UK “MP3 Police” Evidence Unchallenged, Not For Public Consumption
Written by enigmax on July 26, 2008This week, ISPs agreed to work with the BPI to reduce file-sharing in the UK. When someone gets ‘caught’ the ISPs will send out a warning, 100% based on music industry provided ‘evidence’. Not even the ISPs know if the claims of the BPI are true, so the evidence is totally unchallenged, a perfect position for the music industry.
On Thursday, every type of media outlet in the UK - newspapers, Internet, radio shows, TV and teletext all bristled with the same news. Six major ISPs had agreed to start sending out warning letters to alleged file-sharers after the government ordered action to decrease online piracy.
Most people seem to be interested in what happens after a letter is received, but who decides who gets a letter in the first place? Well, that’s the self-appointed job of the BPI (the British Phonographic Industry), a completely commercial organization set up to serve the interests of the music business and they don’t want you to know (in any detail) how their file-sharing tracking systems work. The same systems would’ve been used should they have been successful in their demands for “3 strikes and you’re out” yet there is zero transparency - everyone is supposed to blindly accept what they say as truth and that simply can’t be healthy.
In recent comments, a Carphone Warehouse spokesman further indicated that it is expected to take action against its customers based purely on the ‘evidence’ provided by the BPI. “What we have agreed to do is to write to our customers and advise them there’s been an alleged infringement,” he said. “We’re very clear that we don’t know if that’s the case or not, we’ve just been told there has been and we want to advise them of that.”
So in a nutshell, the BPI provide all the ‘evidence’, and the ISPs have to blindly believe it and take action against their own customers. To think that a commercial organization like the BPI is allowed to provide its own unchallenged allegations in such a completely non-transparent manner is the real outrage in all of this. If the BPI is to be trusted with such power, it has to be held accountable. If it is to remain credible in its role as the “UK MP3 Police” its systems must be opened up to public scrutiny. Once they are proved to be accurate by a panel of independent experts, then all well and good, but the fact remains that the BPI only give a vague indication of how they operate and have no intentions of elaborating.
Matt Philips, Director of Communications at the BPI refused to tell TorrentFreak how they gather their evidence, so any right-minded individual with an interest in this issue might find themselves asking: “What exactly are they afraid of?”
Clearly, it should be possible from their detailed records for an ISP to confirm or deny the technical evidence provided by the BPI. However, they aren’t in a position to do this since it would be a massive breach of customer privacy. Instead, the word of the BPI is taken at face value.
In a response, some Swedish ISPs have voiced their opinions too. “We don’t want to act like police and feel that a system similar to that in the UK is a deep invasion of privacy,” said Annika Kristersson of Tele2, adding: “It would entail us having to spy on our customers.”
Everyone makes mistakes and no system is flawless so it’s essential to have a verification process before throwing accusations around. Until then, take comfort in knowing that the file-sharing equivalent of home-made, untested, uncalibrated police speed cameras of unknown design and ability are operated by people with a vested interest and are passing judgment on you, your children and potentially (should the BPI get its way) your whole Internet future. A little transparency to inspire confidence isn’t too much to ask.
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102 Responses
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gettin more and more depressed with the state of things here in the uk…
It will amaze me again and again.
So whats next? Will they allow industry thugs to “prevent” people from sharing files by physically attacking/abducting them? Will they some day propose a “final solution” of the “pirate question”?
Enforcement of the “intellectual property” on private communication is nazi censorship shit. They maybe can mass censor the internet but they wont prevent us from freely communicationg and exchanging information. Disgusting nazi fuckers.
this is crazy, seriously, just kill the bastards :)
It appears they either have to accept the BPI’s claims and send warning letters out on that evidence, or ISPs snoop on our connections and get solid evidence. The 2nd one is absolutely not acceptable, though it feels like it’s going that way. Providing charges are not given based on BPI’s evidence then they can send as many letters as they like, they can stick it.
