"THIS is the kind of snooping you'd expect in China, not a modern western democracy. It raises huge questions over privacy invasion and freedom of expression." So says Andrew Heaney - who is not, as you might imagine, a civil liberties campaigner, but a senior executive at TalkTalk, one of the UK's largest internet service providers. Along with other ISPs, his company faces the prospect of being forced to spy on its customers' downloads for signs of potential copyright infringement.
Heaney's disquiet is shared by web campaigners worldwide, as the measures contained in a controversial international copyright treaty (New Scientist, 5 July 2008, p 24) are slowly being translated into national laws variously tipped to bridge, distract from or widen the gulf between the entertainment industry's desires and those of the millions who share copyrighted material over the internet.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), suggested by the US administration in 2007, aims to redefine global trade rules. The intention is to stem losses from counterfeiting and internet-mediated piracy of content like music and movies.
It will do that by penalising internet service providers and websites that carry, or help people to find, pirated content. ACTA has quickly proved a hit with G8 nations, the European Union, South Korea and Australia, who are all using it as a basis for future national laws.
ACTA is still being worked up in secret by trade delegations from the many nations involved. But a series of leaks to the Wikileaks website reveal that it will require ISPs to become technological sleuths who monitor their customers' internet use to "deter unauthorised storage and transmission of infringing content". Infringers will face a "graduated response", with disconnection as the ultimate sanction.
The Obama administration's plans to implement ACTA are still hidden in a thicket of non-disclosure agreements with movie studios and record labels. The UK's Digital Economy Bill, unveiled in last month, is clearly inspired by ACTA.
The bill stipulates that people who share copyright-infringing content should receive two warnings by post, after which they will face punitive "technical measures". These may include having their internet connection filtered to block attempts to download copyrighted material, "throttled" to slow downloads to a crawl, or even cut off entirely. Spain, Ireland and France have similar plans.
ISPs are wary of being seen to invade customers' privacy by sifting through their personal data - and of the potential costs involved - though Nicholas Lansman, head of the European ISP Association, insists that they oppose illicit file sharing.
"Monitoring every single packet going across our network for the fingerprints of hundreds of copyrighted files will require tens of millions of pounds' worth of computer systems," Heaney warns. Without that extra computing power, internet access will slow to a crawl.
ISPs would have to scan the contents of every chunk of data, using what is known as "deep packet inspection" technology, which is used by China and Iran to monitor and censor internet communications. But even if ISPs install such technology, identifying infringers will be far from straightforward. The EU has ruled that before anyone can be sent a warning letter, rights holders must take an ISP to court to get the name and address of an alleged culprit.
There is evidence that such threats will deter some people from illicitly sharing content (see "Copyright conundrum"). Others, though, will simply seek ways of carrying on regardless.
Freeloading on an unsuspecting neighbour's Wi-Fi connection is one option - and is possible even if the connection is secured. YouTube carries videos on how to use free software to "sniff" the passwords of protected connections. The ease with which people can "borrow" Wi-Fi in this way undermines the assumption that the owner of a connection can be blamed for everything downloaded by it. "The government knows there is a wireless hijacking risk but they haven't proposed a process by which people can be assumed innocent until proven guilty," says Heaney.
The mobile broadband connections provided via cellphones or computer USB sticks offer another loophole to the disconnected. Mobile providers do not assign IP addresses to users as fixed line providers do, so it's not possible to track file sharing to individuals.
These problems are exacerbated by changes in sharing technology. BitTorrent, the most popular file-sharing protocol, used to depend on central websites to host "trackers" - small files that tell software where to find particular files. The Pirate Bay site in Sweden was the most popular tracker host, but it recently shut down after a refinement to the BitTorrent protocol allowed tracking tasks to be shared out among users.
With the disappearance of tracker hosts, ACTA has lost one of its main targets, although rights holders can still track alleged infringers, says Danny O'Brien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. Investigators can join a network and spy on its users from the inside, he says.
If you’re a Verizon Wireless customer like me then I just want to give you a fair warning. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is moving their energy from busting illegal song downloads to computers to illegal downloads to their cell phones. cnet.com is reporting that if you’re currently a Verizon Wireless customer and have illegally downloaded a song to your phone recently you may soon receive an unwelcome letter from them. They are set to begin issuing “copyright notices” on behalf of the RIAA to those being accused of illegally downloading songs from the web to their phones.
Verizon’s letter campaign is a significant move for the music industry because among Internet service providers they’ve typically been among the most reluctant to intervene in copyright cases on behalf of entertainment companies. a Verizon spokesman had this to say…
We recognize the importance of copyright and the need to enforce those copyrights. Without that enforcement, intellectual property won’t be generated at all. At the same time, it’s important for our customers to be assured that they won’t have their privacy rights trampled.
How do you feel about these letters from Verizon on behalf of the RIAA? I think it’s ok for them to ask Verizon to monitor song downloads, but to police them is going to be very exspensive and we all know who pays that cost in the end. Let us hear your feedback in the comment box below.
NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwire) -- 11/25/09 -- "THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON -- ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK" rises this week on the Billboard 200, ranking #8 and selling more than 93,000 units in its sixth week on sale. The soundtrack, which debuted in October, has also received RIAA platinum certification for sales exceeding 1 million units. "THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON" soundtrack, which peaked at #1 in its first full week in stores and online, made history as the first time ever a soundtrack and its sequel have both reached the #1 spot on the chart. In addition, the soundtrack has remained in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 since its release.
The musical companion to the highly anticipated second installment of Summit Entertainment's film franchise features exclusive tracks from some of modern music's most gifted and admired artists, including Thom Yorke, Muse, The Killers, Anya Marina, and Death Cab for Cutie, who contributed the album's first single, "Meet Me On the Equinox." The track is currently #8 at Modern Rock radio.
In other news, "TWILIGHT -- ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK" took home the award for Favorite Soundtrack at this year's American Music Awards.
"TWILIGHT" has currently sold more than 2.3 million copies in the U.S.
alone and over 3.5 million copies worldwide. The soundtrack has remained on the Billboard 200 for 55 consecutive weeks.
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON topped the box office this past weekend, pulling in $142.8 million in North America and marking the third biggest opening weekend ever. The film also ranks as the best single opening day ever in North America as well as the best grossing for midnight shows ever at $26.3 million.
About Summit Entertainment, LLC
Summit Entertainment, LLC is a worldwide theatrical motion picture development, financing, production, and distribution studio. The studio handles all aspects of marketing and distribution for both its own internally developed motion pictures as well as acquired pictures. Summit Entertainment, LLC also represents international sales for both its own slate and third party product. Summit Entertainment, LLC plans to release 10 to 12 films annually.
About Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records, which celebrated its 60th Anniversary in 2008, currently ranks as the #1 label in the music industry. Founded in New York City, the label grew from literally a one-room operation into one of the world's preeminent music companies. Atlantic has released a string of recordings that have had a profound impact on the course of modern music, its rich history including such musical icons as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, John Coltrane, and Led Zeppelin. The Atlantic roster today includes many of the world's most popular recording artists, among them James Blunt, Phil Collins, Death Cab for Cutie, Missy Elliott, Estelle, Flo Rida, Lupe Fiasco, Gnarls Barkley, Kid Rock, Matchbox Twenty, Jason Mraz, O.A.R., Sean Paul, Rush, Shinedown, Staind, Rob Thomas, T.I., Trey Songz, Uncle Kracker, Zac Brown Band, and many more.
About Chop Shop
Alexandra Patsavas founded her own Chop Shop Music Supervision company in 1998. She quickly earned a reputation for raising the bar in the quality of music selected for television series, including "Grey's Anatomy," "The O.C.," "Gossip Girl," "Mad Men," and "Rescue Me." A champion of independent artists, Patsavas has been responsible for identifying and exposing a remarkable string of original music to mainstream audiences. In the process, she has played an influential role in the development of such artists as Death Cab for Cutie, The Killers, Snow Patrol, Modest Mouse, The Fray, KT Tunstall, and many others. In 2007, Patsavas launched Chop Shop Records, which today is home to The Republic Tigers, The Little Ones, Anya Marina, and the "Twilight" and "New Moon" soundtracks.
For up-to-date news on "THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON -- ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK," visit www.newmoonthesoundtrack.com : .
Contact:
Catharine McNelly
212-707-3069
catharine.mcnelly@atlanticrecords.com :
A lawsuit accusing the RIAA and record labels for malicious prosecution was dealt a blow with a judge's ruling that the labels had a reasonable basis for their original legal action.
Original Digg PageA few years ago I took a class on copyright law, and the subject of playing movies or music came up. Keep in mind the class was taught by a copyright lawyer. He explained that if you can prove that no one is profiting off the music, then there's no harm. This means that if you're showing a movie in your living room you can charge people a cover fee to enter your living room, you can even charge for a place for them to sit, but you can not charge them to see the movie. Same for music.
Sadly, in a case like in TFA, it's hard to say the live band isn't a source of revenue when you make more money on live band night than you do on nights when you don't have a live band.
But here's what groups like the RIAA and the ASCAP are ignoring. They can shut down every file trading website, all the torrent sites, they can bleed money out of every bar that has a stage, dance floor, television and DVD player, stereo and jukebox, but in the end all their going to do is hurt themselves and the artists they represent. This shiat will eventually bite these groups in the ass by either having artists publicly speak out against these groups or when they go after the wrong person or when a bar successfully counter sues them leading other bars to continue to counter sue them out of existence. Pissing off the fans isn't how you do business in showbiz.
MPAA to FCC: critics of video blocking proposals are lying: Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica.
The movie studios have a new Holy Grail, it seems: Federal Communications Commission permission to cable companies to shut down the analog streams on video-on-demand movie programming. As Ars readers know, we've been covering this issue for a while. But the Motion Picture Association of America's latest letter to the FCC pulls out all the stops, rhetoric-wise, calling criticisms of this scheme "complete and utter nonsense that only can be intended to stir up baseless fears among consumers that their equipment will suddenly go dark and be unusable for any purpose."
These are "deplorable claims," the MPAA told the FCC on Monday. Plus they "distort the truth." They're also "simply and irrefutably untrue," the trade association adds (in case you didn't get it yet).
Read Original Article:(Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica.)
As regular readers on OSNews will know, I'm quite opposed to the concept of post-sale restrictions, but also the insane countermeasures undertaken by the film and music industry against individuals who illegally download content. The reason I'm so opposed to these things is not because I approve of the act of illegal downloading - no, it's all about the slippery slope effect.
If downloading illegally uploaded content is illegal in your country - as it is in the US - then I have no problems with the authorities tying to crack down major offenders to discourage the act. The law is the law, and laws must be upheld. If you want different laws, you can vote. Your influence may be minimal, but that's just the way it is.
What I do have a problem with is private organisations taking it upon themselves to act as if they are government institutions, capable of sentencing individuals - without any form of trial. The RIAA and MPAA are prime examples of this; they are not part of the authorities, and as such, they should not be able to persecute people the way they do.
It might seem like an effective and efficient solution at first. Instead of having the often slow and bureaucratic authorities handle something like piracy, it should be done by a much more nimble and effective private organisation. This is the start of the slippery slope.
Then it gets ever slipperier. Because these organisations are not part of the authorities, there's no proper oversight. There is no democratically elected group or individual overseeing these organisations, which inevitably leads to abuse. I find it especially weird that the MPAA and RIAA have become so powerful in the US - I have this idyllic image in my head that Americans get to vote for everything, from president to crossing guard.
So, what does this slippery slope lead to? Well, people with little understanding of the MPAA and RIAA will certainly mistake them for government organisations, which is a dangerous outcome. Take the story of Coshocton, OH, a small town with free and open municipal wifi. A single movie was downloaded illegally using this wifi network - and the MPAA shut it down entirely.
Mike LaVigne, IT director, said that dozens, sometimes hundreds of people use the free service every day. On top of that, it uses a single address, making it near-impossible to determine the actual culprit.
From the story it is not entirely clear who shut the network down, but it appears that the network's administrator was spooked by the suits from the MPAA, probably accompanied by some threatening legal letters, and as a result, shut down the network.
All you people who advocate that companies like Apple or private organisations like the MPAA and RIAA should have control over your legally purchased products and internet connection: this is what you'll get. This is the world you're fighting for. I hope you're happy.
The citizens of Coshocton, Ohio are without their free Internet after a single download prompted the Motion Picture Association of America to shut down the town's municipal Wi-Fi network.
This is by no means the first time the MPAA has stepped on the little guy in their crusade to eradicate piracy, but it is a particularly egregious instance of it. The free Wi-Fi network in Coshocton, Ohio supported anywhere from "a dozen people a day to 100 during busy times," all of whom are left without Internet after the shut down. As nations like Finland move to make broadband access a legal right, it is unfortunately clear that some powerful people in our country still consider it a privilege and not a necessity.
Let this be a lesson to those who not only enjoy but depend on free Wi-Fi networks. Enjoy it while it lasts, because if Dennis the Menace down the block can't wait for Transformers 3 to come out on DVD, you might be out a connection. [Via BoingBoing]
Send an email to Kyle VanHemert, the author of this post, at .
175 Responses
1 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:07 by d
Yet another article with pretty much the same content. MPAA/RIAA MONEY LOL WE LOST PROFITS
2 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:12 by lolz
great explaination
3 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:14 by Bryan C
ah damn, ill pearl a blunt to that
4 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:18 by Zush
I never liked Soderbergh’s movies. Now I know why: he’s not very intelligent.
5 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:20 by Anonymous
I was watching this after dinner with my parents yesterday, and I knew they were believing every word of it, unfortunately..
6 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:21 by iPeter
Lame explanation…
7 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:26 by 33333
cool model he has there, what is it :D?
8 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:28 by hg
Poore slaves. Poore Soderbergh.
9 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:33 by martin
Wake up.
Launch BitTorrent powered, paid, services.
10 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:35 by www.eZee.se
“so why not compete with piracy instead of spending millions of dollars fighting it?”
That would mean they would actually have to use their brains and do some actual work, its just easier to tell people black is white and the sky is falling… then sit back and watch free money roll in.
11 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:41 by ahaha
“See that cone there, that’s us”
that’s one m8. that cone there is _ME_ downloading _YOUR_ films :D
fukkin tool
12 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:42 by Crash
It looks as though the guy in the video is using Vuze (shows how clued-up he is), but I’ve never seen that view/illustration of the Peers before.
I think I read somewhere that it might be an add-on for Vuze.
