Entertainment industry to Japanese ISPs: we'll hand you a secret list of copyrighted works, and you have to block them


As part of Japan's batshit new 10-years-in-jail-for-uploading copyright law, the Recording Industry Ass. of Japan is demanding that ISPs install network filters that spy on all user activity and attempt to detect copyright infringements by comparing every user upload to a massive, secret database of "fingerprints" of copyrighted music, created by Gracenote. Those uploads would be shut off, without review, trial, or notice. One proposal would even require ISPs to send three-strikes-style notices to customers whose connections had been censored, warning them of impending disconnection from the Internet if they continue to trigger positives on the secret, proprietary system. They want ISPs to pay for a monthly software licensing fee for the privilege of running this surveillance/censorship technology.

Torrentfreak reports:

Several music rights groups including the Recording Industry Association of Japan say they have developed a system capable of automatically detecting unauthorized music uploads before they even hit the Internet. In order to do that though, Internet service providers are being asked to integrate the system into their networks.

The system works by spying on the connections of users and comparing data being uploaded to the Internet with digital fingerprints held in an external database. As can be seen from the diagram, the fingerprinting technology employed is from GraceNote, with intermediate systems provided by Copyright Data Clearinghouse (CDC).


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