The greediness and narrow-minded corpateness of institutions like the BPI should not be as acceptable as they are, but due to propaganda and the way we are taught to think, it leaves little hope of genuine change, even if it is wrong. As for the government, they seem to cause more problems than they solve.
Has anyone tried an entanet reseller?
we should all start sending letters to Matt Philips, Director of Communications at the BPI, saying we have proof he is a c***…
@6 loooooooooooooooooool, agreed, this guy seems like one of the commanding assholes.
We all know how they track you, probably the same as MPAA.
If they had anything revolutionary half the country would be in prison including famous people and politicians themselves (everyone downloads imo rofl)
God it must suck to be British. First the food and now this… Where ever will it end?
Unethical and almost criminal in itself, atleast imorral to listnen and trust evidence from a civil industry concerning your own customers.
Those ISPs will loose alot of customers.. And other ISPs with their integrity and common sence left will gain quite a few :)
Theres right and theres wrong, Google giving Microsoft user information who uploaded Bill Gates pie in face movies to Youtube so Microsoft could terminate their Windows would be wrong, exactly as this is..
There is good in this though, customers have a chance to fight it and say NO by leaving for other ISPs or taking it to court etc.
I expect there to be hell in UK, if its not oh well then they dont care about their own rights as customers and its a lost cause in that country..
“Providing charges are not given based on BPI’s evidence then they can send as many letters as they like, they can stick it.”
Spot on mate. If they want to keep the RM in business that’s up to them, save me some cash on bogroll lol. Funny thing is it’s only since the news broke that i’ve actually downloaded any music, haven’t done so for years prior to that……
If you read the court transcripts of either the Grokster or Kazaa case, that particular evidence gathering process is explained. I think it was a rep from MediaSentry in both cases who detailed their process.
Of course gathering evidence for a lawsuit would need be much more stringently verified than the process of making simple infringement claims. (as in mass-harvesting IP addresses from trackers and emailing the cooresponding ISPs using automated software.)
It’s well known that people using no-upload P2P software or connecting from a university that blocks P2P uploads will still get infringement notices. A connection is all that counts.
Emule is known for its long download queues that can make downloaders wait for hours or days before getting the first byte of the file, causing many impatient users give up in the process.
The copyright cops no doubt love that situation, because those long, stagnant emule queues give them plenty of time to harvest IP addresses to make infringement claims against people who neither uploaded nor downloaded anything.
The real criminal here isn’t the BPI (who are basically expected to get away with whatever they can) nor the ISP (who, if given their choice, probably wouldn’t send warnings at all), but the dumbass politician(s) pressuring the ISPs into doing this. It’s the politicians like John McCain, who are so technologically challenged that can’t even check their own email. When BPI tells them their file-sharing system is error-free, they go “oh, sure, okay,” instead of “prove it.”
Bad boys bad boys
Watcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do
When they come for you
Bad boys, bad boys
Watcha gonna do, watcha gonna do
When they come for you
When you were eight
And you had bad traits
You go to school and you learn the golden rule
So why are you acting like a bloody fool
If you get hot then you must get cool
Bad boys, bad boys
Watcha gonna do whatcha gonna do
When they come for you
Bad boys, bad boys
Watcha gonna do whatcha gonna do
When they come for you
You chuck it on that one
You chuck it on this one
You chuck it on you mother and
You chuck it on you father
You chuck it on you brother and
You chuck it on you sister
You chuck it on that one and you chuck it on me
Nobody naw give you no break
Police naw give you no break
That old Soldier naw give you no break
Not even your children naw give you no break
This is exactly what Cox does to me, they get a infringement notice, then give me a “strike”. Three strikes and you are out, this is exactly what people are saying would be like the worst thing ever and they already do it right here in the U.S. of A
in the uk a person is SUPPOSED to be innocent until proven guilty. if the BPI are allowed to get away with this, then not only are they controlling the internet but also re-writting the uk laws. shame fergal sharkey cant get himself a proper job where he has to save and provide for his reitrement instead of relying on spreading lies and milking other real artists hard earned cash. he is an absolute useless, waste of space. the news article broadcast a few days ago was completely one sided and should not have been allowed to be publically announced without the other side of the argument being stated as well. also, why should an isp be put in the position of stopping the bpi from supposedly losing money, when it is going to cost the isp itself money through lost customers? use some common sense, sharkey. make music accessible to all at a fair price. that alone will reduce the so-called internet theft. if you insist of pursuing file sharers, at least have the decency to provide evidence along with the accusations. if i was to accuse someone of something they hadn’t done, i would be in court for slander and defamation of character. hope the bpi are perpared for when that happens.
