What could possibly be fishy about a "Six Strikes" system?

I suppose they think they're being generous.  After all, you get three extra strikes!  Free!

Bizarrely, soon enough your internet service provider, if they are Comcast, AT&T, Verizon or Cablevision, will begin harassing you on behalf of Disney, Fox, Time Warner, and other undesireables, if one of them suspects your IP address of online piracy.  You will then need to prove your innocence.  Yes, even if you're not guilty.  Because they couldn't possibly ever make a mistake.

If you've ever taken a philosophy or logic class--or ever even thought about anything at all--you know that this is what is called "proving a negative", which is impossible.  Prove to me you have quit beating your wife!

Which is precisely why we have an "innocent until proven guilty" principle in this country.

But they don't need that, because this isn't the Government doing the harassing--it the ISP that you pay for service every month.  And you, as a happy consumer (as opposed to a customer), are expected to knuckle under to the awesome Authority of Hollywood.  God knows how they convinced internet providers to go along with this, but it might have something to do with the large internet providers getting into bed with media companies.

So you will be harassed by your internet service provider to the point where they may disconnect you temporarily.  They haven't even got any balls.  But still, my contempt for this is unending.

Part of the problem is that Hollywood has managed to control the conversation thus far.  "Piracy is stealing!"  Indeed, even pirates call themselves pirates now.  Arrrr, it's cute!  But not exactly the most ideal thing from a PR standpoint.

We should call it what it is--Information Crime.  They wouldn't want to call it that, because that would be too accurate, and the sedate couch potatoes of America even would rise up as they did when Wikipedia went black if they thought that Comcast wanted to plunge them into some Keanu Reeves character inhabited dystopian future where something called an Information Crime existed.

Lest you feel that this is too tame to worry about, realize please that these guys are fanatically desperate and bribing every goddamned congresscritter they can possibly locate, here and abroad, and that's called the Trans Pacific Partnership, which does not sound like SOPA.

See, they really love the idea of working their insane draconian ideas into an international treaty because the bar is much lower to becoming law, both in process and oversight.

It is important for everyone to understand the ramifications of these changes--Information Crime will become a thing everyone is used to, and if allowed to exist long enough kids will grow up thinking this Chinese Communist inspired internet system is normal and proper.  And what do you think will happen then?

So please tell everyone you know about this--in particular, tell them that they will be harassed without any authority whatsoever, except for your internet provider's strange desire to be rid of you as a customer.