Congress told that Internet data caps will discourage piracy - 0 views
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While usage-based billing and data caps are often talked about in terms of their ability to curb congestion, it's rarely suggested that making Internet access more expensive is a positive move for the content industries. But Castro has a whole host of such suggestions, drawn largely verbatim from his 2009 report (PDF) on the subject.
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Should the US government actually fund antipiracy research? Sure. Should the US government “enlist” Internet providers to block entire websites? Sure. Should copyright holders suggest to the government which sites should go on the blocklist? Sure. Should ad networks and payment processors be forced to cut ties to such sites, even if those sites are legal in the countries where they operate? Sure.
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Castro's original 2009 paper goes further, suggesting that deep packet inspection (DPI) be routinely deployed by ISPs in order to scan subscriber traffic for potential copyright infringements. Sound like wiretapping? Yes, though Castro has a solution if courts do crack down on the practice: "the law should be changed." After all, "piracy mitigation with DPI deals with a set of issues virtually identical to the largely noncontroversial question of virus detection and mitigation."
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Internet data caps aren't just good at stopping congestion; they can also be useful tools for curtailing piracy. That was one of the points made by Daniel Castro, an analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) think tank in Washington DC. Castro testified (PDF) yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee about the problem of "parasite" websites, saying that usage-based billing and monthly data caps were both good ways to discourage piracy, and that the government shouldn't do anything to stand in their way. The government should allow "pricing structures and usage caps that discourage online piracy," he wrote, which comes pretty close to suggesting that heavy data use implies piracy and should be limited.