13 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:45 by Xcel
TF should ask 60mins for a counter interview!..LoL
@7, if you’re serious…thats the old azureus 3D view plugin .. doesn’t work anymore, no one has updated it for the newer builds..
But so far im cool with UT 2.0…
Vuze may be a thing of the past (Still haven’t sent it to the virtual round file yet, LoL)
14 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:49 by gorehound
Soderbergh makes crappy gfilms and we all know why.he is a shithead and now we should all make sure to boycott him.i think i will just have to go and make a post on his imdb page.
anywyas i have not watched any of his newer films as none interest me and i hate the remakes he did.
and i no longer buy any new movies nor do i ever go to the theater casue i am boycotting hollywood,riaa,mpaa,etc.
i only buy used movies.screw you hollywood you suck
15 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:51 by Antinomian
I wouldn’t worry about 60 minutes. No one pays any heed to left wing “news” programs like that. Their ratings have sucked wind for years.
16 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:53 by Raisined Mind (Anonymous)
This kind of misinformation is why we all need to do our part to show our side to the uninformed. The term “piracy” refers to making copies on disk, then selling those copies at a much cheaper price than in the store. The idea that selling movies is lucrative enough for organized crime to get involve is preposterous. We are not truly pirates, though we enjoy calling ourselves pirates because it pissed the industry off. We are file-sharers, and we do our part in the ad campaign for these companies by spreading the word about their products. It can be argued that we are increasing their revenues just as easily as it can be argued we are decreasing their revenues. The far greater toll is the permanent damage done when people’s lives are summarily and permanently destroyed because of these companies. While many believe that the old “eye for an eye” is much too harsh, this is like running over your family with a Mack Truck for taking a loaf of bread.
17 Nov 03, 2009 at 00:54 by SomKen
Was that fuze?
18 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:00 by meh
SHOCKING! You mean a television news show where all of the reporters were born in the 1920s or 1930s failed to properly grasp and present a modern day techonology?!
19 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:02 by .neo.styles|nvDX
I saw this and while I felt it was a little off, it basically got the basics down.
so why not compete with piracy instead of spending millions of dollars fighting it?
Isn’t it obvious? Competition is all about consumer appeal and you can’t compete with something that is free and that requires zero effort on the part of the consumer (last time I checked, clicking a few buttons isn’t hard.) But then why don’t they embrace piracy? Are you serious? Because piracy prevents any creative effort or business venture from being viable.
As Lars Ulrich said, no one works for free, so why should artists or anyone that is affected by piracy?
Their job is to manipulate public opinion in the hope that less people will engage in illicit file-sharing.
And shouldn’t it? So called illicit file sharing is not only illegal but also deeply immoral. Further more, I wouldn’t call it manipulating so much as informing, because im guessing that most people who watched the show last night didn’t need much convincing to agree that taking something without paying for it is wrong. Most people probabaly just didn’t know how rampant online piracy has become. The moral quandaries of piracy speak for themselves. Pirates are very happy to advertise their so called freedom of information and yet when information about THEM makes it into mainstream circulation, they become uncomfortable.. Why is this? Piracy is a little like a vampire. It hides in the shadows of obscure technical terminology, because once it is exposed to the light of public opinion and moral decency, it begins to wither.
These statements are both inaccurate, or at least highly doubtful.
Do we really need numbers to convince ourselves of how large piracy has gotten? We’ve all seen the numbers for the most pirated movies. They are in the millions. Now, multiply them by the average price of a movie.. say $10.. I think it should come out to something close.
It fails to ask the questions about why people download movies illegally and acts as if the movie industry is a powerless victim.
That question isn’t really necessary. As I said, piracy speaks for itself. It is implied that such people choose to pilfer their entertainment because they have no regard for the laws of society or the hardwork of others. People pirate simply because it’s easier for them.
Perhaps Hollywood should start to see the millions of illegal downloaders as potential customers instead of thieves.
If they were potential custemors, they would go out and buy movies like everyone else. Laziness isn’t an excuse to avoid payment. Furthermore, there are many legit online options available for movie and music downloading. There’s Itunes, netflix, and even xbox live.. Yet the popularity of these services is tiny in comparison to piracy.
20 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:09 by bleh
Hey guys, I’m wondering, would it be more difficult for the organized crime syndicates such as the MAFIAA if there was an option to “only connect to peers outside your country” or is there a client already like that?
21 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:12 by chestermolested
If you go and watch the whole 60 Minutes episode Soderbergh goes on to say that A list movie stars still make the same amount of money no matter how many people download movies, the real that suffer are the people behind the scenes. DER this is exact problem, the movie stars should get a lot less money and the people that work behind scenes should make more.
22 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:14 by Anon
No you dload movies for free cause you want something for nothing with no effort.
Stop trying to pretend you are an internet pioneer or you freedom to bootleg stuff is being violated.
1person selling 1million or 1million people dloading 1 copy?
net result 1million free films?
Oh yah I forgot you then go out and but it, but any movie director that disagrees with you, well autiomatically they are stupid and a dickhead and their filsm suck, guess you’ll be torrenting “100 free knitting patterns”, then?
23 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:15 by Truther
Anyone know what Vuze plugin he is using for the Pool graph? I want it, thanks 60 minutes!
24 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:19 by 0_o
I just had a bowel movement. Why is this not being reported as well? I mean its the same shit.
25 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:22 by TF propoganda
“What bothered us the most is that the item conveniently mixed file-sharing with commercial piracy, while linking it to organized crime, human trafficking and child prostitution.”
How do you think the people engaged in these acts get their films>?
They “share” them with you.
They use YOUR uploads that you crack whilst giving the finger to the man to fund illegal acts.
They mave have tried to confuse the issue by mixing “innocent” fileshare leeching freeloaders with commercial pirates, the result the same tho.
Kieron Sharp, FACT Director General, said: “The illegal factory in Southall would have been capable of generating a criminal profit in excess of £1 million per week and we know there are dozens of such factories operating across London and in other cities in the UK. FACT is working in partnership with the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police to take out those criminal organisations and individuals who are seeking to profit from this illegal trade.”
Executive Producer of Quantum of Solace, Callum McDougall, said: “We have a hugely valuable film industry here in the UK, and we have to do whatever we can to make people aware of the impact of purchasing fake DVD’s or illegal downloads.
Kieron Sharp, FACT Director General, said: “The illegal factory in Southall would have been capable of generating a criminal profit in excess of £1 million per week and we know there are dozens of such factories operating across London and in other cities in the UK. FACT is working in partnership with the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police to take out those criminal organisations and individuals who are seeking to profit from this illegal trade.”
Executive Producer of Quantum of Solace, Callum McDougall, said: “We have a hugely valuable film industry here in the UK, and we have to do whatever we can to make people aware of the impact of purchasing fake DVD’s or illegal downloads.
Kieron Sharp, FACT Director General, said: “The illegal factory in Southall would have been capable of generating a criminal profit in excess of £1 million per week and we know there are dozens of such factories operating across London and in other cities in the UK. FACT is working in partnership with the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police to take out those criminal organisations and individuals who are seeking to profit from this illegal trade.”
Executive Producer of Quantum of Solace, Callum McDougall, said: “We have a hugely valuable film industry here in the UK, and we have to do whatever we can to make people aware of the impact of purchasing fake DVD’s or illegal downloads.
Obviously FACT are lying and are just paid by BFI & Hollywood to purport internet fiction, so you can feel better about your copy of Inglourious Basterds
26 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:27 by Nef
Seeders, peers? WTF?
I thought it was done wiz magic?
Non? :(
27 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:29 by TF propoganda
Yes, I have to work on my copy & paste skills. Forgive me, I am a moron.
28 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:34 by Anti
Buttheads…
29 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:39 by Cujo
advertizing ,, cool ,, our swarm grows ;)
30 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:40 by daybrinjer
Of course no one who knows anything gets their “news” from the mass media with the invention of the internet. I still can’t believe that they said the internet was created by Al Gore.
31 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:41 by realityBytes
They lie, cheat, steal, blackmail, price-fix, bribe and spy on us without a court order…
60 minutes of propaganda is tame for the greedy MAFIAA pigs… and as usual, won’t change a damn thing!!! :D
Another fine epic fail by the MAFIAA!!
32 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:44 by Trek
isnt it hilarious how these morons are amazed by this simple technology.. like OMGZ.. DOWNLOAZ?
oh and he was wrong, each one of those things does NOT represent a ‘person’.
33 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:51 by TT
The anti-P2P lobby has for years been linking file-sharing to every sort of evil imaginable. Organized crime, international terrorists, child molesters, whatever.
It’s refreshing to see that TorrentFreak is not blindly swallowing the Kool-Aid as other P2P “news” sites have been known to do.
http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=525
34 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:51 by Paul London UK
another stupid ad sponsered video
god I hate em
the ads are getting longer and longer at the begining. This one has another ad about a minute or so in! Sorry folks but switching to an ad-sponser model just wont cut it either, sorry to say I want it all free, now, no ads. yep news, music movies whatever! Rant over
35 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:52 by Bizarre
What mainly confused me about the original article is the idea that organised crime moving into DVD piracy in countries such as US. In the US DVD piracy in the sense of people selling copies of films on the streets is to my knowledge nonexistent. So the only thing it could be suggested that they are doing is selling wholesale to retail stores but then the article starts to talk about cams?
36 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:52 by lol
I think we should blame Al Gore, he’s the one who invented the internet.
37 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:54 by SamusK
Propaganga? Seriously? So then this place is propaganda because it shows one sided stories, information, and biased views on “their” reasons.
I like bittorrent as much as the next person. But come on, is this really news?
Is it necessary to report every little blunder by big business?
Or is this place hard up for ratings?
Must be nothing going on at the Bay… oh wait its getting DDoSed at the moment, lol!, so everybody needs something to laugh at.
38 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:56 by realityBytes
I HAVE THE SOLUTION!!!
If everyone could use BT without threat of litigation… the only place that would sell DVDs would be the shops that have legal copies, this would destroy the black market and stop any funding of organized crime.
In other words, the MAFIAA are helping piracy to be something that can fund organized crime by attacking us.
Irony.
39 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:57 by Terror1
It really comes down to the FCC looking at network neutrality. The line “the best we can hope is to slow them down” should really concern you though. Total BS if you ask me.
40 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:57 by politux
@31 If he’s right and every one of those green lines is a person then seedboxes should be given equal rights under the law.
41 Nov 03, 2009 at 01:59 by Demon
Oh! Why I am not surprised?
CBS is owned by Rupert Murder the parasite who also owe Fixed News.
This is one of the 7 corporations of parasites and criminals who must be eradicated before we can say bye bye to freedom and the US constitution.
Now things are clear concerning 60 minutes credibility and it’s relationship with Fox noise and their extreme right propaganda.
An MPAA victory?
I wonder how many people still rely on TV broadcast and cable for their news and how many still believe what the old foggy mass medias tell them.
Personally I get my info from internet since a while already.
42 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:05 by Hahaha
> Soderbergh said he wished the Internet was never invented
What more could you wish him to say? It’s honest and unveiling.
43 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:09 by Sendaii
You know, I wouldn’t have minded if they gave the actual facts. Instead, they lump us in with paedophiles. I don’t know how these people even have a shred of respect left.
I never liked the MPAA, but now they disgust me. They rank just below stepping in a fresh dog turd on my list.
44 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:09 by Demon
@21 Anon
Oh, stop changing your screen name to try to make people believe that this forum is infested by parasites such as yourself.
We know that there is only one of you.
But since you are there tell your boss that we are coming soon with the pest killer for them.
45 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:11 by e-tard
‘Soderbergh said he wished the Internet was never invented. “Piracy is costing Hollywood $6 billion a year at the box office”‘
This guy can’t be serious. I would rather have access to the internet for one month than a lifetime of access to every film ever made.
46 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:15 by Nathan
I had the displeasure of catching this segment on TV the other day. The amount of misinformation and propaganda was so overwhelming it made me furious! The scary thing is that John Q. Public is eating this up and will gladly join in todays witch hunt against “downloaders”… just as soon as they are done panicking because they haven’t been able to find someplace to get their H1N1 vaccine shot yet, like the TV said they should.
Never mind the gory details about the MPAA hitmen hiding and spying in movie theaters ready to take out anyone and their family that might even possibly be using a video camera. Boggles my mind that people still insist on going to movie theaters.
47 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:16 by nik
…adds 10 more movies to torrent downloads… lol
48 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:17 by moot
…adds 10 more movies to torrent downloads… lol
49 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:19 by BottomLiner
all i have to say is…
ITS NOT A FUCKING CONE!
50 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:27 by Anonymous
All this information coming from a show with zero credibility. Move along folks nothing to see here.
51 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:31 by Sam
If anything, drug cartels, that is if they are camming movies, should be upset with torrents, since people get free copies of the movies they cam. How can downloading a movie for free support these guys? Hint: They need money to shuttle drugs around.
(flip over for answer)
?,u?? ??
52 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:33 by Sam
Well, the upside down text failed, so here you go: It can’t
53 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:33 by me
Makes me want to seed more
54 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:34 by Bobe-On (Evolution)
@Nov 03, 2009 at 02:15 by Nathan:
We sure can take our relative knowledge, intelligence and wisdom for granted sometimes, ay?
The world is rife with “John/Jane Q. Publics”. We see it every day. That’s in part why our world is the fucked up way it is.
I wish I could live for about 500 or so more years just to see if our race lasts that long, because I have my doubts. :/
55 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:35 by a/s/l
LEARN TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A CONE AND A CYLINDER YOU MISOGYNISTIC BUMSPLAT
56 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:40 by Anonymous
Complaint filed: http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml?tag=ftr
57 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:43 by Canadia
God forbid they make 19.9 billion dollars if they made 20 billion last year…Greedy fuckers
58 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:44 by lol
did he just advertise for downloading movies “You can get a full feature length movie in just minutes” Hmm ex MPPA telling us that must be good :)
59 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:44 by mu57i11
I’ve just finished downloading up for my family, does this mean that we are all involved with child prostitution?
60 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:46 by pirateprideWW
Just keep up the boycott, folks. They can engage in all the hand-wringing they want, just don’t reward their lies and attempts to change the laws of entire societies to fit those lies.
61 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:52 by Cordelia
POOR, POOR AMERICANS – Most are brainwashed into believing that they live in the “land of the free”…. But nothing in the country is free, not good healthcare, no university. All big media controlle by the corporations.. Hollywood and constantly fed lies and propaganda news and false information about other countries. All while the whole world hates America more everyday.
Thank goodness there are some sensible people from the US on this site.
