It seems to be the answer to everything – censorship and legal threats – just because the majority of people can be tracked and monitored by their IP address (and why I use an IP address blocker!). Threats and monitoring are used to control peoples behaviour and censor what they can do on the internet.
Next example is the threats that are at the root of the Blackout Ireland movement. The IRMA who consist of the usual music heavyweights are threatening ISPs with legal action over individuals who download illegal content from torrent sites and anything else they can think of. They want to specify websites that should be blocked by Irish ISPs and be informed of the IP addresses of people downloading pirated material.
OK I can see why they are annoyed with people downloading their music for free but lets just think what they are asking for.
1) To control what websites the Irish people can see
2) Be supplied with IP addresses of people to fine and threaten
Now you shouldn’t download pirate software, music or films but this is not the way to deal with the problems – why should Sony and chums be allowed to decide what websites people view.
What if my blog pointed at a torrent site – should that be banned ? Who decides, where is the line drawn.
Where does it stop ? Everyone and anyone who can hire a lawyer to draft a threatening letter to an ISP can control what we see on the internet or be supplied with an IP address of anyone who downloads a copy of their wares?
Freedom of speech and privacy should not be controlled in this way – it is a very dangerous route and certainly not something that should be manipulated by a music company worried about losing profits. What use is social media if anyone is too scared to mention anything? The difficulty is that everyone will end up hiding or using false information – hiding between a myriad of proxies and VPNs like people already do for many tasks.
Many people always assume because I use an IP address blocker like Identity Cloaker that I am hiding something well I’m not. I don’t download copies of music because I’m old and unfashionable enough to be able to pick up all my favourite bands in the bargain bucket sections, but we are censored too much, we are monitored, spied on and controlled for a multitude of trivial reasons.
Instead of fining people and censoring the internet why don’t the music companies embrace the technology, reduce prices and go for something like this solution from the EFF
For all my Irish Readers (if I have any) then get yourself to the Blackout Ireland Website and help them make it clear that you don’t want the music companies deciding what you can view online or not.
If you are like me who just want to use the internet without being tracked, threatened, manipulated or monitored then secure your surfing, Block your IP address and use the premiere security software – Identity Cloaker
