ISP's spy on users to accuse them of piracy

This week, many of America's major ISP's are joining a new program called the Copyright Alert System launched by the "entertainment" industry to harass users they accuse of piracy.

Under the Copyright Alert System, if an ISP believes a user is downloading or uploading copyrighted music or movies without authorization, the ISP will slow their connection or redirect all their traffic until they agree to read propaganda materials about copyright law. Folks who have been wrongly accused can appeal, but must pay $35 to do so. Now there's a new way for telcom companies to squeeze every last dime out of you, huh?

Even without scamming folks out of $35, this plan is illegal on at least a couple of fronts. Firstly, it violates 'Net neutrality regulations. Secondly, how does your ISP even know you're sharing files unless they're spying on your account? This is an open-and-shut case of illegal wiretapping. Period. Full stop. End of story. This is exactly like the phone company listening in on phone conversations (not like that hasn't been going on for decades).

If somebody is breaking the law over the Internet, authorities need a warrant to catch them. An ISP isn't allowed to just spy on you to see what websites you visit.

Contrary to the right-wing, greed-driven, McCarthyesque babblings of "entertainment" industry copyright sentinels, the biggest threat to copyrights isn't the average person who goes on YouTube and watches the music video for "Dancing In The City" after remembering how their parents confiscated their record of it when they were 6 years old and hid it on top of the kitchen cabinet, after which it was never seen again. The real threat to intellectual property is overseas organized crime rackets - which receive protection from governments. On the streets of China, counterfeiters hawk pirated Western music and movies in plain sight. American officials are reluctant to raise a peep about that, for fear of being accused of violating "free trade" policies.

Because libertea, don't ya know.

Considering the Copyright Alert System already involves ISP's breaking the law, why don't prosecutors crack down on ISP's that participate?

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/dpps/news/science_tech/internet-providers-begin-warning-of-illegal-downloads_8277991)