RIAA/MPAA/ISPs to Launch Massive Spying Scheme on July 12

Crossposting this from Current Events, because people REALLY ought to see this. Hope this isn't breaking any rules, or if it is that staff will consider making an exception for the greater good.

I encourage you to take any serious discussion/opinions/findings to the adjacent thread and get all the jokes out of your system here. I'm sure there are plenty to be had; it's getting kind of ridiculous at this point. Of course, I'm not opposed to two strains of serious discourse; above all else, let's not have the silliness bleeding over into the Current Events thread.

Spoiler: Serious Stuff

Remember when I was freaking out over ACTA? Well get ready to piss your freshly changed pants, because I think this one's gonna top all three that came before it.

Full article here.

As I understand it, this is the companies attempting to do what the government failed to do with SOPA and PIPA. There are a few key differences, though. First off, this isn't censorship; it's downright spying. ISPs will monitor all user traffic and will potentially be able to reduce your bandwidth or outright lock you out of the internet if you don't jump through some hoops, and even then, you could still have a lawsuit levied against you. Second, this is not a bill, an amendment, anything like that; it's a policy being enacted by the RIAA/MPAA and participating ISPs, which if you view the full article includes pretty much every major ISP in the U.S. In other words, it's endeavoring to step right over the government.

Awareness and opposition are low, perhaps lower than for ACTA. Please, if you support privacy and transparency on the internet, or even if you support the companies' efforts and simply recognize that they're taking it way too far, do something about it! I found a petition here, but given the low number of signatures something tells me it's not the only one. Please post any relevant information/additional reading you have, every little bit helps. Of course anyone with a more informed opinion is welcome; my level of involvement is still at the "reading news articles and being freaked out" stage, so if anyone's beyond that point, they can probably explain it better than I can.

 

*obligatory pr0nz joke*

Nice going companies. Forcing on people what the government can't :x

 

Eh, I've got nothing to hide. It's always great to share porn with others, it's just like when I was in the boy scouts.

 

Actually, this is already a possibility. It's called throttling your bandwidth--ISPs can do it if they find you repeatedly pirating through your connection, granted they usually do so after sending you warning notices, but yeah. Additionally, I've heard of people being entirely dropped from their ISP for the stuff they pirate, though that's very rare, as internet service is still a business and they obviously don't want to lose customers.

But yeah, interested if anyone else has petitions or organizations against this?