Although I left the ISP world about six months ago, I’ve kept a casual eye on the industry. Especially interesting to me has been the continued threat of the RIAA against file sharers in the USA.
When working for Transact in Bermuda, I had the dubious honour of receiving “this user has been nasty, go slap them for us” notices on a very regular basis – sometimes two or three a day. As Bermuda is NOT a part of the USA, it is not subject to the DMCA or any other American copyright laws, so the notices were quickly filed under G. The notices were sent automatically – I should have set up an automatic filter in Outlook to do the filing for me. Oh well, there goes my hindsight again.
Today I ran into an excellent article at News.com about a small ISP owner who wants the RIAA to pay him to do the copyright policing for him. What a great idea. Good for you, Bayou Internet! This makes a lot of sense to me. Just another reason I’m glad I’m not in business in the States.