Google Fiber Sends Automated Piracy ‘Fines’ to Subscribers

[tangra]

Another day, another Google automatic system does something funny.

 

 

image source: tumblr

 

 

Google Fiber is forwarding copyright infringement notices to its subscribers including controversial and automated piracy fines. Through these notices, rightsholders demand settlements of up to hundreds of dollars. Google's decision to forward these emails is surprising, as the company generally has a good track record of protecting consumer interests.

 

What happens is that by doing so, subscribers are directly targeted with "settlements" fees.

 

 

Instead of merely alerting subscribers that their connections have been used to share copyright infringing material, these notices serve as automated fines, offering subscribers settlements ranging from $20 to $300.

 

The scheme uses the standard DMCA takedown process which means that the copyright holder doesn’t have to go to court or even know who the recipient is. In fact, the affected subscriber is often not the person who shared the pirated file.

 

 

Facing such threatening language many subscribers are inclined to pay up, which led some to accuse the senders of harassment and abuse. In addition, several legal experts have spoken out against this use of the DMCA takedown process.

 

Mitch Stoltz, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) previously told us that Internet providers should carefully review what they’re forwarding to their users. Under U.S. law they are not required to forward DMCA notices and forwarding these automated fines may not be in the best interest of consumers.

 

“In the U.S., ISPs don’t have any legal obligation to forward infringement notices in their entirety. An ISP that cares about protecting its customers from abuse should strip out demands for money before forwarding infringement notices. Many do this,” Stoltz said.

 

Source: http://torrentfreak.com/google-fiber-sends-automated-piracy-fines-to-subscribers-150520/

 

Ugh... piracy is a problem in many cases, but forwarding DMCA take downs directly to customers kind of violates the privacy that you trust into your ISP. Its funny tho, it seams that using google automatic system's to target its customers is a common thing.

 

Look at YouTube DMCA take down requests that are being abused, what stops the same thing happening here as well?

[NeatSquidYT]

Seems that Google doesn't know about the existence of VPNs

[Altecice]

privacy that you trust into your ISP.

 

PHAHAHAHAHA... what privacy

[tangra]

PHAHAHAHAHA... what privacy [emoji14]

Exactly!

[AlwaysFSX]

Well don't be a knob, use a VPN if you're torrenting things.

[Guest]

What about porn?

[ChineseChef]

I have never understood why people don't just use VPNs or seedboxes.  I understand they cost money, but usually the cost is equal to or less than buying 1-2 movies a month.  And you can essentially torrent as much as you want, so your potential savings is huge.  When people just use their connection completely unprotected I feel like they are simply  complaining that they got caught.  I always just want to ask, "Well, what did you expect?".

[LukaP]

Well don't be a knob, use a VPN if you're torrenting things.

or just dont pay....

[AlwaysFSX]

or just dont pay....

or just run to someone's house with a cd and burn it...

 

Wait, not the 90s... thumb drive.

[ChineseChef]

or just dont pay....

 

My concern would more be getting cut off if you get too many notices.  Though I wouldn't be surprised if the USA makes it easier somehow for these companies to just auto-fine you.

[sof006]

Well don't be a knob, use a VPN if you're torrenting things.

I personally use an external website.

 

I find the magnet link I want then paste the link onto a website called put(dot)io and it does the download for me (usually instantly or incredibly fast) and then I download directly from the website at full speed. To the ISP it just looks like a regular download from the browser. Its how I get around my ISP's P2P throttling during peak times.

 

There is a cost monthly for this website but its miles cheaper than just obviously buying whatever it is.

[Trik'Stari]

......why not just refuse to pay? Doing so would be an admission of guilt, and as such, you have the right to plead the fifth and remain silent. At least in the US it would.

 

Seriously, what are they gonna do, waste tens of thousands of dollars per person that pirates by taking them to court?

[Misanthrope]

Seems that Google doesn't know about the existence of VPNs

 

I don't think you can find a VPN that wouldn't cripple your gigabit speeds and not costs you thousands of bucks.

[ChineseChef]

......why not just refuse to pay? Doing so would be an admission of guilt, and as such, you have the right to plead the fifth and remain silent. At least in the US it would.