62 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:55 by crying
after my dad saw this he took away my computer, saying he doesnt want me involved with drug trafficing and prostitution. how retarded are these people.
63 Nov 03, 2009 at 02:59 by SomeoneElse
Call me an idiot, but how is the movie industry supposed to compete when the alternative is to get movies for free? I’m not being snarky, I really want to know.
64 Nov 03, 2009 at 03:02 by Bob Sagget
Whole 12Min Interview Without Commercials.
http://www.megavideo.com/?v=BJ2GPXWZ
65 Nov 03, 2009 at 03:03 by knux
@9
Yes so we pay to use our bandwidth to share the files for their own purposes… If I’m gonna pay for then they better be setting up seed boxes that support atleast 4Mb/s connections and thousands of peers at once. Otherwise they should pay us a portion of our internet fees or lower the price of their movies to compensate.
66 Nov 03, 2009 at 03:07 by MS September
BLAME AL GORE ITS ALL HIS FAULT!
67 Nov 03, 2009 at 03:08 by sam
Thanks to 60 minutes, millions of people who never knew anything about file sharing are now downloading movies. LOL
68 Nov 03, 2009 at 03:08 by Anonymous
I have to admit I liked his explanation. It was simple and effecent. I showed my friend this who is always asking me about this shit.
69 Nov 03, 2009 at 03:15 by Xcel
@22
http://azureus.sourceforge.net/plugin_details.php?plugin=3DView
It DOES NOT WORK WITH VUZE, you will have to find and DL the Az build it does work with if you want to use it…
@58
how did you manage to log on to TF to tell us that your dad took your computer??
@59
“Idiot”
(Sorry couldnt resist. to did ask for us to call you one!)
70 Nov 03, 2009 at 03:18 by thesaint396
Thanx No53 for the feedback link I have just sent them this:
your recent programme on Torrent’s and downloading was very disappointing, if you were going to just spout off MPAA propaganda instead of facts you could have just said so, using already debunked reports that they funded themselves anyway and only having one side of the argument was bad enough but to lump torrent users in with organized crime and paedophiles is a disgusting act, and very close to the lies and propaganda of Nazi Germany against the Jews, to be honest I know you don’t care what I write I am just sad that some of you may have started your careers wanting to help and inform the people but now you just roll over and feed whatever crap your bosses tell you to feed to the public, you are PATHETIC.
71 Nov 03, 2009 at 03:19 by Anonymous
Here is link to 60 minutes http://www.mininova.org/get/3110962
72 Nov 03, 2009 at 03:33 by torrentzbutt
stupid maffia they never know when to stop.
73 Nov 03, 2009 at 03:46 by Me
Who would pay 5$ for a pirated movie when you can get it for free on the internet. i cant believe there is business in writing cams to disk.
74 Nov 03, 2009 at 03:59 by Paps Schmir
Eerrr, please explain the logic? Since torrents are free, how did the so called organized criminals and terrorists make money?
Baffles the mind don’t it? hehe
75 Nov 03, 2009 at 04:15 by Ruh Roh
Steven Soderbergh wishes that the internet had never been invented? what a complete hack asshole. Can you imagine a world where there was no internet & the only entertainment options were watching Steven’s consistently shit movies? boy, oh, boy would I love to shove my foot up his ass for even daring to have such a completely lame & moronic opinion as that.
76 Nov 03, 2009 at 04:16 by ukxenon
After people at the cinemas wanted to frisk my 3 daughters i refuse point blank to go to a cinema ever again.
I am now tempted to start to download the films and watch them at home and i dont see why the movie industry does not offer this kind of service.
BUT all in a they can go and swivel i will not be treated like a criminal when i was a paying person.
77 Nov 03, 2009 at 04:41 by whoa
Hey, how about a new take on 60 minutes crap?? I’m a mom, 53 yrs. old and was through with hollywood, excessively high prices and crappy product long before embracing bit torrent. There are many average citizens out there that may not be tech savvy who don’t exactly bleed for the “industry’s” losses. Could be the MIFIAA has shot itself in the foot again. Unfortunately for the greedmongers, people aren’t as stupid as they think. Out here where the world is folks still have common sense. But then, the MIFIAA wouldn’t recognize that trait.
78 Nov 03, 2009 at 04:53 by Anonymous
pirate bay and publicbt appear down.
79 Nov 03, 2009 at 04:56 by jamie
they sound like they really dont know what there talking about. this is proven by one guy saying that praters aren’t looking for quality, they ether didn’t want to mention or didn’t know about dvd rips. the only thing they focused on was recorded movies. oh and im guessing they didn’t want to talk about sonys little rootkit virus.
80 Nov 03, 2009 at 04:57 by Anonymous
@19
“Because piracy prevents any creative effort or business venture from being viable.”
See http://nastyoldpeople.blogspot.com/ for refutation.
“Further more, I wouldn’t call it manipulating so much as informing, because im guessing that most people who watched the show last night didn’t need much convincing to agree that taking something without paying for it is wrong.”
That’s the lovely thing about downloading: nobody *takes* anything. Nobody *steals* anything. When a person steals a car or a loaf of bread, one person gains a car/loaf, and the other person loses it. When somebody downloads a film, the seeder and Hollywood producer still have their originals.
Nobody takes, but a lot of people receive… and you’d be hard-pressed to convince me that receiving something without paying for it is wrong. Grinch.
“Pirates are very happy to advertise their so called freedom of information and yet when information about THEM makes it into mainstream circulation, they become uncomfortable.”
Mixed metaphors.
“Do we really need numbers to convince ourselves of how large piracy has gotten? We’ve all seen the numbers for the most pirated movies. They are in the millions. Now, multiply them by the average price of a movie.. say $10.. I think it should come out to something close.”
Hardly a question of how many films have been downloaded… that’s largely irrelevant. Using those numbers to explain revenue loss falsely assumes that people are downloading movies *instead* of going to the theatre, when a pretty large number of people who download films probably wouldn’t have gone to see the movie at all had that been their only option.
Last time I was in a theatre a few weeks back, it was packed right full of people. Being lucky enough to live in a place without MPAA police, I rather enjoyed myself there. So did most of the others. It was a good film and I was happy to pay the admission fee.
“If they were potential custemors, they would go out and buy movies like everyone else.”
Bingo. So if they’re not potential customers… why is the movie industry worried about them?
81 Nov 03, 2009 at 05:11 by Soundwave (Have A Cigar)
We must expose them publicly. They use dirty politics, and they need to be called on it.
They belong in jail, and I don’t feel safe with pathological liars lose on the street paying off politicians, and handing out propaganda pamphlets and comic books filled with lies and misinformation, intended to brainwash our children.
These scum are the lowest of the low – SHARKS and Gangsters, playing victim.
Would you like to the Police?
Would you lie to the FBI/Interpol?
Would you lie to an Judge?
No wonder you got the name “MAFIAA”, when you lie to the public, the politicians, including the U.S. President and his elected staff?
Lying to the president is not punishable? We need to change a few laws. Get involved.
Now you may or may not agree with me on everything, but you have to agree, that lying to the President and his staff should be against the law.
82 Nov 03, 2009 at 05:20 by That.
@ 15
Yeah, let’s all go watch fox!
I agree that 60 minutes is terrible, but I disagree that considering it left wing (which it isn’t imo) doesn’t make it inferior. And it would be stupid to associate anti-piracy with the left. :/
83 Nov 03, 2009 at 05:25 by diarRIAA
I’m waiting for someone to release the video featuring subtitling that actually explains the facts.
Of course 60 minutes is going to offer a one sided view. I’m sure all of the record executives, lawyers and “stars” wined and dined the people that work with the television program and brain washed them. They do this all the time with politicians, lawmakers, etc.
Naturally, if the RIAA/MPAA were on the program and if 60 Minutes actually featured a balanced news program, the RIAA/MPAA would’ve bailed out and threatened to sue them because they were promoting piracy.
It’s all nonsense. Someone please torrent the program with subtitles that actually explains the true facts. We all need to see this.
84 Nov 03, 2009 at 05:38 by Ben Jones
@diarRIAA
Working on one, and have been all night. who knows when it will be ready though.
85 Nov 03, 2009 at 05:40 by Eng
@neo.styles|nvDX
You had me until you said this:
‘As Lars Ulrich said, no one works for free, so why should artists or anyone that is affected by piracy?’
Lars by his own admission in the liner notes (and through interviews) admitted to making illegal copies of “classic albums” that the lead singer had by copying them to cassette tape. His excuse was, “I was poor.” So it’s ok for him to break the law but it’s not ok for someone else?
You should also remember that the reason why the band had such a huge following was they allowed people who attended their concerts to record them. (Think Greatful Dead, the same band that didn’t release a new album for like 10 years yet was making millions touring even though people traded tapes and got to hear other shows for “Free”.) This allowed trading and that got more people to hear them play. Read: Free advertisement by word of mouth. The RIAA got into their heads and their self destruction tour commenced. They are now a shadow of their former self, blaming their entire demise to theft.
It should also be pointed out (via this site) that alot of the money collected by the RIAA the artist have yet to see.
Sorry but the RIAA needs to die. I stopped buying their product years ago and now only support independent/creative commons artists.
86 Nov 03, 2009 at 05:54 by mpaa idiots
The mpaa still doesn’t get it, I want to view programs when I want to in my home on demand, I don’t want to be forced to watch my program of choice months after it has been released in it’s country of origin on my Cable/Terrestial TV. My TV has been unplugged for years. I subscribe to the sports that I LIKE only, and get my news online, which is more varied and I can decide which biased news reporting to believe.
I don’t have to download movies ’cause my domicile is a third world country where ROM’s are 50 cents a pop, these ROM’s are often hawked right next to police stations, I love democracy, besides that’s what hollywoods crap is actually worth. The biggest pirating nations excluding internet, are in Eurasia, Middle East, Far East, South America, and Africa, I don’t see the mpaa/riaa making any issue in these countries of the 50cent ROM’s.
Besides there’s much more interesting non fiction programs to watch on youtube and the Net, i.e. Richard Dawkins on evolution, Christopher Hitchen’s wonderful oratories on the evils of religion, much more interesting than hollywoods crap.
so my middle finger is firmly extended to the stupid business model of the mpaa/riaa mafia extortionist idiots
87 Nov 03, 2009 at 06:02 by Rboy
Without the internet we would have three choices.
1) Buy Movie
2) Rent Movie
3) Never Watch except if it happens to be on TV
I will always opt for 2 or 3 I have never bought a movie. I may have bought a few Disney flicks out of the bargain basket for the kids in the VC days but have never bought a mainstream movie on disc and have not bought a music cd in over 20 years.
The industry may lose a small amount to potential buyers but no study can assess that because the correlation between download and lost sale is not known.
Even Google makes money off of traffic searching for downloads so they and all their stock holders also part of organized crime?
No cash is directly changing hands in file sharing I wonder who pays the rippers, up loaders, seeders, website costs etc. I spend plenty of time looking for, downloading and unpacking content so if your time is worth anything even file sharing is not really free.
What the RIAA and MPAA will have to come to realize is that in the digital age, content has become a commodity and commodity pricing applies the days of premium pricing for discs be it music or movies is over.
88 Nov 03, 2009 at 06:03 by Grundy Mundy
@15
60 Minutes is “left wing”? What bizzaro universe do you live in?
@71
He he he.
89 Nov 03, 2009 at 06:03 by lj
How can you feel bad for ANYONE wearing a suit? Are you fucking serious? You made SLIGHTLY less PROFIT? Didn’t even lose money, but made slightly less PROFIT. You pieces of shit. I make practically nothing each month, struggle to get by. While I’m getting free couches off craigslist you’re sitting in 1000 dollar ones. Fuck you, I hope you’re financially devastated so much that you’re at least brought down to my level you sick fucks.
How can anyone feel bad for these rich piece of shit businessmen?
90 Nov 03, 2009 at 06:33 by Krlll
3D view works fine with Vuze at least when using the classic UI.
60 Minutes look like the sellouts they obviously are with this “report”.
Another artcile on 60 minutes lameness.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20091101/1818186751.shtml
91 Nov 03, 2009 at 07:04 by z
I wonder what the trend is for profits on movies from previous years. How much did movies made prior to 2004 make in 2004? How much did movies made prior to 2009 make in 2009?
I have a theory that the availabilty and ease of DVD rentals/purchases, PPV and legal downloads, as well as being able to watch them in increasingly higher quality at home (better TVs, sound systems, no ridiculous theater prices, and no full body search), have caused a significant increase in profits for older movies and therefore for movies in general.
My point being that how much money a movie makes in it’s year of release may not be as relevant as how much it makes overall. Box office earnings may not be all that relevant anymore.
Anyone know?
92 Nov 03, 2009 at 07:52 by .neo.styles|nvDX
What ulrich said may have made him a personally a hypocrite, but his point stil stands. How can anyone make any money if people just download their stuff at no cost? This is why payment was invented. Jesus, probabaly the most obvious thing here..
93 Nov 03, 2009 at 08:12 by Anonymous
Burn Hollywood Burn.
60 Minutes go to hell.When did you guys start running INFOMERCIALS for Big Corporations?
94 Nov 03, 2009 at 08:19 by hmm
Sadly, that’s true.
Filesharing and organized crime go together.
There’s no P2P network safe from MPAA/RIAA/IFPI’s criminaly organized damage nowadays.
95 Nov 03, 2009 at 08:28 by Black EAGLE
MPAA/RIAA
didn’t they have a movement in a place – called “JONESTOWN” Guyana some years back …
just a few of MPAA/RIAA followers … just drank the Koolaid or were shot because they didn’t believe.
Line ‘em up …
96 Nov 03, 2009 at 08:44 by Anonymous
HE TOOK HIS FAMILY TO A MOVIE?
THAT RAT BASTARD
97 Nov 03, 2009 at 08:54 by Carefully Watching
Honestly if I was a non techy person watching 60 minutes.. They sold me on the idea. Seriously the guy made it sound like its all these people doing it, then BAM you got a movie in minutes. So why the hell am I buying movies now?
Good job MPAA convert the rest and we will have more followers
98 Nov 03, 2009 at 09:50 by peroo
let´s call it a cone from now on,gets them even more confused.
99 Nov 03, 2009 at 10:25 by Banacek
I think it shows how out of touch 60 minutes is if they think people still buy bootleg tapes off the street. Because you can get bootleg’s for free on the internet, sales of bootleg DVD’s have to be almost zero. People that used to buy bootleg tapes in the 90s either use bittorrent now, or netflicks.
