'Make VPN Detection Tools Mandatory to Fight Geo-Piracy' * TorrentFreak:
The United States is actively exploring options to update copyright law to bring it into line with the current online environment.
Most recently, the Copyright Office is looking into the option of making certain standard technical measures (STMs) mandatory for online platforms. This could include upload filters to block pirated content from being reuploaded.
[...] Most copyright holders are supportive of the idea. They feel that without proper incentives, some online services will fail to address the piracy problem. Opponents of the idea, meanwhile, point out that it may lead to all sorts of problems and may negatively affect free expression.
Much of the discussion thus far has focused on tools and technologies that detect and filter copyright-infringing content. However, this week we spotted another submission that promotes a different type of measure, which isn't necessarily less controversial.
In a letter to the Copyright Office, GeoComply CEO Anna Sainsbury suggests that VPN detection tools can play an important role as well.
"As the U.S. Copyright Office explores potential technologies and solutions to include as part of the Standard Technical Measures under section 512, we respectfully suggest the inclusion of accurate and effective VPN detection tools to ensure the full protection of copyrighted works."
VPN detection tools are already widely used by major streaming services. They include Netflix, which was one of the pioneers on this front. The goal of these tools is to prevent 'geo-piracy', which is carried out by people pretending to be in a location that differs from where they actually are.
[...] The fact that VPNs can also be used for legitimate purposes does not prevent platforms from banning them outright.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Barenflimski on Friday June 10 2022, @04:48PM (3 children)
Wasn't Netflix born out of the idea that if content was easy to get to, piracy would go down and people would pay?
Looks like the money creeps have fully taken over Gotta scrape every penny from the populace. Yes, that happened a long time ago, but....
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Friday June 10 2022, @05:57PM
The frog didn't jump when the water was lukewarm, let's up the heat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2022, @06:31AM (1 child)
Netflix blocks users using a VPN. So I gave up my Netflix account. There's lots of free sites that just work (tm). Crunchyroll is also good.
(Score: 1) by liar on Saturday June 11 2022, @05:20PM
My vpn for Android has a special location to use for Netflix called New York Radio City, which Netflix doesn't seem to be bothered by at all. Same vpn on my Windows 7 machine works well with Netflix when set to San Francisco as well. I spend half my year in Mexico City, so I'm glad of this.
Noli nothis permittere te terere.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Booga1 on Friday June 10 2022, @04:54PM (16 children)
Fighting copyright infringement is hard work, which is why you see this push to make website owners do it. Of course, this particular "solution" happens to be a product ready to be sold to, nay, legislatively forced upon everyone who dares accept user generated content.
It sure is amazing how corporations push the narrative of the global free market, but only for their benefit. As soon as the rest of us can do the same by having a virtual presence anywhere in the world, suddenly it's a problem.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 10 2022, @05:09PM (3 children)
I think what we really need to look into is fighting copy'right' expansion.
The corporations have lobbied to make copy'right' last about 100 years (retroactively extending it multiple times thanks to Disney), they made the penalty structure one sided (ie: the penalty for infringement far exceeds the penalties for false takedown requests), they made copy'right' opt out (you don't have to register or submit your work to be entered into the public domain once the protection period ends), the burden is placed on the accused to prove they aren't infringing (ie: the DMCA is written to encourage service providers like Youtube to remove content before allowing the accused to dispute the takedown), etc... and they're still looking to expand and extend it even more.
This is unacceptable. The problem is too much copy'right' infringing on our actual property rights.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 10 2022, @09:19PM (2 children)
That will require looking into the people that will be reelected in November. But with five dollar gas and other ripoffs, I doubt many people will be talking about copyright
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday June 11 2022, @06:16PM (1 child)
I don't expect sane legislation on this matter for a long time. They've fought natural abundance for 40 years, out of sheer greed, refusing to admit copyright is wrong and broken. I am dismayed that the walled garden approach has actually got a fair amount of traction. Copyright is fascist and controlling, and, sadly, some people like life that way.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday June 13 2022, @02:57PM
The original reason for copyright and patents was so that there was incentive for inventors and creators to do that. Make a good profit in the lifetimes and for the rest of society to benefit from that. Now, it's corporations leeching the system for all it's worth.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday June 10 2022, @06:07PM (5 children)
Maybe we will see a resurgence of user owned websites. Back in the 90s everyone had their own website (or so it seemed). Then geocities, livejournal, friendface took over that market segment... time to reboot!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 10 2022, @07:45PM (4 children)
Back then you could run home servers. That isn't allowed anymore.
(Score: 1) by rpnx on Friday June 10 2022, @08:36PM (3 children)
You can still run a server in your house. Just buy your own router.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 10 2022, @09:55PM (1 child)
It depends on your ISP, many won't
(Score: 2) by Lester on Saturday June 11 2022, @01:16PM
In addition, a domestic connection doesn't allow enough widthband to support a site with medium-low audience.
(Score: 1) by liar on Saturday June 11 2022, @07:14PM
Router or modem? Either way, doesn't everybody?
Noli nothis permittere te terere.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday June 10 2022, @06:12PM
... to continue the thought, federated web content. You own the server, you own the content, Livejournal/Tumblr/friendface/et al provide an API that promotes cross-linking (with some revenue stream from e.g. prepaid or advertising funded servers).