 

Seriously, what are they gonna do, waste tens of thousands of dollars per person that pirates by taking them to court?

 

This is a huge one in the USA that people don't realize or think about.  If you pay just to make them go away, it can make things significantly worse. 

[Trik'Stari]

This is a huge one in the USA that people don't realize or think about.  If you pay just to make them go away, it can make things significantly worse. 

Which is why I would flatout refuse.

 

Then, if they took me to court, I would offer them the price of whatever I downloaded (if I did indeed pirate, which I do not) via a public format, and when they refused, point out they're just a bunch of greedy bastards.

 

I feel bad for content creators, but I have no sympathy what-so-ever for the greedy middle men they are force to employ.

[FakezZ]

......why not just refuse to pay? Doing so would be an admission of guilt, and as such, you have the right to plead the fifth and remain silent. At least in the US it would.

 

Seriously, what are they gonna do, waste tens of thousands of dollars per person that pirates by taking them to court?

You think they are not capable of it? I mean logic and common sense are the two things big companies lack the most these days...

[Trik'Stari]

You think they are not capable of it? I mean logic and common sense are the two things big companies lack the most these days...

Oh I'm sure they're capable. I'm also sure of the face the shareholders would make when the company comes up at a loss in profits due to millions and millions of dollars for litigating against millions and millions of people.

[FakezZ]

Oh I'm sure they're capable. I'm also sure of the face the shareholders would make when the company comes up at a loss in profits due to millions and millions of dollars for litigating against millions and millions of people.

Yeah, but they're too stupid and stubborn to correctly estimate the results of their actions, therefore they'd have to first start losing money by the millions to understand they're doing shit wrong. And then blame piracy ofc...

[Trik'Stari]

Yeah, but they're too stupid and stubborn to correctly estimate the results of their actions, therefore they'd have to first start losing money by the millions to understand they're doing shit wrong. And then blame piracy ofc...

Oh ofc. 

 

"SEE! SEE WHAT PIRACY MADE US DO! Instead of offering better services, wider content availability, and more reasonable prices to combat piracy, we had to spend millions of dollars taking people to court over $20 albums!" lol

[Thony]

Google fiber ruined, not interested anymore. This is the shittiest thing I've heard of.

[Norman_the_Owl]

I have never understood why people don't just use VPNs or seedboxes.  I understand they cost money, but usually the cost is equal to or less than buying 1-2 movies a month.  And you can essentially torrent as much as you want, so your potential savings is huge.  When people just use their connection completely unprotected I feel like they are simply  complaining that they got caught.  I always just want to ask, "Well, what did you expect?".

Because gaming.

 

Have you ever tried playing something like CS:GO or BF4 with a VPN?

BF4 straight up doesn't launch

[Zaryab]

Okay tell me this is a joke. WOW not interested in GOOGLE FIBRE ANYMORE! WOW to think i was all white knighting for them fuck that! I will get my gigabit speed with another ISP. 

[as96]

Here you could probably leave your computer torrenting 24/7 and noone would care.

 

Here they go after the people who create the websites, as far as torrent goes I've never heard anyone who got fined for it (I may be wrong though).

 

Also just use a VPN, even a crippled Google Fiber is faster than a standard connection.

[Toddwjp]

Here you could probably leave your computer torrenting 24/7 and noone would care.

 

Here they go after the people who create the websites, as far as torrent goes I've never heard anyone who got fined for it (I may be wrong though).

 

Also just use a VPN, even a crippled Google Fiber is faster than a standard connection.

 

come to the uk, downloading anything is now legal instead only uploading (not seeding) and the act of say capturing a film on camera is illegal

[ChineseChef]

Because gaming.

 

Have you ever tried playing something like CS:GO or BF4 with a VPN?

BF4 straight up doesn't launch

 

It isn't like you can't turn the VPN off while you game.  You would only use the VPN while you torrented anyways.  Unless you leave your torrents running while you play games that need low latency, I don't see the issue here.  I have a VPN because my ISP (Time Warner) doesn't like CrunchyRoll, so sometimes I have to use my VPN so I can watch my streaming video.  And I have a seedbox cause my net sucks and I could never leave the torrents running anyways.