The funny thing is, I use country based block lists (to block out the UK) but I’m still getting cease and desist letters from my UK isp.
So they are using companies outside the UK to decide what is and isn’t allowed in the UK ?!?! Why ISPs listen to these foreign insterests is beyond me.
Can the BPI only go after people downloading BPI affiliated music, or can they go after any kind of piracy?
I have been very, very curious since this story broke what the definition of an illegal act would be that would cause one of the three strikes. Now, I know! There is no legal definition. So now we know there is no known definition, just the honor system that the alleged whatever-you-did is true, and that this toothless this-is-not-a-law has no penalties. Reminds me when a debt collector started calling me non-stop last year, harassing me. I had no debts, but the collector was just trolling to see who would get scared, call back, and confess, I guess. They figure that the odds were in favor of calling any random number and getting someone with outstanding debts, so why not go for it? If you blanket the UK with these letters, someone will be doing something they think is illegal and stop doing it.
Troc Ster: If you block out the UK, how can you connect to you ISP?
@3 muuhgnu:
Please STFU. Your histrionics discredit those of us who can make logical arguments against this blatant abuse of power.
Corporations are greedy and unprincipled, but comparing them to Hitler just makes you look stupid.
@16 Troc Ster:
Unfortunately, all they have to do is pull out the “international copyright law” card. XP
They’re not Interpol, so they have no jurisdiction. But then again, they’re not ANY form of accredited police organization - and that hasn’t stopped them yet.
Speaking of spying, any remote IP sniffing tools out there where I can spy on the BPI traffic. See how they like it.
pink panther comments:
problem is as already been seen, if a person in UK is accused, doesn’t appear in court, that person is automatically found guilty and fined a horrendous amount. if a person goes to court, as the BPI gets away with not having to prove a person is guilty, the accused person has to prove he/she is not guilty, the fundamentals of UK law are now being totally dismissed. also, with being allowed to NOT produce evidence of how the information has been gathered to accuse a person and whether that information is 100% accurate, a person is automatically assumed to be guilty. the judges in the cases so far have no idea about file sharing, nor do they want to know. the ‘you have been accused, so you must be guilty’ is going back to the 16 century. the side with money will always win, simply because an ordinary person cant afford to hire a costly defence solicitor. the BPI etc rely on that more than anything else. bastards!!!
first, this is not law, it is an agreement between the media and isp companies under threat from the government that if they dont regulate themselves then the government will regulate for them
first part II, the problem is the BPI has been bitching to the government about illegal downloads and the ISP’s have been saying not our problem. ironically, the BPI is trying this 3 strikes route because they do not want the government to make laws. the european parliament has already voted not to criminalise petty filesharing and i heard the UK government minister responsible saying if they dont sort themselves out then the government will be forced to fix “broken and inoperable copyright” laws. the government will follow the directives of the european parliament, it is not bad news for filesharers
second, if you are falsely accused then you have full recourse to the law to seek remedy for the wrong done against you. somebody should co-ordinate and collect a bunch of people who have been wrongly accused and start a legal case against the BPI and the ISP. the court process will discover all about the methods employed by the BPI and will decide between right and wrong
second part II, the BPI do not want a court challenge over the legality of their operation because they will lose. but they think it will never happen because they characterise filesharers as low life ignorant thieves without the nonce to organise. the BPI are in for a big shock
enigmax great article dude ;-D
who is going to organise the campaign against?
http://www.h33t.com where filesharing is washing feet
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