ISPs to Start Throttling Pirates, More by July 12

[drapacioli]

I love how when Tom's Hardware prompts you to log in when submitting a comment, it doesn't ACTUALLY SUBMIT said comment. I had several paragraphs typed, lost just like that.

Anyway long story short we bought three new computers this past month and had to redownload iTunes, Amazon, and Steam content on each, almost 3TB worth of data total. My sister downloads video podcasts and listens to Pandora on a daily basis, I upload youtube videos in 1080p at least 3 times a week, and of course there's online gaming, Netflix, and browsing for 3 machines a month. We pay extensively for our 40mpbs internet connection, and nowhere in our contract does it state that there is a throttling cap. If this were to happen after this policy was implemented, I can almost guarantee you we would be targeted, simply because we needed to use the connection we paid for to restore a crapload of data.

This just sounds like a good way to lose customers when they start falsely accusing people of piracy and throttling their internet connection as a result. We have 3 PCs, a game console, and 4 smartphones that connect to our network, and our Fios TV goes through it as well, throttling is not an option for us, nothing would ever get done. We paid for 40mpbs, we expect what we pay for.

 

[bystander]

I'm surprised at how many Pirate supporters there are on this site, especially since any info on cracking keys or pirating is strictly forbidden here.

I welcome restrictions put on pirating. It has an adverse affect on all of us, whether you know it or not.

 

[drapacioli]

*That should say bandwidth cap, not throttling cap. Thank you Tom's for not implementing an "edit" feature as well...

 

[maxwebb]

[citation][nom]zenmaster[/nom]This is not a court of law and they don't need to "prove" what you are doing.If you are downloading 100s of GBs of data through anonymous internet proxies and other non-normal means they will still convict you since its unlikely its legal activity.[/citation]
actually they do. if it is found that someone else broke into your system to use it illegally, the isp's actions would be aiding and abetting the hacker (criminal).

 

[cronik93]

[citation][nom]Johnpombrio[/nom]HINT: Use PeerBlock...[/citation]


and VPN's, proxy's, etc.

They're wasting there time honestly...

 

[maxwebb]

[citation][nom]skittle[/nom]But ISP cannot snoop packets through VPN because they are encrypted. On that note, all SSH traffic cannot be monitored, all they know is that its encrypted.[/citation]
... and a keymaker can't get into a locked vehicle.
... {while listening to your kid on your phone talking to his friend} and the password to get into the clubhouse is ___.

 

[extremepcs]

In other news, wifi hacking expected to increase by 100,000% this year. Glad most of my neighbors use WEP.

 

[supall]

[citation][nom]HEXiT[/nom]all you gotta do is switch to a provider that wont throttle you. 1s that do will loose customers very very quickly.[/citation]

Its not that easy. I'm not sure where you live, but in the US, the Internet is treated like a utility - the government regulates where companies are allowed to sell their services. In my area, I have the option of 1 Mbps DSL from Verizon or 15Mbps Cable from Comcast for the same price. I also have a couple other options, but they do not get anywhere above 3Mbps. Yet, if I go half a mile down the street, that area has Verizon FiOS for the same price as their DSL offerings in my area. Move over 5 more miles to the next county, COX has cable that has higher data rates than Comcast for the same price.

In short, we Americans are screwed because the government treats the internet like a utility.

 

[alidan]

i think i have been given 3 letters about pirateing... 1 was for america pie (kazaa days and being a kid) 1 was for house season 5 (no way to watch it online yet or buy it) and one for an anime that there was no way to get in america, and the complaint filed by a company that had no right (at the time) to the anime...

want me to stop downloading things... offer them online line for non bend me over the table prices (3$ an episode) or with commercials (you know, the model that works for tv)

 

[cronik93]

[citation][nom]FUCKTHECORPS[/nom]I WILL CONTINUE TO DOWNLOAD!NO ONE WILL STOP ME OR HINDER ME!THE CORPS CAN GO FUCK THEMSELVES![/citation]


Song is so perfect for this moment- http/www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1M8vei3L0L8#t=29s

 

[reasonablevoice]

[citation][nom]carnage9270[/nom]Actually it's your ISP's network traffic. They can monitor anything you do legally. After all, you are using THEIR service. Hence the reason they are doing this at the ISP level.[/citation]
Just like your phone company can listen in to all of your calls because they own the phone network, right? Even though they own the network there are still privacy laws they must follow. Basically the ISP is SUPPOSEDLY not going to look for infringement. The content owners will still look for the infringement then forward a notice to the ISP. The ISP will then start their graduated response.
We'll see how it all plays out. As long as the ISP does NOT do any snooping on its customers then I don't mind this, it is all legal. If the ISP is the one looking at my traffic and figuring out if I infringed or not then that is BS and illegal.

