alt Hacker NewsThen enforcement will target companies providing residential proxy services.
In whatever country they are.
I am not saying this is the magic bullet that will make it all go away. Some will, some will not.
Enforcement’s aim is not to completely eradicate crime: make it anti-economical for the majority and it’s a good deal enough.
Go to Berlin and torrent a movie: you will be fined, for a few hundred euros. Can you VPN and get away with it? I suppose so, but your average Joe is just not going to do it: why pay 10 euro per month on a VPN and risk? Just rent it.
DDOS is also, in general, a criminal charge. What would happen to prices once you get a few inducements? If it’s a crime and enforced, what are the roles of App Stores that let users download residential proxy? Are they also committing a crime? Residential proxy can be used for legitimate purposes? I don’t think that line of defence worked well for Pirate Bay, no?
And yes pirate bay is still around, some scraping will always be there.
The residential proxy operators are also not often within easy reach of western justice systems. Fines for torrenting movies are targeted against end users within the countries (and also not exactly effective, either, because the issue is quite diffuse), but prosecuting criminals in other countries, especially countries which don't really care to stop those criminals so long as they are causing problems for other countries, is not an easy process. The internet is an global system but criminal law generally is not.