A rights-management solution in search of a problem. MediaSignature is a network-attached filter aimed at ISPs. In the MediaSignature box is a database of known copyrighted song "fingerprints." All traffic into or out of the ISP passes through the MediaSignature, and when a transfer of a song is identified, MediaSignature generates a fingerprint from the song-in-transit and compares it to the list of known fingerprints; if the song appears on the blacklist, the file-transfer is stopped. In other words, an ISP with one of these boxes installed will know about every song every one of its users transfers, and will terminate the downloads of any copyrighted songs, or pop up a browser window offering to sell the track in question through a "legitimate" vendor.
It's unclear whether the process of generating the fingerprint database is a copyright violation in and of itself, but MediaSignature sidesteps the issue by charging labels for the privilege of adding their songs to its database.
What is clear is that ISPs don't need this technology. Under the DMCA, the ISPs are "safe harbors" — common carriers who have limited liability for the traffic that passes over their wires. If you break the law over your ISP's bandwidth, you're liable, they aren't.
But as soon as an ISP start buying and installing equipment that attempts to regulate their users' activities, it is making a tacit admission that it can and should continue to do so; it surrenders its Safe Harbor protections, and so must continue to purchase and install ever-more-baroque and privacy-invading technology to show that it is taking reasonable steps to police its users.
We each of us pay our ISPs hundreds of dollars every year to provide a service to us — we're their customers, not the media companies. Let's hope that our ISPs keep that fact in mind as companies like MediaSignature make their pitches.
(Thanks, Fred!)
