Controversial British company Phorm
used to be named 121Media and has a history with spyware. So it wasn't particularly surprising when privacy advocates began opposing the the company's efforts to push behavioral advertising systems in the UK that were
dressed up as anti-phishing solutions. Those opponents have been busy lately waging a successful campaign to get companies like
Wikipedia and Amazon to opt their entire domains out of Phorm's user tracking. That last effort appears to have driven Phorm over the edge, so they've launched a new
website deriding the company's critics as smear merchants and "privacy pirates." Silly Phorm, here in the States, we pay
other people to do that sort of thing for you.
The entertainment industry is on a global campaign to get laws passed that force ISPs to implement a "three strikes and you're out" policy, whereby a broadband user would be disconnected by the ISP after three piracy warnings. Such a law already exists
in France, and the UK has been debating such a law for some time -- though passage now seems doubtful. Intellectual Property Minister David Lammy this week tells the
London Times that ISPs don't want the added regulation, and a severed broadband line as punishment doesn't fit the crime:
"We can't have a system where we're talking about arresting teenagers in their bedrooms," he said. "People can rent a room in an hotel and leave with a bar of soap--there's a big difference between leaving with a bar of soap and leaving with the television."
Like most technology metaphors, the soap one is a stupid one, given we'd be talking about
copies of soap with no soap actually missing -- and from a hotel that has a multitude of ways to still make money.
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story continues..