The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has signed private agreements with many companies regarding the semi secret isolation and ‘blacklisting’ of certain types of companies. Although this is public information, as RIAA CEO, Cary Sherman, has announced the existence of such agreements, it is not generally known that many privacy services are affected by these agreements. The growth of the prevalence of these agreements are done under the banner of combating Internet Piracy and Illegal downloads of copyrighted media but it is affecting the legitimate demands and requirements of normal people to be allowed to escape tracking on the public network.
If you form a company that provides anonymous surfing or services that allow you to be ‘private’ on the Internet, you may find that you are in contravention of either your upstream ISP’s terms and conditions or your payment gateway providers new terms of service.