100 Nov 03, 2009 at 10:28 by kewlness
great vid! mpaa knows their stuff!
101 Nov 03, 2009 at 10:43 by WAKE UP
I can’t believe that Hollywood employees are so narrowminded to see the huge potential of bittorrent technology. Instead of embracing this revolutionary piece of technology they try to transform it in something evil and illegal. Are you insane people. Right now I’m looking at the figures on btjunkie.org and they say like this:
Todays Torrents: 1,265
Total Torrents: 4.03mil
Total Trackers: 15,245
Total Seeders: 41.47mil
Total Leechers: 31.38mil
Do you even bother to read this numbers. Don’t you think that this is a bussiness opportunity and not some global crime movement. Do you not create your movies for the people? Than why don’t you adapt to the way people choose to watch this movies?
You give your money to the MAFIAA organization instead of investing in signing deals with the ISP all over the world. I won’t mind paying another 20-30% to my monthly internet subscription if this allows me to download from you the movies I like. You will have than tens of millions of new customers and your so called loses will turn in huge earnings. Don’t you see that the MAFIAA is not defending you it’s just shielding you (hollywood)from investing in this technology because then their part will be over. WAKE UP HOLLYWOOD AND DON’T LET YOURSELF DECEIVED ANYMORE!!!!
102 Nov 03, 2009 at 10:46 by w00t
Thanks to the RIAA/MPAA-asses for promoting Bittorrent. Let’s smoke a spliff to it, and seed some torrents :D
103 Nov 03, 2009 at 10:48 by Ozymundaneus
First of all, you have the wrong greedy bastard Aussie owning CBS – Murdoch owns FOX. Sumner Redstone owns CBS / Viacom / Paramount.
And I’m sorry, all of you who want to say that a download is just the same as somebody buying a bootleg DVD off the street, are full of crap. It’s nowhere near the same. Every independent study that’s not being funded by a trade protection group shows that the people who download music & films actually spend MORE money than the average person who doesn’t download those things. They tend to be more aware consumers, that’s it. Not the same as buying a pirated DVD that secretly funds the Yakuza’s white slavery operations at all.
104 Nov 03, 2009 at 11:09 by Cordelia
Who even CARES if Hollywood and the big record companies go bust…???
There’ll always be indie stuff made — and people who are artists because they love art, not to get filthy rich.
Less Hollywood propaganda and less commercialised Junk-music will be GOOD for the world.
Maybe people could then even start thinking for themselves and develop some good taste.
105 Nov 03, 2009 at 11:11 by bleep
User A has downloaded 40 movies this year. Lets punch numbers because he would have bought them if torrents were not available. Delusional Idiots. It’s not black or white.
106 Nov 03, 2009 at 11:12 by Anonymous
@101
+1
107 Nov 03, 2009 at 11:49 by SteveO
I watched this and it sounded positive, he said we cannot stop it, only slow it down. And the millions lost are from people who make copies and covers and sell them on the street for $5. Also he commented on the quality is what suffers, that the cams are not good quality, but admitted people that buy them for $5 dont care about quality.
108 Nov 03, 2009 at 11:56 by Paul London UK
idea / food for thought…
if a small public domain document lets say a BIBLE were distributed in as many future torrents as possible…
how would this affect those bit torrent monitoring companies?
i ask because joining a swarm would then not necessarily mean that you were after the REAL content, additional monitoring by them would be required. a bit like downloading the familiar demonoid text file.
extending this concept further, having mega packs containing many REAL and FALSE content could be the way to go.
In addition I think falsely nameing torrents such as johnsholidaypics could provide more plausible deniability
109 Nov 03, 2009 at 12:29 by Anonymous
@62
“after my dad saw this he took away my computer, saying he doesnt want me involved with drug trafficing and prostitution. how retarded are these people.”
sucks to be american
110 Nov 03, 2009 at 12:36 by Anonymous
The program he use is Azureus (Not Vuze) with this plugin: http://azureus.sourceforge.net/plugin_details.php?plugin=3DView
I can’t get it to work with Vuze, so you need download an old client to use it.
111 Nov 03, 2009 at 12:37 by lulzz
hahaha…just watched the 60 min special. I like how they go right to “drugs, etc..” profiting off these movies. Then it goes to the internet saying its in the same both. How would a drug dealer profit off uploading movies to the net??
112 Nov 03, 2009 at 12:41 by Brink
Was there a cone inside the cylinder? or can’t this man recognize basic solids?
113 Nov 03, 2009 at 12:48 by BunchoBS
“Perhaps Hollywood should start to see the millions of illegal downloaders as potential customers instead of thieves.” Next time a shop owner should not call the police but realize he is dealing with a ‘potential customer’ When someone breaks into your home, you should realize he is ‘a potential friend’ or even a ‘potential neighbor’ When someone steals your iPod, he could potentially become the worlds greatest DJ. Give him your iTunes account login info too…
114 Nov 03, 2009 at 12:50 by Kelly
all criminals are potential buyers, husbands, rock stars, rocket scientists. So love em. Love em all!
115 Nov 03, 2009 at 13:00 by sadcat
best bittorrent howto ever
116 Nov 03, 2009 at 13:01 by koko
WELL,
- downloading the movies etc. in question is illegal by current law, but isn’t it at the same time ‘right’ for people with too little money?
AND:
- it is legal, when some people (f.e. in hollywood) make millions a year, while others make so little that they can hardly survive. that’s the current law… but is this law ‘right’, then?
117 Nov 03, 2009 at 13:13 by jon7272
6 billion in losses from piracy could have something to do with little thing called a recession and loss of jobs why would you spend 50 bucks taking the family to the movies when you cant pay your mortgage and food bills mpaa propaganda at its best lol
118 Nov 03, 2009 at 13:39 by Power2All
“Who want to watch these camcorder movies ?”
“Cause they don’t want to give out any money for it”
I laughed here when they also started about buying cammed movies.
I mean wtf, nobody is gonna pay up for a cammed movie on DVD.
I laughed at those fall-ins at DVD piracy.
We have BitTorrent for god sakes, who would still buy crooked DVD’s >_>
Or they’re really sneaky, or really outdated.
It’s all about BluRays too now xD
119 Nov 03, 2009 at 13:40 by Power2All
@111
In Europe, we are _allowed_ to downloading music and movies.
Games is illegal here though, but mostly I buy my shit legal anyway.
We use cracks to play multiplayer at my home anyway.
120 Nov 03, 2009 at 13:48 by koko
@61:
“POOR, POOR AMERICANS – Most are brainwashed into believing that they live in the “land of the free”…. But nothing in the country is free, not good healthcare, no university. All big media controlle by the corporations.. Hollywood and constantly fed lies and propaganda news and false information about other countries. All while the whole world hates America more everyday.
Thank goodness there are some sensible people from the US on this site.”
You are right, but it is not that different in other countries… if it comes to brainwashed people. (But you know this, i am sure)
121 Nov 03, 2009 at 13:50 by TheTrollWithLessOomph
@19 .neo.styles|nvDX
‘Competition is all about consumer appeal and you can’t compete with something that is free and that requires zero effort on the part of the consumer (last time I checked, clicking a few buttons isn’t hard.)’
Monopolies don’t compete for the sole reason that they are monopolies.
But if they want to get file sharing piracy to manageable levels they actually have to compete, what with the mindset already being firmly set to virtually free and cheap substandard quality.
‘But then why don’t they embrace piracy? Are you serious? Because piracy prevents any creative effort or business venture from being viable.’
Disregarding the less then stellar technic of answering your own question, you at least ought to answer it correct.
Piracy as in illegal file sharing, is only illegal because it’s not legal, in some countries. That doesn’t mean it could’ve staid legal, but administered and controlled by media corporations, especially considering the supposed fact, one that you’ve trumped before, that all them “illegal” file sharing sites are making tones of cash from ads.
‘As Lars Ulrich said, no one works for free, so why should artists or anyone that is affected by piracy?’
Disregarding the fact that even famous artists do charity work, so does millions of other people including the less known artists, and for most, especially for people in the open source community and all content creators that want their stuff in digital format to get pirated, piracy, as in “illegal” file sharing, is positive.
122 Nov 03, 2009 at 13:56 by @neo troll
neo troll:
“Isn’t it obvious? Competition is all about consumer appeal and you can’t compete with something that is free and that requires zero effort on the part of the consumer”
Quick! Go tell that to Apple so they can start making iTunes fail! Because its success invalidates your argument. And we can’t have that.
neo troll:
“no one works for free”
Yes. Why, just for example, the concept of freeware is actually a clever hoax.
neo troll:
“And shouldn’t it? So called illicit file sharing is not only illegal but also deeply immoral”
A lecture on legality and morality is amusing coming from some one who is paid by the copyright industry to troll filesharing sites with the same small and extremely flimsy collection of lies ad infinitum. Not only is file sharing LEGAL in many regions, making it squarely not illicit, but sharing is considered to be a rather classical moral virtue.
This is in stark contrast to the greed, lies, and extortion practiced by the industry you are a mindless shill for.
neo troll:
“If they were potential custemors, they would go out and buy movies like everyone else.”
If they went out and bought movies like everyone else* then they would be normal customers, not potential ones, you amazing specimen of density.
*Hmm… But according to you, I thought everyone else was downloading them?
neo troll:
“How do you think the people engaged in these acts get their films>?”
How gullible do you think we are? Commercial pirates get their films the same way they did before the BitTorrent protocol was ever an idea in the back of Bram Cohen’s mind. It wouldn’t matter to them if filesharing ended tomorrow. Even if you’re willing to believe FACT’s laughable BS that commercial piracy is oh so profitable(if it actually were, the film industry would adopt the same low price high volume model, among other things).
123 Nov 03, 2009 at 13:58 by Dee Gardner
I liken this to a hurricane that is bearing down on their beach front property. They refuse to leave and the houses they have built on sand are going to be washed away.
124 Nov 03, 2009 at 14:33 by icy-flame
We’ve freed the slaves and the women, its about time to free the knowledge.
125 Nov 03, 2009 at 14:48 by gn
@19
you’re a capitalistic whore who only think about one thing… MONEY MONEY MONEY. No wonder that with millions like you walking around, the world is progressively becoming controlled, restricted, “managed” all for your own benefit and a bunch of printed papers you call money. You cannot restrict or control information. The moment you try to do so, you become a dictator. Instead of changing your “models” to fit the new technology, you try to wage war on information flow and dictate who is or isn’t allowed to have it. Sounds like the exact similar situation when the printing industry was first invented and idiots like you tried to control its information flow. We all know how hard it failed and this is no different
126 Nov 03, 2009 at 14:48 by lmao
that was f*cking hilarious
127 Nov 03, 2009 at 14:49 by Thomas
Why is everyone getting their panties in a twist over this? The people who actually WATCH 60 Minutes anymore are not much younger than Morley Safer, and more than half of them don’t even have a computer. So the industry message fell almost completely on clueless, aging ears.
128 Nov 03, 2009 at 14:50 by DJ Sketch@133X.org
so let me see if i got this straight…..if i download a movie, i am helping to rape children????
hmmmmmm…….what about terrorism? cant we be linked to osama bin laden too?
or maybe we could be in league with the late john gotti becuase we download.
ohhhh and i bet satan is involved somehow too. lol, what a crock.
129 Nov 03, 2009 at 15:01 by hi folks
i’m not from the u.s and i have to say that if i didn’t know more about p2p than i do i would have certainly be scared by that prog.
because it was actually REALLY scary.
they make you think that the people using p2p networks are ALL dangerous criminals,that after you’ve downloaded a film you would go down the street to kill/rape/abduct someone,or you would sell drugs to kids.
for someone who doesn’t know anything about the subject,it’s going to scare them to death…really!
i just hope that prog isn’t followed by a lot of people over there.
peace to all.;)
130 Nov 03, 2009 at 15:35 by T.H.E. S.W.A.R.M.
haha cool video :D
131 Nov 03, 2009 at 15:51 by Tigger
Lol!
Flamed @19!
I could sit here and refute every statement you made, but unfortunately i have to go to WORK!
Despite the fact I work bloody hard, i could never afford to watch every new movie i wanted, or play every new game i wanted. I cant believe your still making the same retarded point about every pirated copy being a lost sale =P
Various Artists have also started releasing they’re own content online…for FREE!! Trent Reznor for example – but there are plenty of others as well! Do your research muppet!
132 Nov 03, 2009 at 15:54 by Nob0dy
This isn’t the first time 60 minutes has covered piracy….
everybody, look for a clip labeled “Who Stole Superman?” from 1979. The MPAA was paranoid back then about people using VHS recorders.
133 Nov 03, 2009 at 16:58 by NeoZiggy
If they put out anything worth seeing, I’d be happy to shell out 10-15$ for it. Only thing worth paying for recently is Zombieland.
The rich people are just afraid of loosing money to the people that they have made poor. Cry me a f-king river, I can’t wait for some 70 year old to come and ask me to get em a copy of some John Wayne movie now. LOL
134 Nov 03, 2009 at 17:04 by Cygnus
I was flipping through channels and saw this come on so i did watch it. It was amusing when they talked about how the “behind the scenes” hollywood workers were the ones taking the hit from piracy. They admit flat out, that they care less about these people than about the actors (rather than everyone taking a paycut).
I find Netflix to be the best alternative. The movies aren’t pre-release content, but at least you can still rip dvd’s to the computer. About the same price as a VPN and the mailman saves me my bandwidth for d/ling games. Any word on BluRay ripping?
135 Nov 03, 2009 at 17:26 by Comeoncomcast (aka Andrew)
@19
your basically an idiot, or CBS reporter who needs to pull his head out
@25
Stop Trolling
136 Nov 03, 2009 at 17:37 by robbieowallace
comment #19, neo styles, among other comments says file sharing is illicit and immoral.. wow, must be nice to always be the smartest one in the room… and it’s immoral too.. not only are you the smartest guy around you are the one we should listen to for moral guidance..Listen up Numb Nuts..File sharing has been around for as long as there has been an internet!!! the free exchange of thoughts and ideas is what built the world wide web.. We are a better world through sharing.. It wasn’t that many years ago the Hollywood Moguls were forcing out the smaller studios, even using hired thugs to destroy sets and threaten families.. Now the Major Studios are owned by people that make refrigerators and TV sets, magazine companies, and amusement parks.. so you tell me..Which is the bigger crime?
137 Nov 03, 2009 at 17:41 by pissed off
Wow what retarded junk.
