright loophole in them — a loophole that would theoretically permit Comcast to block BitTorrent just like it did in 2007 — simply by claiming that it was "reasonable network management" intended to "prevent the unlawful transfer of content."

You heard that right — under these conditions, the new proposed net neutrality regulations would allow the same practices that net neutrality was first invoked to prevent, even if these ISP practices end up inflicting collateral damage on perfectly lawful content and activities.

When we saw the loophole, we had to ask ourselves, "Is this real net neutrality?" And the answer was simply, "No." The entertainment industry is already pressuring ISPs to become copyright cops. Carving a copyright loophole in net neutrality would leave your lawful activities at the mercy of overbroad copyright filtering schemes, and we already have plenty of experience with copyright enforcers targeting legitimate users by mistake, carelessness, or design.

If net neutrality regulations are to be taken seriously at all, then the loophole must be closed.

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Last post made by: Roadblock on Jan 31 2010, 12:52 AM

Source: Wired
By: David Kravets

Updated at 2:03 p.m. PST to include quotes from RIAA, music industry sources, and Jammie Thomas-Rasset's attorney.

A U.S. district court has dramatically slashed the amount of money a Minnesota woman must pay in damages for illegally sharing music online.

After a jury last year found Jammie Thomas-Rasset liable for $1.9 million in damages, a judge says that's too much.
(Credit: Jammie Thomas-Rasset)

Last June, a federal jury in Minnesota found Jammie Thomas-Rasset liable for willful copyright infringement and ordered her to pay nearly $2 million. Michael Davis, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, chopped the amount to $54,000, or $2,250 per song.

"The need for deterrence cannot justify a $2 million verdict for stealing and illegally distributing 24 songs for the sole purpose of obtaining free music," wrote Davis.

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Last post made by: poisomike87 on Jan 26 2010, 01:18 AM

Source: TorrentFreak

Being posted overseas in the military without the companionship of friends or family is hard enough, but being separated from entertainment makes things even harder. After letters written to the RIAA, MPAA and media outlets fell on deaf ears, an insider at a US base has revealed that a campaign is underway to download as much as possible.

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