Apparently, Verizon is soon going to roll out a program where they will send suspected music "pirates", warning letters "on behalf of the RIAA". The story is available on CNET, I believe I can't link to it on here.
Anyone else troubled by the fact that Verizon is going to be squandering the money we pay them for Fios service to do the bidding of a trade organization? Why can't the RIAA do anything for themselves? Why does Verizon feel like they have an obligation to help the RIAA? How does this benefit subscribers at all?
I don't even download music these days besides purchased music from Amazon. Its just troubling to me that instead of upgrading service, Verizon is choosing to blow hundreds of thousands of dollars on doing the RIAA's dirty work. If anyone agrees, I would invite you to voice your discontent to Verizon.
I received one of those earlier in the year. I suspended all downloading activity's due to it. I don't want to be one of the people they make an example of.
😛
I thought it was crappy too
CNET just added that they are also doing the dirty work of NBC Universal. Again, I don't even obtain content "illegally", but I find it troubling that my ISP is using resources to do this type of work with my monthly fee, that will certainly get larger before it ever goes down in price.
Actually Verizon has been doing this for years. But its not Verizon that will report you. Its actually the other way around.
The RIAA notifies Verizon of suspected pirating going on when they find a Verizon IP address being used for the suspected activity. Verizon will then send a notice to the customer in question, letting them know that the RIAA suspects them. However, Verizon will not provide the customers info to the RIAA without a subpoena. Verizon is just taking the step to warn the customer before it becomes a problem for them. Verizon had a big post about it last year. I'll see if I can find it and post it later.
For those that are interested, I got an article sent to me in regards to this issue. This may help make it clear as to what is happening. At the end it says that the person writing the article wants to get copies, unfortunately I didnt get the info on where to send that info. But here is what I have....
Verizon Working With RIAA On New Warning Letters; New letter notification campaign began yesterday
Karl Bode
461 words
Fri Nov 13, 12:00 AM ET
BroadbandReports.com
Verizon already forwards copyright notices to customers who are tagged by the entertainment industry's intelligence-gathering organizations, but they don't disclose the customer who was actually using the IP address at the time the infringement occurred. In a move that signals a ramp-up in their cooperation with the entertainment industry, CNET cites inside sources at Verizon who say the company is about to launch a new letter notification campaign in cooperation with the RIAA.
The new campaign is a "test" according to the source, and doesn't include references to account termination:
The letter the RIAA will send to Verizon, and will likely be forwarded to customers, is similar to those issued in the past by other ISPs, such as AT&T, Comcast, and Cox Communications. The RIAA's letter has typically notified customers that they have been accused of illegally sharing songs and informed them that such activity is illegal. In the letter, the user is advised to delete the content they distribute. It's important to note that not included in the letter are threats of service termination or interruptions, or any talk of a "graduated response." That's the term the RIAA uses to describe a deterrent program whereby an ISP gradually ratchets up penalties or warnings to suspected file sharers.
While the entertainment industry would like to see ISPs boot heavy P2P users from their networks (ignoring the fact these are potential customers), ISPs don't want the extra cost of playing content babysitter. Companies like AT&T and Verizon have instead suggested ramping up the user notification process. Carriers like citing a 2008 UK study that claims 72% of P2P users would stop with just a warning, or a similar 2009 study that puts that number closer to 64%. But other studies have suggested that users will, as they have for the better part of a decade, continue to ignore these warnings unless they come with the threat of disconnection.
Disconnecting users for P2P use however brings up a wide variety of problems however, including who independently confirms there's no false positives, who pays for the technology, and who tracks offenders across ISPs. There's also questions concerning the overall reliability of the DMCA notification process -- as well as fairness questions in terms of smaller ISPs being unable to shoulder the added support and hardware costs. If that's not enough to chew on, imagine setting this expensive, "graduated response" initiative up with government involvement, only to see users skirt around the restrictions by using encryption.
If you're a Verizon user who receives one of these alerts please send us a copy, as it would be nice to see how they vary from the letters Verizon is already sending to its customers who engage in the trading of copyrighted film and TV programs.
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