Besides, if people don’t pay for movies, THEIR MONEY GOES SOMEWHERE ELSE. It’s simple mathematics. If you have to choose between a movie and another product (not “intellectual property”), would the economy be worse if you choose the latter?
Why?
Of course it would be worse to the corporate shitfucks in the intellectual property industries who want to get money for nothing, since redistributing movies is CHEAP AS HELL. Revenue is almost the same as profit for those fucks.
But it would be better for the manufacturer of the second product, so the economy DOES NOT go down.
Those pieces of shit need to realize that the economy does not equal the MAFIAA’s revenue.
Fact is, people SPEND their money ELSEWHERE, and what’s having both products going to hurt anybody? It’s not like they could even HAVE paid for both… so having both (due to piracy) doesn’t hurt anyone, except the shitfucks who live in a delusion.
If you have to choose for a movie and something else to part with your money, and you choose the latter, the MPAA won’t get your money, so what’s pirating going to hurt them?
People spend their money. FACT. Whether they spend it on the MPAA or something else is irrelevant.
138 Nov 03, 2009 at 17:42 by drmike
And the news industry wonders why most folks get their news from the Daily Show instead of actual news broadcasts.
@127 Re: “So the industry message fell almost completely on clueless, aging ears.”
The problem with that though is those folks are the ones more likely to call up their congressmen and depend something be done.
139 Nov 03, 2009 at 17:44 by Anonymous
BTW you right-wing advocates, it’s the left wing who has valued more freedom than your beloved right-wing dumb fucks like McCain who want to censor the internet. Figure that out, huh?
140 Nov 03, 2009 at 17:46 by drmike
Oops, forgot to mention that I would love to see all torrent trackers drop their collections of 60 minutes from their database. Either that or recategorize them as Comedy.
141 Nov 03, 2009 at 18:25 by cando22
Lets all weep for Sony and Disney and Time Warner, perhaps there is federal money available, oh wait, the insurance companies and banks were already invested in the motion picture industry, how bout a 60 minute edition on how the major studios scammed the American taxpayers out of bailout money because their motion picture projects tanked at the box offfice!!! Soderberg says small indies will suffer… Join the real world moron… thats what happens when you turn out a product that SUCKS.. its called free market competition.. funny how that fickle consumer says “take this crap and shove it”… they just don’t understand the “artistic process” Why would we expect anything different from the MPAA? By the way I see Nicolas Cage had to sell his castle in Bavaria and he is now discounting several homes in the USA cause times are tough… those poor movie stars, whats next? No private jets? No Limos? might have to shop for themselves and learn real world economics!!!! OMG
142 Nov 03, 2009 at 18:27 by zqft
I like how he admitted that the US has shitty broadband.
143 Nov 03, 2009 at 18:28 by Anonymous
I never watch 60 Minutes, it’s so biased on everything it reports and besides, it’s a boring show anyway.
144 Nov 03, 2009 at 18:50 by Trelew
To Neo Styles
After so many of tirades posted by you and your fellow corporate troll, Reasoned Mind; I have to conclude you are both very naive or corporate stooges paid to troll sites like these to spread your corporate propaganda.
“Because piracy prevents any creative effort or business venture from being viable.”
Internet file sharing has been proven several times that they actually promote creativity and increased sales; as most file sharers are of the “try before you buy” variety.
“So called illicit file sharing is not only illegal but also deeply immoral. Further more, I wouldn’t call it manipulating so much as informing, because im guessing that most people who watched the show last night didn’t need much convincing to agree that taking something without paying for it is wrong. Most people probabaly just didn’t know how rampant online piracy has become. The moral quandaries of piracy speak for themselves.”
Internet file sharing is only being called illegal because Big Business wishes it so. Unfortunately, they have corrupted governments around the world that they can get what they want. For the most part the majority of the public are ignorant on the aspects of file sharing. So unfortunately they take anything at face value when spouted off by Big Business and politicians in the media about the so-called evils of internet file sharing.
What this piece on 60 Minutes shows (and on our local news media too) is that there is no integrity in journalism today. It has been bought by Big Business to manipulate the public to doing what they want.
145 Nov 03, 2009 at 19:29 by Capn
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml
USE IT
146 Nov 03, 2009 at 20:19 by Anonymous
this is all bullshit mpaa can suck a dick
147 Nov 03, 2009 at 21:37 by Nizzy
Great read, lol at some of the comments.
US isn’t about freedom anymore it’s only about money.
<3 from europe.
148 Nov 03, 2009 at 22:26 by reacto
thats some crappy journalism
http://piratesagainstpedos.co.cc/
149 Nov 04, 2009 at 00:03 by No Name
These 60 minutes dummkopf forgot to factor in the miscellaneous losses from other media. With the rise of videogames and online flix streaming (Netflix), people now have a variety of means to access their entertainment.Organized criminals and terrorists get their money elsewhere, such as prostitution, people smuggling, drugs and Wall Street.
150 Nov 04, 2009 at 00:48 by 000
Wheres the torrent for this? I wanna watch…
151 Nov 04, 2009 at 01:02 by pimpdoubt@gmail.com
that’s called a cylinder dumb bastard.
152 Nov 04, 2009 at 02:10 by dan
i think they assume they deserve money for every download of any of their material. they think that if everybody stops pirating any of their work, that everyone will pay for all of things people were downloading and their profits jump.
I don’t think the MPAA really understands who can afford to pay for all they are downloading.
153 Nov 04, 2009 at 02:11 by Bobe-On
Is 60 Minutes part of the industry though?
Is the Oscars Awards like giving yourself an award?
Anyway, the last time I was in a theatre (about 5 years ago– and it was sort of an “indie reperatory”) the volume seemed a bit too cranked.
From what I understand, many who attend loud concerts and clubs, etc., actually lose some of their hearing.
Speaking of movies, and old ones, recall the Ship of Fools: Well, I often feel like I’m trapped on one in everyday life… I get the feeling that some people would be more than happy to have everyone be a slave for them and have them do precisely what they want.
Something to think about that as you work your 9-5.
America was founded in part on slavery.
Imagine that.
154 Nov 04, 2009 at 02:15 by Bobe-On
…and many other instances of slavery around the world and far back in history.
Can you even reason with people like those?
155 Nov 04, 2009 at 02:45 by Pook
I for one always remember to import a 3rd world sex slave for every 10 movies I download….
Is that enough to please the MPAA or do I have to try harder?
156 Nov 04, 2009 at 03:13 by RMind
You can’t compete with free
157 Nov 04, 2009 at 03:18 by chisophugis
I can’t seriously listen to a guy that can’t tell the difference between a cone and a cylinder.
158 Nov 04, 2009 at 07:24 by ken-adams
Well, shit, i think one of those green things on the outside was me
159 Nov 04, 2009 at 07:40 by eav
so is anything being done to get 60 minutes to retract that misleading piece? or at least to get them to show the other side of them?
just kinda curious.
160 Nov 04, 2009 at 09:20 by Soundwave (Have A Cigar)
“I for one always remember to import a 3rd world sex slave for every 10 movies I download….”
Holy hell, that’s hilarious.
161 Nov 04, 2009 at 10:23 by Lars Ulrich
@20 and @92
Lars Ulrich is a complete tool-bag anyways, who cares what comes out of his stupid ass mouth
162 Nov 04, 2009 at 13:21 by fusseltier
piracy doesnt stop creativity. that is just an excuse.
the problem isnt in the west, the problem is in asia, there are so many poor people, and in china they make dvds with 16 movies on a dvd anad sell them all over aisa for $1.50
but its easier to go after americans and europeans that are nothing compared to what is goingon in asia.
163 Nov 04, 2009 at 14:16 by Anonymous
“You can’t compete with free.”
BZZZZT, wrong! Care to try your luck again? :-)
AllOfMP3 proved conclusively that it is without a shadow of a doubt abso-friggin-lutely possible to compete with free.
If that isn’t enough, I’ll just say what I’ve said a thousand times before. I’M A FILE SHARER AND I WANT TO PAY FOR MY ENTERTAINMENT! All the industry has to do is fulfill the consumer demand that has always been there and be willing to stop overcharging for everything.
Can’t compete with free? More like they don’t want to, even though they easily could if only they would put in a small modicum of effort. Laws instituting a sort of business welfare system is what their really after though, so more lies and baloney is all we’re going to see out of them for the foreseeable future.
164 Nov 04, 2009 at 14:17 by dan
The MPAA apparently assumes that people who download will not pay for content, which is grossly incorrect.
In response to fusseltier, while people profiting from piracy is the worst of all possible worlds, it might be more beneficial to the industry than they’ll ever admit. Selling bootleg copies exposes a different sector of society to a product, they could not otherwise see. Particularly if the material isn’t even released in the country, which happens more often than not.
165 Nov 04, 2009 at 14:32 by Kickass_Sid
They took our Jobs(c)South Park
166 Nov 04, 2009 at 20:48 by D2LV
THANK ALL THAT IS GOOD FOR TORRENT FREAK. Without you, a major part of internet freedom would be lost.
167 Nov 04, 2009 at 22:54 by imerebus
Just downloaded that episode :)
lots of points were inaccurate and false…..obviously the segment was financed by the MPAA….i don’t support selling DVDs on the sidewalk but including us file-sharing people with them is complete ignorance on the part of those people….
also liked the way the hostess of the show was surprised by the “gee-whiz” technology called bittorrent!!
168 Nov 04, 2009 at 22:57 by Taj
169 Nov 04, 2009 at 23:48 by aerger
university campuses are the dumbest places to do any p2p use on
170 Nov 05, 2009 at 03:40 by Anonymous
Guy, please send your comments and frustrations to CBS:
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml
Also, check this: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091103/0303386776.shtml
This crummy episode is getting bad press, lets keep it up.
171 Nov 05, 2009 at 14:58 by United Hackers Association
ya think truly CBS gives a shit
you need another hole in your brain.
Think these are seasoned people and reporters they been around look at past stories. Since the owner of that show died its gone right stupid.
too bad used ot get the odd ep that had an interesting story now its just tabloid hollywood crap like everythign else these days.
LIKE the politician dying on stargate i was like SPACE THE BASTARD they fuck us all the time…..
172 Nov 06, 2009 at 06:35 by eliphant0723
@62
WOW. Sucks.
I’m gonna have to see that airing now.
Another note: On occasion when I do grab a torrent of some movie (I mostly torrent tv episodes, books, and audio books), usually I watch it and then end up seeing it in the theatre with the GF or some friends…I wonder how common this is?
173 Nov 07, 2009 at 14:23 by Brudda
I’m glad 60 Minutes aired this piece. If file sharing is the uncontrollable wave of the present and future, then more exposure is a good thing.
Every time the MPAA opens its mouth, it harms itself. This prime-time piece is a good thing. It will bring more members into the fold.
174 Nov 08, 2009 at 23:30 by Nic Schweitzer
Is there a link so I could download the whole report? I’d love to watch that again and again and again…
175 Nov 16, 2009 at 00:03 by Guilherme Bellia
MPAA is evil
Piracy is good
MPAA sues regular people and make them pay millions of dollars for 30 mp3s
Piracy gives cultural access to poor people.
John Malcolm makes more than 20k a month fighting piracy.
These guys uses #lies to fight pirates likes here:
http://blog.brokep.com/2009/10/08/fail-in-nl/
These guys DONT WANT OUR GOOD
These guys JUST WANT TO MAKE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
These guys dont want FREE BLOGS LIKE THIS
These guys wants a WORLD THAT WE DO NOT WANT ANY MORE
These guys wants a WORLD THAT WE DO NOT BELIEVE ANY MORE
and now we all can join forces trough the internet AND FIGHT THEM BACK
we shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end,
we shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the ef-nets and darknets,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
we shall defend our Internets, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the baywords.org,
we shall fight on the /. and on the digg,
we shall fight in the courts;
we shall never surrender,
Spokeswoman says its still a crime, compares it to shoplifting. Many of us are well aware of illegal video streaming sites that allow you to watch new movie releases on-demand. Obviously it’s illegal to upload and make content available, but what’s sort of murky is whether or not it’s illegal to simply watch it.
Original post:
Related posts:
- The Pirate Bay hatches new streaming video site (sort of)
- Streaming Video Sites Should Be Blocked, Says Movie Producer
- Pirate Bay Launches “Video Bay” Video Streaming Site
- Bram Cohen To Deliver BitTorrent Live Streaming
As the war on Internet piracy rages on, a Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) official recently said that anyone in the United States who views new film releases online technically could be committing theft.
“Nobody who isn’t a criminal would walk into Blockbuster or Wal-Mart or Best Buy, wherever they’re selling or renting DVDs, take it off the shelf, put it under their arm and not pay for it,” MPAA spokesperson Elizabeth Kaltman told the Chicago Sun-Times.
This analogy has failed both the MPAA and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the past, as it doesn’t cause guilt among very many PC users. Not too many people believe pirating digital music tracks is quite the same as pillaging the local Best Buy.
Furthermore, copyright lawyer Steve Englund noted people who post copyrighted content are technically committing a crime, but it’s a far stretch to say each person watching the content also is violating the law.
The MPAA spokesperson also pointed out at least 90 percent of unauthorized video viewing online is of movies recorded directly in movie theaters. Although it has become easier to steal and transfer pre-release versions of movies, there is better enforcement and anti-piracy measures that make it easier to identify where the leak originated from.
Earlier in November, the MPAA urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to have a three-strikes piracy law similar to some European nations, which could lead to repeat copyright infringers being disconnected from the Internet.
- You can see the documents showing our group’s work on the NIST Smart Grid twiki at: http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-sggrid/bin/view/SmartGrid/CSCTGPrivacy
- The draft PIA I referenced earlier is located at: http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-sggrid/pub/SmartGrid/CSCTGPrivacy/NIST_High_Level_PIA_Report_-_Herold_09_09_09_w-edits.doc
- See some of my blog posts about Smart Grid privacy at:
- “10 Smart Grid Consumer-to-Utility Privacy Concerns; Are There More?” related to our work at http://www.realtime-itcompliance.com/privacy_and_compliance/2009/09/10_smart_grid_consumertoutilit.htm
- “15 Smart Grid Privacy Concerns + Other Smart Grid Thoughts” at http://www.realtime-itcompliance.com/privacy_and_compliance/2009/11/15_smart_grid_privacy_concerns.htm
- “Smart Grid Privacy: Laws and Implications” at http://www.realtime-itcompliance.com/privacy_and_compliance/2009/10/smart_grid_privacy_laws_and_im.htm
- To see the discussions I put with each of these privacy concerns see my document, “Smart Grid Privacy Concerns: October 2009” at
- http://www.privacyguidance.com/files/SmartGrid_PrivacyHeroldOct2009.pdf
- You can see the first draft of our privacy contribution in Chapter 2 within the first draft of the Smart Grid NISTIR 7628 at
- http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/nistir-7628/draft-nistir-7628.pdf
We are currently working hard to add meaningful content to the next draft of the NISTIR, tentatively scheduled to be released at the end of December.