I always thought google, yahoo et al should team up against friendface with some mechanism like this. The sales pitch is that it is a federated service and you can move providers if you don't like this or that Evil brand. It seems a no-brainer.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 10 2022, @06:39PM (3 children)
I think you start the story rather late. Government never should have joined in the fight against piracy. Piracy is a civil matter, to be pursued and enforced by the copyright holders. That is, going to court should all be at the copyright holder's expense. It is not the duty of the federal or the state governments to protect the property of the rich. Especially so after the Supreme Court ruled that the police are not obligated to protect the common people.
The castes have already been separated by the willingness of the government to come to rich people's aid, but not the poor.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 10 2022, @07:04PM (1 child)
...ah, yes, ensuring the complainant must pay up-front is a sure-fire way to remove the bias toward the rich. Excellent plan, comrade, the vanguard approve your cunning strategy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 10 2022, @07:55PM
Are we to believe that a megacorp cannot outspend any one of us in a copyright lawsuit? No we are not that stupid. It is you who are one really stupid shill.
(Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Saturday June 11 2022, @09:54PM
Copyright isn't anything like private property at all but rather government imposed monopoly on certain kinds of business in favor of certain kinds of people.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 10 2022, @07:50PM
Corporations pay corrupt politicians to finance "fighting copyright infringement" to up their PRIVATE profits, out of TAXPAYERS pockets.
I very much doubt those corporations are paying even a tenth in taxes, of what they are siphoning off the society. That, not even counting the damage that the laws they bought and continue to buy, are doing to that same society.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 10 2022, @05:05PM
Welcome to our new P2P streaming overlords. Napster-schmapster, you ain't seen nuthin' yet.
Didn't these mouthbreathing chickenmolesters get the memo the first time? If you make it hard for people to get what they want, you create the incentive for them to work on workarounds. When you add the kind of social incentive that the zero-day crew thrive on, each and every one of them will be frantically trying to get the masturbatory bragging-rights involved in being The One who broke VPN detection system 3.12(June update). LimeWire, eDonkey, even peertube will be dwarfed by whatever comes next.
I'm kind of looking forward to watching the board of Disney bending over the back of a bespoke sectional sofa with a tastefully embroidered mouse ear motif, while a crowd of furries dressed like Goofy and Donald Duck take turns violating whichever orifice is most handy.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by turgid on Friday June 10 2022, @05:25PM (3 children)
Does this have implications for political dissidents living under or trapped under oppressive regimes?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Insightful) by NPC-131072 on Friday June 10 2022, @06:34PM
Those of us on the morally and intellectually superior left should push forward with a Disinformation Governance Board to prevent oppression of dissident ideas by punishing wrong-think.
(Score: -1, Troll) by LonesomeRhodes on Saturday June 11 2022, @08:04AM (1 child)
It certainly would be a help to janrinok, tracking down the latest aristarchus sockpuppet, and banning leftist ideas from SoylentNews. Oh, an preventing illegal stuff like copyright fringing, and fraudulent claims of doxxing.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday June 11 2022, @09:52AM
Which is what this account is. (Hint: we don't use hashes or IPs, your security is simply rubbish)
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Friday June 10 2022, @05:59PM
Seriously, IP holders, why do you hate it? Effin' commies and your territory protection.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MostCynical on Friday June 10 2022, @07:03PM (2 children)
Each of my current clients, and my contracting employer, all use VPNs (all with 2FA). I cannot access email, calendar, share drives, nor certain applications without being connected through the relevant VPN. How will a VPN detector differentiate between my multiple work VPNs and my the VPN I use personally?
Note, the VPN is required even when on-site at any of the workplaces, as they all have 'cloud based' infrastructure.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2022, @03:14AM
Probably only care about these vpn companies. So they have a map of known ip blocks that these vpns services use.
But there are also a few other tricks:
https://medium.com/@ValdikSS/detecting-vpn-and-its-configuration-and-proxy-users-on-the-server-side-1bcc59742413#.nmrtvttv2 [medium.com]
(Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Saturday June 11 2022, @10:00PM
They won't ban corporate firewalls obviously. They can't ban ssh either. Yet ssh can be used to make ad-hoc VPN too if you got access to a server in a different country. People with technical skills can't be stopped from engaging in any sort of "geo-piracy" at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 10 2022, @07:59PM (3 children)
This is a law of nature. Their nature.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Friday June 10 2022, @10:51PM (1 child)
"More Democrats in power == more copyright abuse"
Pathetic is is both money grubbing parties that do it. Sonny bonehead Bono before he pulled a George of the Jungle and hit the tree, thus eliminating himself from the gene pool, was responsible for the last "we have to save Mickey for the children" Copyright extension act. Though this time around it looks like the Repugnant Party is a little hostile to their cash cow buddies in business, who stand up for human rights, it just might get scaled back by the scumbags for a change.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 10 2022, @11:14PM
Human rights got COVID and died. The first and surest victim. Now we get a nice refreshing swim in all the shit released from their decomposing corpse.
"They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Seems like, just as soon as a generation that got this taught to them in fire and blood, goes away, the next generation hurries for a repeat lesson. And again, and again, and again. All that self-proclaimed sapience doing exactly nothing.
(Score: 2) by helel on Saturday June 11 2022, @11:34AM
Republicans sent Clinton the DMCA when he was president. Democrats sent Bush the copyright czar in turn. It's almost like giving special favors to the rich is a bipartisan issue.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2022, @01:29AM (1 child)
I had all the pirated shows of the world on streaming and I stopped watching. These days, not even for free. Congradulations, your shows are worth less than nothing.
But you know whate else? Why are we re-hashing all the old 90s-2010s draconian measures and why is nobody pushing back this time?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2022, @06:35AM
We are pushing back. I cancelled all the subscription services for TV. If they want us to be criminals then criminals we shall be.