Published:
07-Oct-08
Belgian ISP Scarlet appealed against the court ruling issued in July 2007 that ordered the ISP to filter and block illegal filesharing of copyrighted works from the repertoire of SAMAB, (Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers). The court ruling included suggestions on possible technical solutions including filtering technology of Audible Magic.
Scarlet claims to have tried slowing peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic and filtering content using Audible Magic solution. The ISP reports that in addition to causing considerable user discontent, ultimately the system failed to deter users from illicit file swapping. The company refuses to completely prohibit P2P traffic, as the technology has a number of legal uses. For example, updates to the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft are delivered using technology based on the BitTorrent P2P protocol. SABAM's claim to €2,500 per day compensation on allegation of Scarlet's failure to comply with previous ruling has been suspended as the Brussels court examines the appeal.
Our take...
The experience of Scarlet shows that eradication of online piracy is not just a matter of tougher regulation and enforcement. While the legal battles over ISP liability and responsibilities in monitoring their traffic continue (latest development was the European Parliament (EP) decision to prohibit the member states from imposing laws that would force the ISPs to disconnect their customers implicated of illegal filesharing), the technical side of the process remains under looked.
Many content owners' expectations have been placed on content identification solution based on content 'fingerprinting' developed by a California-based company Audible Magic. The solution is implemented on a host of user generated online video and music services (including BeBo, MySpace, DailyMotion, and YouTube) to filter and block unauthorized content. However, as Screen Digest flagged up when the imposition of the order was first announced in June 2007, Audible Magic has been unable to successfully identify tackle encrypted files, which severely limits its usefulness in monitoring ISP traffic (especially via P2P networks using encryption).
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