I’ve been hard at work this month documenting many more ideas and suggestions for privacy standards, certifications and definitions for the group.
You can see some of them on the NIST twiki, and I’ll make them available soon on my blog and/or webisite to get more feedback from those who are not participating with the NIST activities.
Plus, I have a few more documents to upload to the NIST Smart Grid privacy twiki site.
I’ve put in a lot of time, thought, research and bouncing ideas off of family members (my sons are actually very insightful with their unpolluted and non-influenced views and attitudes of what is right and wrong with regard to using personal and home information) since our NIST meeting last Thursday (11/19) for putting together a Privacy Impacts Matrix along with associated components as indicated in the meeting notes I circulated to the group.
I circulated the matrix to the group for their comments.
At the suggestion of group members, including Mike Coop, Christopher Veltsos, and others I’m afraid I could not identify by their voices during our phone call, I’ve taken the 16 identified privacy issues/concerns and put them into six categories of privacy impacts/risks.
Then, I took these six categories and associated concerns and put them into a matrix to map them to associated “Discussion,” “Mitigating Controls / Privacy Standards (See Proposed Privacy Standards for corresponding descriptions),” “Information Necessary To Do Harm,” “Can Information Be Collected from Smart Meter?,” “Can Information Be Collected from Smart Grid?,” “Applicable Laws and Regulations” and “Notes.”
NOTE/DISCLAIMER: The rest of this post, along with the previous information, does not necessarily represent the views or support of NIST or the other privacy group members! I do not want to get anyone, from NIST or involved with the group, in trouble or to give an impression that they support something that they may be completely in opposition to, or may just have slight disagreements with as worded. I’m providing the information here to allow for productive feedback on these ideas and also to vet them to see if something that seems feasible is, in fact, not possible.
The following is the information from the first three columns of the matrix, which lists “Potential Privacy Impacts/Outcomes,” “Discussion of the Impacts/Outcomes,” “Mitigating Controls / Privacy Standards (See Proposed Privacy Standards below for corresponding numbered descriptions)”
1. Identity Theft
a. Making it look like another household used energy
Discussion: Specific combinations of smart grid data may be used to impersonate a utility consumer, resulting in potentially severe impacts, such as negative credit reports, fraudulent utility use and other damaging consumer actions.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18
b. Attributing personal mobile electricity use, such as through PEVs, to another individual or household
Discussion: Specific combinations of smart grid data, collected from PEVs or other types of mobile electricity usage equipment, may be used to impersonate a utility consumer, resulting in potentially severe impacts, such as negative credit reports, fraudulent utility use and other damaging consumer actions.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18
2. Personal Surveillance
a. Perform real-time personal surveillance of dwelling inhabitants based on energy use
Discussion: Access to live energy use data can reveal if people are in the dwelling, what they are doing, where they are in the dwelling, and so on.
This not only presents a safety risk, with burglars and vandals using it to their destruction, but it could also be used to do target marketing based upon dwelling energy use behaviors.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19
b. Determine personal behaviors and activities of dwelling inhabitants and tracking over time
Discussion: Access to data use profiles that can reveal specific times and locations of electricity use in specific areas of the dwelling can also indicate the types of activities and/or appliances used as well as various types of activities within the dwelling over a period of time.
The information revealed is a type of surveillance.
The data could be used, and misused, by other entities to do target marketing, by governments to try and tax specific activities and uses, by employers who want to know where and when employees were and what they may have been doing during certain dates, by insurance investigators as part of their claims investigations, and by persons with malicious intent.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
c. Determine personal behavior patterns of dwelling inhabitants
Discussion: Access to data use profiles that can reveal specific times and locations of electricity use in specific areas of the dwelling can also indicate the habits of the dwelling inhabitants.
By knowing habits of inhabitants, assumptions can be made about what what types of activities they will do, or when they will likely, or likely not, be within the dwelling.
Such assumptions about habits can potentially lead to inappropriate or erroneous decisions by not only utilities companies, but also by appliance makers, vendors using the smart grid, government agencies, law enforcement, employers, insurance companies, criminals and others.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
d. Reveal activities through smart meter and/or smart grid residual data
Discussion: If the data on the metering devices is not effectively or completely removed, the possibility exists that the residual data can reveal to the new meter user, or entity that possess the meter, the activities of the former owner.
If true, not only does this present similar concerns to those listed in the first three concern topics, it could also be used by activists or others who have agendas to reveal what they view as a lack of social responsibility.
However, to prevent any tampering of historical data and to satisfy the size constraints for the new meters — providing more functionality in the same physical meter box — the data is not likely to be stored within the smart meter itself.
But, the possibility of storing data within home meters should be considered in any meter functionality plans so that if it does become possible to store PII in smart meters the privacy issues will be appropriately addressed.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 8, 11, 15, 17, 18, 19
e. Tracking personal behavior of renters/leasers
Discussion: When a different individual owns and pays for the utilities other than the resident, such as in the case of a rental unit, room subletting, leasing, and so on, the landlord or property owner could have access to the smart meter data and potentially track the residents’ activities.
Rent decisions could be made based on past power useage history. Power useage profiling could following individuals nad impact a wide range of decisions.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, 17, 18, 19
f. Profiling
Discussion: Profiling may be possible in ways that were previously not possible, or not as easily possible. What can you tell about what you can see from energy consumption?
For example, if the consumers are straight or gay? Terrorist profiles? Affairs? Illegal activities? Will access to do data mining for investigations put people on terrorist watch lists, etc.?
Will politicians want to use for potential activity taxation? Performing a gap analysis could point out scenarios and associated risks.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19
g. Data Mining
Discussion: Combinations of meter data and other data within the smart grid network, analyzed for one purpose, could unexpectedly reveal information about the dwelling inhabitants that is then used to the detriment in one of many ways, as listed in this matrix, of the residents.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19
3. Energy Use Surveillance
a. Determine specific appliances used (when, where, how long, etc.)
Discussion: Smart meter data will have the ability to track the use of specific smart appliances that are programmed to communicate with the smart meters.
Appliance manufacturers may want to get this information to know who, how and why individuals used their products in certain ways. Such information could impact appliance warranties.
Insurance companies may want to use this information to approve or decline claims. And there is an unlimited number of other possible uses as yet not imagined that this data could provide.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
b. Perform real-time energy use surveillance
Discussion: Smart meter data will have the ability to track the real-time use of specific smart appliances that are programmed to communicate with the smart meters.
Appliance manufacturers may want to get this information to know who, how and why individuals used their products in certain ways.
Such information could impact appliance warranties. Insurance companies may want to use this information to approve or decline claims.
And there is an unlimited number of other possible uses as yet not imagined that this data could provide.
Access to live energy use data can reveal if people are in the dwelling, what they are doing, where they are in the dwelling, and so on.
This not only presents a safety risk, with burglars and vandals using it to their destruction, but it could also be used to do target marketing based upon home energy use behaviors.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
c. Reveal activities that have occurred when used with data from smart meters, smart appliances, etc.
Discussion: Data from smart appliances when compared to and used with data from smart meters may be able to reveal activities that occurring within dwellings at specific times and on specific dates.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
d. Tracking energy use behavior of renters/leasers
Discussion: When a different individual owns and pays the utilities other than the dwelling occupant, such as in the case of a rental unit, room subletting, leasing, and so on, the landlord or property owner could have access to the smart meter data and potentially track the residents’ activities.
Rent decisions could be made base on past power useage history. Power usage profiling could following individuals and impact a wide range of decisions.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
e. Determining energy use when combining data with the data from other utilities or other entities (e.g., Google and Microsoft applications)
Discussion: Even more personal activities and information could be revealed if smart meter data and/or smart grid data was combined with data from other utilities and utility meters, such as those for gas, water, and so on, or with other smart grid vendors or organizations that have collected smart grid data in any way.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11, 15, 17, 19
f. Energy consumption and related activity censorship or limitation
Discussion: Combinations of meter data, analyzed for one purpose, could unexpectedly reveal information about the residents that is then used to the detriment of the residents.
E.g., making financing decisions, investigations, insurance rates, and so on.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11, 15, 17, 19
g. Energy consumption and related activity taxation
Discussion: Smart meter and smart grid data could be used to determine energy use activities in ways that government entities may wish to tax or otherwise find uses for that could penalize the dwelling occupant in some way because of their assumed (from the grid data) lifestyles.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11, 15, 17, 19
4. Physical Harm
a. Stalking and domestic abuse
Discussion: Malicious use of smart meter, or any smart grid, data for specific consumers could lead to a wide number of problems, such as physical invasions to the home from stalkers or ex-spouses or ex-partners who want to do harm to the residents, or want to enter the premises when residents were away.
Meter data could allow such malicious individuals to tell whether or not the residents have an alarm system, where they are located at any point in time in the dwelling, and so on.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
b. Targeted home invasions
Discussion: Malicious use of meter data for specific consumers could lead to a wide number of problems, such as physical invasions to the home because crooks could tell when residents were away, whether or not they have an alarm system, and so on.
The meter data could also allow crooks to determine the types of appliances are within the dwelling based upon usage data, giving them information used to make decisions about which dwellings to rob or terrorize.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
c. Negative health impacts based upon automated or breached smart grid or smart meter actions/activities
Discussion: Smart meter thermostats can theoretically be programmed to make decisions about the house’s heating and air conditioning levels.
The thermostat can be set to adjust automatically to use less energy. Smart appliances can also conceptually be programmed to run during times when electricity is less expensive, such as adjusting the thermostat at night or to start the dishwasher automatically at night when no other appliances are running.
If someone determines when inhabitants are in the dwelling and gets access to make changes to the meter settings they could make the dwelling colder or hotter with physcal detriment to the inhabitants, especially those inhabitants who are not physically able to change the meter settings themselves.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
5. Decisions and Actions Based Upon Inaccurate Data
a. Reveal household or individuals activities through residual data from smart grid components
Discussion: If the data on the metering devices, or other smart grid components, is not effectively or completely removed, the residual data can reveal to the new meter user, or entity that possesses the meter or other smart grid component, the activities of the former owner.
If true, not only does this present similar concerns to those listed in the first three concern topics, it could also be used by activists or others who have agendas to reveal what they view as a lack of social responsibility.
However, to prevent any tampering of historical data and to satisfy the size constraints for the new meters — providing more functionality in the same physical meter box — the data is not likely to be stored within the smart meter itself.
But, the possibility of storing data within home meters should be considered in any meter functionality plans so that if it does become possible to store personal information in smart meters the privacy issues will be appropriately addressed.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
b. Decisions made based upon data mining inaccurate smart grid data
Discussion: With meter data being stored in potentially many locations, accessed by so many different individuals and entities, and used for a very wide variety of purposes, it is a significant risk that the smart meter and smart grid data for specific consumers could become inappropriately or accidentally modified.
Even when security controls work correctly, data can be inappropriately and accidentally modified. Automated Smart Grid decisions made for home energy use could not only be detrimental for residents (e.g., restricted power, thermostats turned to dangerous levels, and so on) but decisions about Smart Grid power use for specific dwelling inhabitant activities could be based upon inaccurate information.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
c. Decisions made based upon data profiling using smart grid data
Discussion: With meter data being stored in potentially many locations, accessed by so many different individuals and entities, and used for a very wide variety of purposes, it is a significant risk that the smart meter and smart grid data for specific consumers could become inappropriately or accidentally modified.
Data profiling is increasingly being used to determine the activities and characteristics of specific individuals, and then subsequently used in investigations, research, credit monitoring, insurance decisions, and an unlimited number of other activities.
Using data profiling applications to make decisions about Smart Grid power use for specific dwelling inhabitant activities could be based upon inaccurate information, and could subsequently result in actions that negatively impact dwelling inhabitants in their home, work or travel activities.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
6. Reputation Harm
a. Unwanted publicity and embarrassment based upon smart grid or smart meter reports or associated data
Discussion: Embarrassment and other negative impacts could result from unauthorized disclosure and/or publication of household, electric vehicle or other types of smart meter/appliance/vehicle use.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
b. Public aggregated searches of smart grid data revealing individual behaviors
Discussion: What kind of smart grid network search engines will there be? What discussions or plans have occurred around this possibility? What information would be involved? What control would consumers have to not have their data included in such searches?
The privacy issues would be similar to the privacy concerns that currently exist with Internet search engines, only the implications could be more wide-reaching because the data would be based upon individuals’ actual daily living activities, and not upon what they consciously chose to put onto the Internet.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
c. Provide unintended publicized privacy invasions as a result of data aggregation and mining activities
Discussion: Even more personal activities and personal information could be revealed if the smart meter data was combined with the data from other utilities and utility meters, such as those for gas, water, and so on.
What types of reports will utilities, smart appliance and meter vendors, and other entities involved with the smart grid be publishing?
Will they publish reports that will reveal activities or information about specific dwellings or PEVs? What discussions or plans have occurred around this possibility?
What information would be involved? What control would consumers have to not have their data included in such searches?
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
Establishing and implementing a comprehensive set of privacy standards will be effective for providing a significant set of baseline mitigating controls.
Of course there will likely need to be other specific types of controls added within specific sections of the smart grid as well, but using a set of proposed privacy standards are a good solid basis to start from.
Plus, establishing multiple privacy controls (resulting from implementation of the standards) will create the layers of protections necessary to truly have a positive impact for effectively protecting privacy.
As we’ve long known with information security, layers of controls are necessary to provide effective protection; doing single actions in isolated areas helps, but does not effectively provide protection throughout the network in the long run.
The same concept is true for protecting privacy; we need layers of privacy protections throughout the entire smart grid to effectively address privacy concerns and prevent privacy invasions and breaches.
So, I spent time creating the proposed smart grid privacy standards below, and indicated within the matrix, the ones that best map to each of the privacy impacts (these are indicated by the numbered mitigating controls above).
Again, I realize there are other mitigating controls that are likely to be necessary, but these can provide a solid starting point.
Plus, it highlights the power (pardon the pun) that good privacy standards can have when built into the smart grid from the very beginning, and also when used and followed by all entities involved with the smart grid.
1. Limiting the collection of data by the smart meter to only that necessary for the purposes of improving energy use and efficiency for the specific dwelling.