 

[palladin9479]

Use SSL based OpenVPN, problem solved instantly.

SSL traffic is so ubiquitous today that it's become impossible to screen or pick apart. The PKI based encryption 2048-bit keys with AES-256 and Blowfish has survived NSA's own testing for trustworthiness. Your not cracking that, a modern supercomputer would take decades to brute force crack a single packet, TKIP ensures your key is being changed frequently. Yeah your not going to be hacked.

All traffic, or just portions of that traffic can be tunneled through this encrypted VPN to the destination end-point, it's that destination that will receive all your web traffic not your PC. They will encrypt it and send it to you. All your ISP see's is a metric ton of encrypted SSL traffic from the VPN providers servers, a legal business providing a legal service. Many of these VPN providers have servers outside the USA which reduce's the ISP's ability to detect undesired traffic and interfere with it.

There are two downsides to this, first being cost. If you want anything resembling decent service your going to have to pay money every month to the VPN providers. Second is speed, regardless of what your ISP connection is your downloading is limited by the VPN providers network, your not going to get your full rated speed.

 

[upgrade_1977]

I dunno, but sounds like they will be breaking privacy laws to me. I thought it was illegal for companies to monitor an individuals web traffic without their permission?

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]carnage9270[/nom]That's assuming the ISP needs to sniff packets. They know the location of the file you downloaded (unless it's held on a private network) and where it was downloaded to (cable modem etc.) it's all they need if they suspect a client of downloading illegal content.[/citation]
If someone is using an encrypted VPN, the ISP doesn't know what you're downloading, what websites you're visiting and so on.

 

[Guest]

man, hotel wifi is about to get a lot slower..

 

[wiyosaya]

[citation][nom]skittle[/nom]But ISP cannot snoop packets through VPN because they are encrypted. On that note, all SSH traffic cannot be monitored, all they know is that its encrypted.[/citation]
What is encrypted is the packet payload. Headers cannot be encrypted because IP traffic routing would not work.

Through a VPN, though, what will be in the unencrypted header is the IP address of the VPN server and the client, i.e., downloader's IP. What would not be in the header is the source IP of the server where the file is located.

Going through a VPN like this would make it difficult at best for an ISP to trace based on the IP of a file hosting site. It will not, however, mask high-volume traffic - as others have pointed out to me - to any computer that is downloading mass amounts of data.

[citation][nom]carnage9270[/nom]It doesn't matter what "block" methods you use...the traffic is still routed through your ISP's system, it goes to your modem regardless of what masks you use.[/citation]
Absolutely correct. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[kinggraves]

[citation][nom]keczapifrytki[/nom]Time for new ISPs to start up. Ones that support anonymity.[/citation]

One problem with this is that any ISP at all needs to have a physical connection to the public internet and the lines to supply it to customers. A handful of large ISPs like Comcast and TW own the majority of the physical lines and are often the only option in areas. Like it or not, the internet still relies on a physical connection and can be owned and controlled.

As people have already said though, what is the exact method to determine it? Are they going to monitor the packets? Doubtful or they'd do it already, and it's easily encrypted. Are they going to make that decision based on start/end points? You cannot just label an IP a pirate and punish everyone that touches it. Even piracy friendly sites like MU have legal files and a function so to prevent access to them is censorship. Are they just going to decide based on your monthly bandwidth? That's not much different than now. People already don't want to go over their caps thanks to the massive charges. People that are major offenders are likely using better than average connections.

There is no way to properly inspect and enforce this policy without punishing the customer. Pirates on the other hand will find a way.

 

[klavis]

This is pretty simple if they really start cracking down on this they will be sued. They won't be able to get away with this. There are several arguments that would allow someone to win a case against one of these companies in a court of law. They do not have the ability to prove who is downloading what unless they get access to your computer. Just because someone has access to your network, does not make you responsible for what they download. The legal court has said as much in their rulings. They can set caps, but they can't throttle based on content. That, I believe, is a bit illegal.

 

[Brandon S]

MUST PIRATE EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW!!!

 

[JOSHSKORN]

They way I see it, they should've done this a long time ago, rather than allowing the RIAA to go sue happy on 13 year olds.