ISPs Will 'Break Your Internet' If They Catch You Pirating

[FusedMass]

Also the poll is a litte messed up. You have two questions, wanting one answer.

Is it fair? Some would agree, while others wouldn't.
Is it legal? Yes. Read what you sign. You are paying them for their service and you are doing something illegal.

I put "Is it fair" and "Is it Legal" not everyone is from United States. We have different global laws that conflict with each other. What is legal here may not be considered legal there and vice versa. I admit I could have worded it better. Just imagine I asked if it's legal. Fair can be objective. I have high speed internet from one of the company's listed.

I never signed an agreement allowing them to do this. They're not asking out permission. They're just doing it without notifying us of new services being added. It's not like we can read the fine print and click "Don't Accept" it's virtually without a choice.

[Tinykong]

I remember buying a PC (gaming) magazine and getting a CD/DVD filled with game demo's on it.

Getting my copies of PC Gamer, EGM and others was a high point of my summers as a teenager. I was exposed to, and often purchased, lots of games I otherwise would have never even though I would be interested in.

[mirthen]

This type of thing has been going on for a long time already. Ever since the DMCA. The only thing that actually changes these days is the amount of monitoring they do on their users. Problem with monitoring the users is cost first, it forces the ISPs to spend more in order to monitor more, which means their costs go up more. So in the end they monitor less since they want to keep their prices lower in order to beat out competition.

Also this only targets the "mass population" and not the more tech savvy users. Things like where they target certain websites, like popular torrent sites, to those who have been around long enough know to avoid these places like the plague. Cant really go into any actual detail since i dont want yet another infraction here based on 'pirating' comments. But in essence those who know better would never be caught up in any of this type of stuff, to those who just leech off the internet whatever they might find 'free' thats actually illegal and dont know better then to use certain methods.. yeah sucks to be them.

[Serpenth]

You know I always wondered if Comcast was breaking my internet and I think they had been. I remember specifically one night in July 2011 I had downloaded the latest episode of curb your enthusiasm because I don't have HBO. I noticed immediately that night my internet had started having unexplained mini outages. I've been pirating all kinds of stuff for many years I'm not here to debate what is right what is wrong just stating what has happened. Though I always pirated "indie" stuff never something from someone big like Microsoft or HBO. So I had worried maybe this is the time I will get caught. Anyways literally for the next year up until about August 2012 I had 1-3 mini outages EVERY DAY. They would last 15-20 minutes. I'm not an idiot and know the whole reset everything routine change this change that. Probably 3-4 times during that year I had called and explained that I was having these outages and they claimed every time there was nothing wrong with my service.

I literally haven't pirated anything in months (not because of the outages, I didn't think they were related) and have noticed that since about August these mini outages have stopped completely. This has what led me to believe that Comcast was punishing me for pirating.

[Deleted]

This was only a matter of time to be honest. ISPs were destined to consolidate like any other industry.

Unfortunately for them and fortunately for us, the internet is simply too chaotic to control.

[Simca]

Doesn't matter. The penalties are a slap on the wrist at best. There is not even a penalty level for suspending your service, so the thread title is lolsy.

Use private torrents, VPNs, HTTPS proxies, UseNet, or any of the other various ways to get around these silly restrictions.

Also, the reason HuffPost is bad on stuff like this is because they way overreact (as all liberal media does when the word "censorship" gets involved). Some example news titles:

HuffPost: "HOLY SHIT ISPs BREAKIN UR INTERNETS, STOP EVERYTHING RITE NAO"
Fox News: "OBAMA* KILLS CHILDREN IN KENYA WITH SWITCHBLADE" "Also, ISPs are breakin' ur internets"

I literally haven't pirated anything in months (not because of the outages, I didn't think they were related) and have noticed that since about August these mini outages have stopped completely. This has what led me to believe that Comcast was punishing me for pirating.

Comcast is just a shit ISP in general, lol. I had a week last month where I lost connection about every hour, and just as I called to complain, it stopped and never came back.

* actually, it was Obama's fifth-cousin twice-removed's sister in-law's co-worker (etc etc)

[Badpaladin]

Unfortunately places like HuffPost exacerbate issues like this even more. Rather than encouraging alternatives to piracy that don't involve supporting establishments like the RIAA, they put fuel on the fire for more "pro-piracy" sentiments.

[Spectral]

Unfortunately places like HuffPost exacerbate issues like this even more. Rather than encouraging alternatives to piracy that don't involve supporting establishments like the RIAA, they put fuel on the fire for more "pro-piracy" sentiments.

Agreed, completely. Nothing to add, just wanted to agree...

[vindicatorx]

ISP's have been being bitched at for years to do something about piracy and they have every right to refuse service to people who break the law with their service. I don't see how so many of you feel they have no right to do so. They have every right to refuse service to people who violate their terms of service.

[shise]

It's fun. When I downlaod music, they should actually PAY ME.



