Reading Bid to have ISPs keelhaul the internet pirates I'm astounded at the rampant idiocy displayed by AFACT. I was going to rant about why their proposal is retarded but thankfully my thoughts have already been voiced by Michael Malone.
Michael Malone, chief executive of iiNet, described the three-strikes policy as "crazy", primarily because "ISPs aren't the ones who should decide what's legal or illegal, and neither should AFACT," he said."If they think someone is breaking the law then they should do the same as everyone else in this country does and report it to the police.
"They (AFACT) can keep on skirting around this and keep on trying all other things but ultimately … if you've got a class of people out there who are consistently breaking the law you don't sit around and bitch and moan about it — you go out and charge them."
Of course the reason AFACT are pursuing this track is that they know their fight is futile. They're fighting a losing battle against filesharing technology which changes from month to month and they hope to engage ISPs in their battle by making the process painful for ISPs. Let there be no doubt that their 3 strike system is all about raising the cost of handling complaints to the ISP such that they will eventually be forced to clamp down on this allegedly rampant illegal filesharing - and as mentioned in the article, ISPs are not police. So to be clear - organisations like AFACT are achieving nothing but increasing the cost of your internet service by hassling ISPs into a role they should not be performing.