2. Limiting the collection of data by the utilities from the persons paying the utilities account at the dwelling to only that necessary to manage the account and to improve energy efficiency.
3. Notify the dwelling inhabitants (which may be different from the individuals paying the utilities bill for the dwelling) and persons paying the utilities bills of the data being collected, why it is necessary to collect the data, along with the specific uses for the data, the purpose for the collection, and the use, retention, and sharing of the data. Data subjects should be told this information before the time of collection.
4. Notify the dwelling inhabitants whenever the utility, or a smart grid entity, wants to start using existing collected data for different purposes.
5. Notify the dwelling inhabitants whenever the utility, or a smart grid entity, wants to start collecting additional data beyond that already being collected, along with provided a clear explanation for why the additional data is necessary.
6. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must provide a clearly worded description to the dwelling inhabitants notifying them of 1) any choices available to individuals and, 2) explain why specified data items must be collected and used in specified ways without obtaining consent from the individual.
7. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must describe the choices available to dwelling residents with regard to the use of their data and obtain explicit consent if possible, or implied consent when this is not feasible (such as for providing basic service), with respect to the collection, use and disclosure of the data collected from the specific dwelling.
8. Data, and subsequent created information that reveal personal information or activities, from and about specific dwellings should be retained only for as long as necessary to perform the purposes that have been communicated to the inhabitants. When no long necessary the data and information, in all forms, should be irreversibly destroyed.
9. Data and created information from and about specific dwellings should only be used or disclosed for the specified purposes for which it was collected and should only be divulged to or shared with those parties authorized to receive it, and whom the organizations have told the dwelling inhabitants it would shared.
10. Data and created information from and about specific dwellings should not be disclosed to or shared with any other parties except for those identified in the notices that have been provided to the dwelling inhabitants, or with the explicit consent of the individual.
11. Data collected from dwellings should be aggregated and anonymized by removing personally identifiable information elements wherever possible to ensure usage for data of individual dwellings are limited appropriately.
12. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings should provide a process to allow dwelling inhabitants to ask to see and be given access to the corresponding data from their specific dwelling, generated through their energy use and on their utilities account, and to request the correction of perceived inaccuracies.
13. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must establish documented policies and procedures to ensure that the data collected from, and subsequently created about, dwelling inhabitants is accurate, complete and relevant for the purposes identified in the notice, and remains accurate throughout the life of the dwelling data within the control of the organization participating in the smart grid.
14. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must make privacy policies available to dwelling inhabitants. Organizations participating in the smart grid must establish a procedures that allows dwelling inhabitants to the organization’s compliance with their published privacy policies as well as their actual privacy practices.
15. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must formally assign responsibility to a position or person to ensure that information security and privacy policies and practices exist and are followed. As part of their responsibilities, documented requirements for regular training and ongoing awareness activities must exist and be followed. Audit functions must also be present to monitor all data accesses and modifications.
16. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must ensure that information in all forms, collected from, and subsequently created about, dwelling inhabitants, is appropriately protected from loss, theft and must prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.
17. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must perform annual privacy impact assessments (PIAs) and provide it to each state’s energy commissioner office to review. They must also perform a PIA on each new system, network, or smart grid application and provide it to each state’s energy commissioner office to review.
18. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must establish policies and procedures to identify breaches and misuse of smart grid data, along with establishing procedures and plans for notifying dwelling inhabitants in a timely manner with appropriate details about the breach.
19. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must obtain and maintain a current organizational privacy certification from an authorized third party certification organization to validate processes, policies and controls are in place that supports each of the previously listed applicable privacy standards. The organization should post an approved certification seal on their website to allow easy validation of their privacy certification.
I want to know what you think so I can take your feedback to the group, and also consider and discuss with you. What are your thoughts about these privacy impact categories?
My proposed privacy standards?
I’ll put PDFs of the matrix and the list of proposed standards on my website soon for easier reference, and also they’ll look alot better than my blog editor can allow!
* * *
Stay Informed With ISR News Feeds and Email Alerts Here:
Enter your email address:
Delivered by FeedBurner
Rebecca Herold, CIPP, CISSP, CISM, CISA, FLMI, is an information privacy, security and compliance consultant, author and instructor with her own company, Rebecca Herold & Associates, LLC, who has provided assistance, advice, services, tools and products to organizations in a wide range of industries throughout the world for over two decades.
The Privacy Professor, aka Rebecca Herold & Associates, LLC, has been a trusted source for effective information security, privacy and compliance tools, education and consulting since 2004. The Privacy Professor is located in Des Moines, Iowa within easy driving distance to Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City and St. Louis, and easy flights to the east and west coasts. The Privacy Professor brings over two decades of expertise to organizations of all sizes, in all industries throughout the world. You can reach her at rebeccaherold@rebeccaherold.com or www.theprivacyprofessor.com.
The Publisher gives permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author and to Information-Security-Resources.com
- You can see the documents showing our group’s work on the NIST Smart Grid twiki at: http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-sggrid/bin/view/SmartGrid/CSCTGPrivacy
- The draft PIA I referenced earlier is located at: http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-sggrid/pub/SmartGrid/CSCTGPrivacy/NIST_High_Level_PIA_Report_-_Herold_09_09_09_w-edits.doc
- See some of my blog posts about Smart Grid privacy at:
- “10 Smart Grid Consumer-to-Utility Privacy Concerns; Are There More?” related to our work at http://www.realtime-itcompliance.com/privacy_and_compliance/2009/09/10_smart_grid_consumertoutilit.htm
- “15 Smart Grid Privacy Concerns + Other Smart Grid Thoughts” at http://www.realtime-itcompliance.com/privacy_and_compliance/2009/11/15_smart_grid_privacy_concerns.htm
- “Smart Grid Privacy: Laws and Implications” at http://www.realtime-itcompliance.com/privacy_and_compliance/2009/10/smart_grid_privacy_laws_and_im.htm
- To see the discussions I put with each of these privacy concerns see my document, “Smart Grid Privacy Concerns: October 2009” at
- http://www.privacyguidance.com/files/SmartGrid_PrivacyHeroldOct2009.pdf
- You can see the first draft of our privacy contribution in Chapter 2 within the first draft of the Smart Grid NISTIR 7628 at
- http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/nistir-7628/draft-nistir-7628.pdf
We are currently working hard to add meaningful content to the next draft of the NISTIR, tentatively scheduled to be released at the end of December.
I’ve been hard at work this month documenting many more ideas and suggestions for privacy standards, certifications and definitions for the group.
You can see some of them on the NIST twiki, and I’ll make them available soon on my blog and/or webisite to get more feedback from those who are not participating with the NIST activities.
Plus, I have a few more documents to upload to the NIST Smart Grid privacy twiki site.
I’ve put in a lot of time, thought, research and bouncing ideas off of family members (my sons are actually very insightful with their unpolluted and non-influenced views and attitudes of what is right and wrong with regard to using personal and home information) since our NIST meeting last Thursday (11/19) for putting together a Privacy Impacts Matrix along with associated components as indicated in the meeting notes I circulated to the group.
I circulated the matrix to the group for their comments.
At the suggestion of group members, including Mike Coop, Christopher Veltsos, and others I’m afraid I could not identify by their voices during our phone call, I’ve taken the 16 identified privacy issues/concerns and put them into six categories of privacy impacts/risks.
Then, I took these six categories and associated concerns and put them into a matrix to map them to associated “Discussion,” “Mitigating Controls / Privacy Standards (See Proposed Privacy Standards for corresponding descriptions),” “Information Necessary To Do Harm,” “Can Information Be Collected from Smart Meter?,” “Can Information Be Collected from Smart Grid?,” “Applicable Laws and Regulations” and “Notes.”
NOTE/DISCLAIMER: The rest of this post, along with the previous information, does not necessarily represent the views or support of NIST or the other privacy group members! I do not want to get anyone, from NIST or involved with the group, in trouble or to give an impression that they support something that they may be completely in opposition to, or may just have slight disagreements with as worded. I’m providing the information here to allow for productive feedback on these ideas and also to vet them to see if something that seems feasible is, in fact, not possible.
The following is the information from the first three columns of the matrix, which lists “Potential Privacy Impacts/Outcomes,” “Discussion of the Impacts/Outcomes,” “Mitigating Controls / Privacy Standards (See Proposed Privacy Standards below for corresponding numbered descriptions)”
1. Identity Theft
a. Making it look like another household used energy
Discussion: Specific combinations of smart grid data may be used to impersonate a utility consumer, resulting in potentially severe impacts, such as negative credit reports, fraudulent utility use and other damaging consumer actions.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18
b. Attributing personal mobile electricity use, such as through PEVs, to another individual or household
Discussion: Specific combinations of smart grid data, collected from PEVs or other types of mobile electricity usage equipment, may be used to impersonate a utility consumer, resulting in potentially severe impacts, such as negative credit reports, fraudulent utility use and other damaging consumer actions.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18
2. Personal Surveillance
a. Perform real-time personal surveillance of dwelling inhabitants based on energy use
Discussion: Access to live energy use data can reveal if people are in the dwelling, what they are doing, where they are in the dwelling, and so on.
This not only presents a safety risk, with burglars and vandals using it to their destruction, but it could also be used to do target marketing based upon dwelling energy use behaviors.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19
b. Determine personal behaviors and activities of dwelling inhabitants and tracking over time
Discussion: Access to data use profiles that can reveal specific times and locations of electricity use in specific areas of the dwelling can also indicate the types of activities and/or appliances used as well as various types of activities within the dwelling over a period of time.
The information revealed is a type of surveillance.
The data could be used, and misused, by other entities to do target marketing, by governments to try and tax specific activities and uses, by employers who want to know where and when employees were and what they may have been doing during certain dates, by insurance investigators as part of their claims investigations, and by persons with malicious intent.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
c. Determine personal behavior patterns of dwelling inhabitants
Discussion: Access to data use profiles that can reveal specific times and locations of electricity use in specific areas of the dwelling can also indicate the habits of the dwelling inhabitants.
By knowing habits of inhabitants, assumptions can be made about what what types of activities they will do, or when they will likely, or likely not, be within the dwelling.
Such assumptions about habits can potentially lead to inappropriate or erroneous decisions by not only utilities companies, but also by appliance makers, vendors using the smart grid, government agencies, law enforcement, employers, insurance companies, criminals and others.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
d. Reveal activities through smart meter and/or smart grid residual data
Discussion: If the data on the metering devices is not effectively or completely removed, the possibility exists that the residual data can reveal to the new meter user, or entity that possess the meter, the activities of the former owner.
If true, not only does this present similar concerns to those listed in the first three concern topics, it could also be used by activists or others who have agendas to reveal what they view as a lack of social responsibility.
However, to prevent any tampering of historical data and to satisfy the size constraints for the new meters — providing more functionality in the same physical meter box — the data is not likely to be stored within the smart meter itself.
But, the possibility of storing data within home meters should be considered in any meter functionality plans so that if it does become possible to store PII in smart meters the privacy issues will be appropriately addressed.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 8, 11, 15, 17, 18, 19
e. Tracking personal behavior of renters/leasers
Discussion: When a different individual owns and pays for the utilities other than the resident, such as in the case of a rental unit, room subletting, leasing, and so on, the landlord or property owner could have access to the smart meter data and potentially track the residents’ activities.
Rent decisions could be made based on past power useage history. Power useage profiling could following individuals nad impact a wide range of decisions.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, 17, 18, 19
f. Profiling
Discussion: Profiling may be possible in ways that were previously not possible, or not as easily possible. What can you tell about what you can see from energy consumption?
For example, if the consumers are straight or gay? Terrorist profiles? Affairs? Illegal activities? Will access to do data mining for investigations put people on terrorist watch lists, etc.?
Will politicians want to use for potential activity taxation? Performing a gap analysis could point out scenarios and associated risks.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19
g. Data Mining
Discussion: Combinations of meter data and other data within the smart grid network, analyzed for one purpose, could unexpectedly reveal information about the dwelling inhabitants that is then used to the detriment in one of many ways, as listed in this matrix, of the residents.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19
3. Energy Use Surveillance
a. Determine specific appliances used (when, where, how long, etc.)
Discussion: Smart meter data will have the ability to track the use of specific smart appliances that are programmed to communicate with the smart meters.
Appliance manufacturers may want to get this information to know who, how and why individuals used their products in certain ways. Such information could impact appliance warranties.
Insurance companies may want to use this information to approve or decline claims. And there is an unlimited number of other possible uses as yet not imagined that this data could provide.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
b. Perform real-time energy use surveillance
Discussion: Smart meter data will have the ability to track the real-time use of specific smart appliances that are programmed to communicate with the smart meters.
Appliance manufacturers may want to get this information to know who, how and why individuals used their products in certain ways.
Such information could impact appliance warranties. Insurance companies may want to use this information to approve or decline claims.
And there is an unlimited number of other possible uses as yet not imagined that this data could provide.
Access to live energy use data can reveal if people are in the dwelling, what they are doing, where they are in the dwelling, and so on.
This not only presents a safety risk, with burglars and vandals using it to their destruction, but it could also be used to do target marketing based upon home energy use behaviors.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
c. Reveal activities that have occurred when used with data from smart meters, smart appliances, etc.
Discussion: Data from smart appliances when compared to and used with data from smart meters may be able to reveal activities that occurring within dwellings at specific times and on specific dates.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
d. Tracking energy use behavior of renters/leasers
Discussion: When a different individual owns and pays the utilities other than the dwelling occupant, such as in the case of a rental unit, room subletting, leasing, and so on, the landlord or property owner could have access to the smart meter data and potentially track the residents’ activities.
Rent decisions could be made base on past power useage history. Power usage profiling could following individuals and impact a wide range of decisions.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
e. Determining energy use when combining data with the data from other utilities or other entities (e.g., Google and Microsoft applications)
Discussion: Even more personal activities and information could be revealed if smart meter data and/or smart grid data was combined with data from other utilities and utility meters, such as those for gas, water, and so on, or with other smart grid vendors or organizations that have collected smart grid data in any way.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11, 15, 17, 19
f. Energy consumption and related activity censorship or limitation
Discussion: Combinations of meter data, analyzed for one purpose, could unexpectedly reveal information about the residents that is then used to the detriment of the residents.
