Qwest Suspends Grandma's Internet Connection

[Marcus Yam]

A case of Hollywood going after the individual.

Qwest Suspends Grandma's Internet Connection : Read more

 

[tenor77]

The MPAA witch hunt continues. Now persecuting old women and children!

 

[burnley14]

It seems the accusation was not totally inaccurate in this case. Grandma just needs someone to put some security on her network.

On another note, it seems a tad unlikely to me that Grandma knew the acronym "ISP" but didn't think that securing her network was important.

 

[kyeana]

[citation][nom]burnley14[/nom]It seems the accusation was not totally inaccurate in this case. Grandma just needs someone to put some security on her network.On another note, it seems a tad unlikely to me that Grandma knew the acronym "ISP" but didn't think that securing her network was important.[/citation]

Who said her network wasn't "secure"? Just because you have a password on it doesn't mean it's impossible to break into it.

 

[thedreadfather]

I think "Grandma" is a bit misleading here. True, she is a grandmother, but "Grandma" typically implies your stereotypical eighty-five year-old lady; this woman is only fifty-three. So, no, its not unlikely that a fifty-three year-old female 'technical recruiter' knows what an ISP is. Just because her network was "compromised" doesn't mean it was "unsecured".

 

[Pailin]

I still think it was hilarious that some of the big record labels got sued by a bunch of artists for copyright infringement to a sum of about $16million they illegally made from follow up compilations without the artists consent. Of course when the individual artists complained, they were told where to go...

and then the great American Legal system turned on the Music industry LOL

 

[Boxa786]

Supergranny 1
ISP -

Nice one

 

[amdchuck]

well just to play devils advocate here...if her livelihood depends on internet connectivity, perhaps she should do a little more to secure it.

It is part of every ISP's T.O.S. that you are liable for all activity on your connection and therefore should take steps to secure your network. It's "networks" like hers that allow malware, virus', D.O.S. attacks etc. to exist...not to mention movie stealing freeloaders piggybacking her connection.

a freakin cheapo router and freebie firewall configured properly would have prevented this whole situation fer' chrisakes'

plus, they would still be freeloading off her connection stealing movies if Qwest had not acted so you know what? Good for them. Pirates can walk the plank for all I care.

 

[Guest]

People should protect their networks, and most people do, but protected and secure are two different things, people used to think that FTP was protected because of passwords, but thazt doesn't mean it's secure.

As for the question of someone breaking into your network, and using it for illegal activity, then you getting blamed for it, to me, it seems to be akin to a guy running into a bar and shooting 3 people. Nobody in this situation would blame the manager, people would blame the perp. But at the same time, it would be expected that the manager take steps (eg, installing more cameras, perhaps a security guard on busy occasions) to help prevent it from happening again. The one problem with this analogy is that IT is so much more complex, it is entierly possible for someone to break into a network and leave barely a trace for a normal user to pickup.

 

[ordos96]

Regardless of Guilt this shows a few things; First is that they don't have any good ways to track who is downloading what, and secondly, you can simply download whaterever you want as long as you have a compromised internet connection and claim you didn't do it. As by law she is innocent until proven guilty, but this is just a waste of time for everyone involved it seems.

 

[captaincharisma]

grandma? i figured she would still be using dial-up or anything for the internet at all.

 

[gorehound]

I no longer buy any new Hollywood films.I only buy my films used.
Screw you Hollywoood !!!

 

[randomizer]

Does she get compensated for downtime? I'd be demanding it.

 

[techguy911]

Chances are one of the following:

1) if she had wifi it was hacked which is too easy these days any fool can do it.

2) She had a proxy trojan very easy to get too i clean machines for a living 1 in 3 customers have one the most common place to get it is either myspace or facebook.

Most people with proxy trojans don't realize they have one most av's will not pick them up as they are custom and code is changed very often behavioral security software may pick it up ie. threatfire.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

At the bare minimum it seems as if the initial investigation was not thorough.

 

[Gin Fushicho]

Downloading south park.. illegal? They have a damn official website where you can watch it as many times as you want for free, they don't care if you have it for free or not. Of all the thing. *facepalm*

 

[Zingam]

[citation][nom]tenor77[/nom]The MPAA witch hunt continues. Now persecuting old women and children![/citation]

53 year woman is NOT old

 

[Zingam]

BTW this is called FASCISM

 

[tinnerdxp]

no comments...
But hey - it makes perfect sense for the "Corporations"... being 53yo woman - I order an internet connection that comes with "free wifi router" - I never use WiFi - so I don't care about it... Plus I have installed "free security software" that came with my PC (Norton Internet Security Crap), then I have been using my equipment advertised as "plug and play" and voila - I get sued for idiots hacking my WiFi... Why should I know how to do it? Why should I hire someone to do it for me? It's not even my router - it belongs to the ISP! My computer is "safe" - why do "I" get SUED?! Bottom line - Fuck you MPAA, RIAA and others...

 

[Pailin]

a friend of mine hacked someone’s 128bit wep encryption in 2 hours to show us it could be done!

a "secure" network is only really secure from casual opportunists...

newer stronger security just makes it harder, but does not prevent it happening