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AT&T to cut off some customers' service in piracy crackdown

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Re: AT&T to cut off some customers' service in piracy crackdown

#3

Some of you might be wondering why "a little over a dozen" people being booted from their ISP is newsworthy. This is figuratively the beginning of a very, very slippery slope.

Especially considering that there is more than likely no other option for service in the area because of the ISP totally not being a monopoly, totally not.

Re: AT&T to cut off some customers' service in piracy crackdown

#4

Some of you might be wondering why "a little over a dozen" people being booted from their ISP is newsworthy. This is figuratively the beginning of a very, very slippery slope.

Also awkward is that this ISP is competing on content.

> Last week, HBO went dark for the first time ever after a carriage dispute with Dish. Critics of the merger, include the DOJ, alleged that AT&T may have intentionally failed to come to an agreement with Dish, in an effort to steal Dish's Pay-TV subscribers.

Re: AT&T to cut off some customers' service in piracy crackdown

#5
I’m sure many of us believe in following and enforcing laws (even flawed laws like 150yr copyright), but are still made uneasy by this development. I think the source of that discomfort is - what happens if your service is cut in error. Do you trust ATT to have a fair, easy appeals process?

Competition in the form of space internet can’t come soon enough, not to enable pirates, but to ensure normal people have reasonable service levels and alternatives to unfair decisions.

Re: AT&T to cut off some customers' service in piracy crackdown

#7

Some of you might be wondering why "a little over a dozen" people being booted from their ISP is newsworthy. This is figuratively the beginning of a very, very slippery slope.

and I bet those "over a dozen" people are also their highest in terms of bandwidth use.

Smart pirates use vpns anyways.

Re: AT&T to cut off some customers' service in piracy crackdown

#8
The podcast Reply-All had a good episode about why this is problematic earlier this year.

https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/118

Excerpt:

ALEX: So finally, I find this website that is called the Center for Copyright information.

PJ: And what’s that?

ALEX: It’s a website that is run by both the entertainment industry and the ISPs, they’re working together. And the deal is, if you feel that you have wrongly received a DMCA notice, you can go to this website, pay $35, and you can appeal it. And if you’re successful, then they will tell your ISP they were wrong, and they retract it, and you shouldn’t have any strikes on your account.

PJ: You found internet court.

ALEX: Yeah, I found internet court.

PJ: So are you taking this case to internet court?

ALEX: I sent them an email and said, hey this person Cayden was wrongfully accused.

PJ: And what did they say?

ALEX: They didn’t say anything, they never got back to me!

PJ: (laughs) Got it.

ALEX: So basically what I found was a completely unaccountable system that was frustratingly opaque. It was maddening. So I decided to try something else.

Re: AT&T to cut off some customers' service in piracy crackdown

#9

Some of you might be wondering why "a little over a dozen" people being booted from their ISP is newsworthy. This is figuratively the beginning of a very, very slippery slope.

Also awkward is that this ISP is competing on content. > Last week, HBO went dark for the first time ever after a carriage dispute with Dish. Critics of the merger, include the DOJ, alleged that AT&T may have intentionally failed to come to an agreement with Dish, in an effort to steal Dish's Pay-TV subscribers.

it's a feature, not a bug.
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