E.g., making financing decisions, investigations, insurance rates, and so on.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11, 15, 17, 19
g. Energy consumption and related activity taxation
Discussion: Smart meter and smart grid data could be used to determine energy use activities in ways that government entities may wish to tax or otherwise find uses for that could penalize the dwelling occupant in some way because of their assumed (from the grid data) lifestyles.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11, 15, 17, 19
4. Physical Harm
a. Stalking and domestic abuse
Discussion: Malicious use of smart meter, or any smart grid, data for specific consumers could lead to a wide number of problems, such as physical invasions to the home from stalkers or ex-spouses or ex-partners who want to do harm to the residents, or want to enter the premises when residents were away.
Meter data could allow such malicious individuals to tell whether or not the residents have an alarm system, where they are located at any point in time in the dwelling, and so on.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
b. Targeted home invasions
Discussion: Malicious use of meter data for specific consumers could lead to a wide number of problems, such as physical invasions to the home because crooks could tell when residents were away, whether or not they have an alarm system, and so on.
The meter data could also allow crooks to determine the types of appliances are within the dwelling based upon usage data, giving them information used to make decisions about which dwellings to rob or terrorize.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
c. Negative health impacts based upon automated or breached smart grid or smart meter actions/activities
Discussion: Smart meter thermostats can theoretically be programmed to make decisions about the house’s heating and air conditioning levels.
The thermostat can be set to adjust automatically to use less energy. Smart appliances can also conceptually be programmed to run during times when electricity is less expensive, such as adjusting the thermostat at night or to start the dishwasher automatically at night when no other appliances are running.
If someone determines when inhabitants are in the dwelling and gets access to make changes to the meter settings they could make the dwelling colder or hotter with physcal detriment to the inhabitants, especially those inhabitants who are not physically able to change the meter settings themselves.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
5. Decisions and Actions Based Upon Inaccurate Data
a. Reveal household or individuals activities through residual data from smart grid components
Discussion: If the data on the metering devices, or other smart grid components, is not effectively or completely removed, the residual data can reveal to the new meter user, or entity that possesses the meter or other smart grid component, the activities of the former owner.
If true, not only does this present similar concerns to those listed in the first three concern topics, it could also be used by activists or others who have agendas to reveal what they view as a lack of social responsibility.
However, to prevent any tampering of historical data and to satisfy the size constraints for the new meters — providing more functionality in the same physical meter box — the data is not likely to be stored within the smart meter itself.
But, the possibility of storing data within home meters should be considered in any meter functionality plans so that if it does become possible to store personal information in smart meters the privacy issues will be appropriately addressed.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
b. Decisions made based upon data mining inaccurate smart grid data
Discussion: With meter data being stored in potentially many locations, accessed by so many different individuals and entities, and used for a very wide variety of purposes, it is a significant risk that the smart meter and smart grid data for specific consumers could become inappropriately or accidentally modified.
Even when security controls work correctly, data can be inappropriately and accidentally modified. Automated Smart Grid decisions made for home energy use could not only be detrimental for residents (e.g., restricted power, thermostats turned to dangerous levels, and so on) but decisions about Smart Grid power use for specific dwelling inhabitant activities could be based upon inaccurate information.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
c. Decisions made based upon data profiling using smart grid data
Discussion: With meter data being stored in potentially many locations, accessed by so many different individuals and entities, and used for a very wide variety of purposes, it is a significant risk that the smart meter and smart grid data for specific consumers could become inappropriately or accidentally modified.
Data profiling is increasingly being used to determine the activities and characteristics of specific individuals, and then subsequently used in investigations, research, credit monitoring, insurance decisions, and an unlimited number of other activities.
Using data profiling applications to make decisions about Smart Grid power use for specific dwelling inhabitant activities could be based upon inaccurate information, and could subsequently result in actions that negatively impact dwelling inhabitants in their home, work or travel activities.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
6. Reputation Harm
a. Unwanted publicity and embarrassment based upon smart grid or smart meter reports or associated data
Discussion: Embarrassment and other negative impacts could result from unauthorized disclosure and/or publication of household, electric vehicle or other types of smart meter/appliance/vehicle use.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
b. Public aggregated searches of smart grid data revealing individual behaviors
Discussion: What kind of smart grid network search engines will there be? What discussions or plans have occurred around this possibility? What information would be involved? What control would consumers have to not have their data included in such searches?
The privacy issues would be similar to the privacy concerns that currently exist with Internet search engines, only the implications could be more wide-reaching because the data would be based upon individuals’ actual daily living activities, and not upon what they consciously chose to put onto the Internet.
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
c. Provide unintended publicized privacy invasions as a result of data aggregation and mining activities
Discussion: Even more personal activities and personal information could be revealed if the smart meter data was combined with the data from other utilities and utility meters, such as those for gas, water, and so on.
What types of reports will utilities, smart appliance and meter vendors, and other entities involved with the smart grid be publishing?
Will they publish reports that will reveal activities or information about specific dwellings or PEVs? What discussions or plans have occurred around this possibility?
What information would be involved? What control would consumers have to not have their data included in such searches?
Mitigating controls (privacy standards): 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
Establishing and implementing a comprehensive set of privacy standards will be effective for providing a significant set of baseline mitigating controls.
Of course there will likely need to be other specific types of controls added within specific sections of the smart grid as well, but using a set of proposed privacy standards are a good solid basis to start from.
Plus, establishing multiple privacy controls (resulting from implementation of the standards) will create the layers of protections necessary to truly have a positive impact for effectively protecting privacy.
As we’ve long known with information security, layers of controls are necessary to provide effective protection; doing single actions in isolated areas helps, but does not effectively provide protection throughout the network in the long run.
The same concept is true for protecting privacy; we need layers of privacy protections throughout the entire smart grid to effectively address privacy concerns and prevent privacy invasions and breaches.
So, I spent time creating the proposed smart grid privacy standards below, and indicated within the matrix, the ones that best map to each of the privacy impacts (these are indicated by the numbered mitigating controls above).
Again, I realize there are other mitigating controls that are likely to be necessary, but these can provide a solid starting point.
Plus, it highlights the power (pardon the pun) that good privacy standards can have when built into the smart grid from the very beginning, and also when used and followed by all entities involved with the smart grid.
1. Limiting the collection of data by the smart meter to only that necessary for the purposes of improving energy use and efficiency for the specific dwelling.
2. Limiting the collection of data by the utilities from the persons paying the utilities account at the dwelling to only that necessary to manage the account and to improve energy efficiency.
3. Notify the dwelling inhabitants (which may be different from the individuals paying the utilities bill for the dwelling) and persons paying the utilities bills of the data being collected, why it is necessary to collect the data, along with the specific uses for the data, the purpose for the collection, and the use, retention, and sharing of the data. Data subjects should be told this information before the time of collection.
4. Notify the dwelling inhabitants whenever the utility, or a smart grid entity, wants to start using existing collected data for different purposes.
5. Notify the dwelling inhabitants whenever the utility, or a smart grid entity, wants to start collecting additional data beyond that already being collected, along with provided a clear explanation for why the additional data is necessary.
6. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must provide a clearly worded description to the dwelling inhabitants notifying them of 1) any choices available to individuals and, 2) explain why specified data items must be collected and used in specified ways without obtaining consent from the individual.
7. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must describe the choices available to dwelling residents with regard to the use of their data and obtain explicit consent if possible, or implied consent when this is not feasible (such as for providing basic service), with respect to the collection, use and disclosure of the data collected from the specific dwelling.
8. Data, and subsequent created information that reveal personal information or activities, from and about specific dwellings should be retained only for as long as necessary to perform the purposes that have been communicated to the inhabitants. When no long necessary the data and information, in all forms, should be irreversibly destroyed.
9. Data and created information from and about specific dwellings should only be used or disclosed for the specified purposes for which it was collected and should only be divulged to or shared with those parties authorized to receive it, and whom the organizations have told the dwelling inhabitants it would shared.
10. Data and created information from and about specific dwellings should not be disclosed to or shared with any other parties except for those identified in the notices that have been provided to the dwelling inhabitants, or with the explicit consent of the individual.
11. Data collected from dwellings should be aggregated and anonymized by removing personally identifiable information elements wherever possible to ensure usage for data of individual dwellings are limited appropriately.
12. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings should provide a process to allow dwelling inhabitants to ask to see and be given access to the corresponding data from their specific dwelling, generated through their energy use and on their utilities account, and to request the correction of perceived inaccuracies.
13. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must establish documented policies and procedures to ensure that the data collected from, and subsequently created about, dwelling inhabitants is accurate, complete and relevant for the purposes identified in the notice, and remains accurate throughout the life of the dwelling data within the control of the organization participating in the smart grid.
14. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must make privacy policies available to dwelling inhabitants. Organizations participating in the smart grid must establish a procedures that allows dwelling inhabitants to the organization’s compliance with their published privacy policies as well as their actual privacy practices.
15. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must formally assign responsibility to a position or person to ensure that information security and privacy policies and practices exist and are followed. As part of their responsibilities, documented requirements for regular training and ongoing awareness activities must exist and be followed. Audit functions must also be present to monitor all data accesses and modifications.
16. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must ensure that information in all forms, collected from, and subsequently created about, dwelling inhabitants, is appropriately protected from loss, theft and must prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.
17. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must perform annual privacy impact assessments (PIAs) and provide it to each state’s energy commissioner office to review. They must also perform a PIA on each new system, network, or smart grid application and provide it to each state’s energy commissioner office to review.
18. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must establish policies and procedures to identify breaches and misuse of smart grid data, along with establishing procedures and plans for notifying dwelling inhabitants in a timely manner with appropriate details about the breach.
19. Each utility and any other entity collecting energy usage data from or about dwellings must obtain and maintain a current organizational privacy certification from an authorized third party certification organization to validate processes, policies and controls are in place that supports each of the previously listed applicable privacy standards. The organization should post an approved certification seal on their website to allow easy validation of their privacy certification.
I want to know what you think so I can take your feedback to the group, and also consider and discuss with you. What are your thoughts about these privacy impact categories?
My proposed privacy standards?
I’ll put PDFs of the matrix and the list of proposed standards on my website soon for easier reference, and also they’ll look alot better than my blog editor can allow!
* * *
Stay Informed With ISR News Feeds and Email Alerts Here:
Enter your email address:
Delivered by FeedBurner
Rebecca Herold, CIPP, CISSP, CISM, CISA, FLMI, is an information privacy, security and compliance consultant, author and instructor with her own company, Rebecca Herold & Associates, LLC, who has provided assistance, advice, services, tools and products to organizations in a wide range of industries throughout the world for over two decades.
The Privacy Professor, aka Rebecca Herold & Associates, LLC, has been a trusted source for effective information security, privacy and compliance tools, education and consulting since 2004. The Privacy Professor is located in Des Moines, Iowa within easy driving distance to Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City and St. Louis, and easy flights to the east and west coasts. The Privacy Professor brings over two decades of expertise to organizations of all sizes, in all industries throughout the world. You can reach her at rebeccaherold@rebeccaherold.com or www.theprivacyprofessor.com.
The Publisher gives permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author and to Information-Security-Resources.com
The hospital had a victim that had been on the news and according to this article there were individuals looking at the patient’s chart when they should have not normally had access.
I did an interview a few months ago with Dr. Leo from Long Beach Memorial Hospital and he explained the “break the glass” routine to me on how this helps with electronic medical record access and privacy for the patient. I have included a few paragraphs below that are worth reading. If an employee who normally would not have access want to view the chart, they have to document first and say why they need access and all these requests are reviewed. You may get access but will be called on the carpet later if it was deemed you did not need access.
I mention this as one individual in this case stated she was helping a doctor locate friends and family of the patient, and if that was the case and if they have a procedure as do most Epic systems in hospitals, the story would be there, and then there’s also substantiating the story with the doctor too by asking him as well. The physicians in this instance come from Baylor University. Everything with electronic records today has an audit trail when it comes to access. I don’t know if this hospital has an EHR or not, and tracking paper access is no doubt a lot more difficult. BD
“In the news of late we keep hearing stories of patient files being accessed at hospitals without authorization by clinical staff members who are not directly involved with a particular patient’s chart, records or care, none of this at your facility, but if I were a patient at your hospital, can you tell me what safety measures you may have in place to avoid this situation?
That is a good question and yes we do have measures in place with the Epic system to avoid that situation. No one can access a medical record without signing on to the Epic system, which creates an audit trail that can subsequently be tracked. For patients for whom an extra measure of security is needed (such as employees or physicians on staff), Epic has an additional layer of security called “Break the Glass.” For these patients, anyone attempting to access the patient chart has a procedure that needs to be initiated before the patient records are available to view.
In this process the employee or physician must first explain “why” they are accessing the chart. The screen at this point flashes a security reminder, which should provide a deterrent to anyone desiring to access a medical record inappropriately. In years past there were no safeguards in place with paper charts, and anyone could pick up a paper chart and read whatever they wanted to know. But today that is not the case with our advanced technology. Whenever someone “breaks the glass”, that fact and their reason for doing so (which might be quite valid) are included in an e-mail message to our medical records staff who can monitor these actions and request further review by the medical staff office or others, as appropriate.
A full audit trail is created along with a reporting system that allows us to see all aspects of the chart, so even if an individual began the process of accessing the chart and stopped at the “why” screen, the audit trails will identify the employee who wanted to access the patient chart. The system has full audit trails with a reporting system that allows us to keep patient record security in the forefront and monitor access as authorized for patient care. On the other hand, there will be occasions where an employee will need legitimate access to the records, and that is all tracked and shown with the audit trails. In short, insuring complete maintenance of patient privacy and limiting access strictly to that which is appropriate for the care process is a top priority for us. If there is someone in the chart who we deem should not have access, the reporting systems and queries run are capable of letting us know and allowing us to take pro-active action.
The “Breaking the Glass” feature, as well as the standard procedures required for chart access, really make an individual stop and think about why they need access to a particular patient’s chart. All employees are aware of this process and know their tracks will be traced and audited, so preventing unauthorized access to patient charts and protecting patient privacy has been handled in this manner and is working well. The recent Kaiser experience with the octuplets and their actions in dealing with staff that inappropriately accessed those charts was facilitated by their use of the same Break the Glass functionality and we hope sent a good message to everyone about how important that privacy is.”
The Harris County Hospital District has fired 16 employees, accusing them of violating patient privacy laws, a hospital spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday.
District officials would not offer more details on the employees' actions. Most were fired on Friday.
A county employee who asked not to be identified told the Houston Chronicle that two high-ranking administrators told him the fired employees had looked at the medical records of Dr. Stephanie Wuest, a first-year Baylor College of Medicine resident assigned to Ben Taub General Hospital.
Harris hospital district fires 16 over privacy | Front page | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
No comments:
Post a Comment