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Friday, November 13, 2009

MPAA shuts down town's entire Wi-Fi over one download

Coshocton, Ohio is a town without free Internet. Thank the Motion Picture Association of America, which successfully turned off Coshocton's Wi-Fi connection to the world because, allegedly, one person used the wireless access to download a copyrighted movie.

In addition to being of great benefit to out-of-town tourists and business people, the Coshocton County Sheriff's Department personnel have found the Wi-Fi service to be a tremendous convenience by letting then file an accident or incident report without having to leave their vehicles. That's no more, because the MPAA somehow mustered up enough power to violate the Geneva Convention and subject everyone in town to collective punishment.

(Just one more reason why the Digital Millennium Copyright Act needs to be mutilated beyond all possible recognition.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Typical "reporting" job for this place. The MPAA had nothing to do with it and the "everyone in town" was not disconnected ... just the hot spot in one block. Also,the city shut down their own connection, not the service provider. However, don't let the facts deter you from tilting at windmills.

Anonymous said...

Coshocton is a small town and this was the only wifi hotspot. You obviously don't know the law because as the author noted it was the DMCA that mandates the town to turn it off. The MPAA are what started it in the first place so did you bother to read the article at all anonmous?

Anonymous said...

I read the article. And then I read the actual report from the local newspaper. Unlike some, I don't depend on blogs as a news source. I reiterate ... "everyone in town" was not disconnected, Sony not MPAA filed the complaint, and the town didn't *have* to terminate the hotspot, they made that choice. If you read on you will see that about $5000 would fix the problem. Look, I'm no fan of MPAA but I do have a thing about reporting that skirts the truth to promote a point of view.

http://www.coshoctontribune.com/article/20091109/UPDATES01/91109015

Anonymous said...

You think MPAA and Sony wouldn't sue the town if they didn't cooperate? What planet are YOU from?