Pre-paid Anonymous Internet Access to Bolster Privacy-----------------------------------------------------------------
With the recent attacks by the powerfull recording industry on individuals downloading mp3's, the issue of privacy on the internet has been forefront. Record companies have been pressuring ISP's to provide information about IP's that have led prosecutors to the individuals occupying any one IP at a given time.
Obviously the idea of having a truely anonymous link to the internet would help curb this intrusion of our privacy.
I propose that ISP's retool their software that links cable modems and dial up modems to operate based on the purchase of an IP address on a need to use basis - similar to the the idea of pre-paid wireless cards available for cell phones in computer and other tech related stores.
If ISP's sold internet time in the form of a pre-paid activated IP card complete with username and password that is issued upon purchase of the card you could theoretically limit the information that is associated with the card by simply paying in cash.
Spread the word - help fight the big money record companies and preserve the little man's piece of the pie.
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ACCOUNTABILITY.The problem in the US is loss of accountability.
We want to steal the property of others withoutconcern for their rights. whew!!
Oh, well of course we can rationalize it becausethe { record companies, software firms, big businesses,government, insert your own rant) have been cheating us all these years!!
Support those that create music, art, technology,and above all support INTEGRITY, HONESTY.
Flame off... sorry, got my dander flying.
So I believe it is a bad idea - there is no BIG BROTHERtrying to nail honest people, only those who break the laws.Including trademark, patent, and copyright laws.
Anonymity is a two edged sword.
Your protection from RIAA actions is the paedophoiles protection from the police, and the terrorists protection from everyone.
We looked at this issue when developing CommKit and we took the position that soft anonymity was useful and important (so community members can hide their identity from others), strong anonymity wasn't - as result of which our anti hacking security will eject people using certain anonymising systems.
Also last week I was so concerned about reports of one major ISP who had failed to implement NAT's properly (and by default in effect made every user anonymous re most site logs) that I flagged the issue to our anti-terrorist policy people, so that they could check it out, and if true, lean on them to follow the standards.
While on the surface this sounds like a great idea, the reality is that this would be devastating to everyone, not just the RIAA. Think of it as this, everyone will soon be able to download all the content they want for free. One problem is where will the content come from? Users on networks like KaZaA that share their hard drives will be limited by the hassle of buying cards to keep from getting sued and therefore less content will be available.
Also, ISPs will still be able to track you, no matter if you bought an internet access card anonymously or not. The data will still have to be routed to your machine through either your telephone line or cable service. With the case of dialup, you call the number and a reader on your computer sends the PIN to the nearest ISP, which then binds the telephone number to the card. After this, it is a trivial matter to figure out the identity of the user. With cable, the computer will send data to the ISP, which then binds the card to the specific computer (using MAC addressing). The RIAA and MPAA will not allow anonymous browsing of the internet. In a retaliatory move, they would require that MAC addresses are registered to a specific user and require registration much like cars in order to determine culpability in case of illegal activity.
Secure proxy servers are the only current way to provide some anonymitity on the internet. However, even now "honeypots" are being used. The RIAA are using proxies of their own to catch users engaging in alleged "illicit" activity by recording all the traffic going through the server.
It is true, however, that the RIAA and MPAA must eventually come to terms in this internet age and offer real solutions for users in this age. By the time that that happens, anonymous internet access will become a moot issue, with only hackers and people engaged with true illegal activity benefitting from an anonymous connection.
If you want free music then listen to the radio.Some radios have built in tape recorders.Use them. That's why they are there.
Another way to get free music is to play a musicalinstrument. I highly recommend midi sequencers,drum machines, and if you can't sing, voice synthesizers.
I like privacy. Anyone who doesn't like privacy and doesn't use clear envelopes to send their mail is probably going to hell.
About Copyright. The printing press was invented to mass produce bibles. Copyrighted bibles are stolen from God and turn the church into a den of thieves, so only use free ones like gideon's. The same with hymns. God created all music. It is impossible to invent anything digital becauseit is a number which can be counted to. If you conjugate all the bytes in my comment you will get a positive integer. Which means what I wrote existed before I did!
You could find an open proxy server, and surf what you want through that (probably illegal, it certainly is over here in England)- or, you could take a look at the Freenet Project. Failing that, why not stop by at an internet cafe (don't pay by card or cheque), surf whatever you want, and either transfer the files to some free web/ftp/mail service in an obscure foreign country (encrypted if possible), picking them up later on, -or simply copy them to a CDRW and take them home.
I know of one pre-paid dial-up ISP, their intent for short term use, not for anonymity for those that wish to steal copyrighted content.