Why!?!?

When I like a song which I download, I post it on, let's say, Facebook. Thanks to MY post 10 people get to know that song, and let's say 6 of them like it. 4 of them will buy it and the other 2 wil ldownload it to later do the same as I did.

Basicalyl I'm getting htem customers for free.

Now go ahead haters, start the hatin'!

[This name sucks]

While I can understand this for pirating music and and maybe somewhat for movies, what bothers me is nowadays, a demo of a game is a lot more rare than say, 10-15 years ago. I remember buying a PC (gaming) magazine and getting a CD/DVD filled with game demo's on it.

As some people have stated, some download a game to try it, and if they like it will go ahead and purchase the game. However at the same time, as also has been said, some people will download the game, realise they don't like it and not purchase it (and this is where the gaming companies then lose out on a potential sale). It's like some game companies want you to take a leap of faith and buy their game without being given a chance to test it beforehand. Sure, you can try making a judgement call by looking at reviews, but nothing compares to trying out the game for yourself. One could argue a demo still doesn't give you a full idea of the game, but in my opinion it gives you a lot better idea than a (biased) review or gameplay video. And when it comes to PC games, the game might not run as well on your setup as it shows on said review and gameplay videos.

Now of course some companies still do make demo's, like EA Sports do with the FIFA and NFL franchise, but I get the general impression it's a lot more rare than in the past. Take Assassin's Creed 3 for example (if I'm wrong here, there are countless other examples, so take this with a grain of salt). As far as I'm aware there has never been a demo of any Assassin's Creed title. How do I know if I'll like this game and if it is worth the €40-70 it costs depending on what platform you buy it, without trying it out first? Sure, I can check out reviews and gameplay video's, but as I said, they're not the same as trying it out for yourself. It's a rather annoying feeling when you hand over a sum of cash for a game that you then end up not liking, and in some cases you can't return/resell as you've used a key in order to play the game.

As for movies, I'm kind of 50/50. The only thing you can judge a movie on is trailers (which obviously don't show you too much or it would spoil the movie) and again, reviews. However going to the cinema is getting more and more expensive (an example, the cinema closest to me charges €9,60 for a normal movie and €11,60 for a 3D movie) and a game gives you many more hours of enjoyment than a movie does, if you like it that is.

Music, however, there is no excuse really. There are means to listen to a part of a song, or even the whole song, legally. There are also nowadays cheaper solutions, like Spotify, letting you listen to as much music as you want, legally, for a set price (less than the cost of an album). Of course not all record labels have a contract with such services, but really, there are enough means to 'preview' music off an album before buying it.

That said, I do however agree that you pay to use your ISP's service, and if you're using it for illegal means they should have every right to take action to stop you doing it.

Its more that they're going hyper-paranoid-soviet-union-espionage in order to determine whether or not what you're doing is legal or not.

And straight up not giving a fuck and arresting and extraditing people who were breaking US law but doing something perfectly legal in their own country. (demonoid and Ukraine)

[Badpaladin]

It's fun. When I downlaod music, they should actually PAY ME.

I suppose that argument would be valid if it were actually true that 4 out of 6 people who download buy after the fact.

[FusedMass]

The other thing they can do and they don't mention this in big bold letters. It allows a person from you're ISP on they're own if they see overwhelming warnings sent to that account. They can give your name out to a company and then they can sue you for damages. I read a kid who pirated songs from the internet. He was loaded with hundred of thousands of dollars in fines.

In my viewpoint. Everything has to a Start. The cold war didn't start over night. It was slowly built up along the system then over time it consumed nearly everyone and destroyed land, life's etc. The point I'm trying to make it even though it's virtually just "decreasing the speed" it opens the gate ways for you to be sued. Forget about online privacy if you're downloading pirated stuff.

It also invokes an interesting question about the limits the people will allow them messing with our ISP. Sure some people may say it's a tad over blown with the thread title. Breaking your internet isn't that what it's doing if you can hardly connect online. I know comcast has been known to shut down services for a day if they even suspect a user is using spam on they're internet.

It's about the internet and what it means.

[hatsune]

So basically from a technical viewpoint they look at the unencrypted packet transfer and flag p2p connections?

Sounds like a simple VPN will solve the issue.

[This name sucks]

So basically from a technical viewpoint they look at the unencrypted packet transfer and flag p2p connections?

Sounds like a simple VPN will solve the issue.

Yep.

IE worthless law number 477895425 aimed at stopped piracy but will do literally nothing.

[Deleted]

I suppose it is legal and fair but I feel they should give cautions so that if you are caught a second time then they can proceed with "Breaking your Internet"

Recommend using programs such as Peerblock though when downloading torrents

[Belize]

to be fair, 500 kb/s is still more than fast enough to download games overnight or while at work like people used to, and to stream everything but 1080p

Lolwut, streaming? you need a gig upload to stream decently