Virgin Media (UK ISP) to crack down on illegal downloads

[Pingfah]

Actually, those protocols are becoming more and more attractive to those that provide legal downloads and applications as they reduce server load enormously. Apart from that, many open source and creative commons downloads have been available in this form for years. In fact, I just read a big America ISP retracted its policy of throttling p2p-traffic.

I wonder, though: Wouldn't this 3 strike policy have to be agreed with by the users? After all, it's a massive change in the contract originally signed. And what happens if you refuse to accept it?

It's far from certain they will succeed in implementing this. There's a bunch of obstacles to overcome first as you point out. I think they will run into big problems.

Not the least of which being that most of the ISPs are dead against it because it involves lots of effort n their part in identifying specific infractors, of which there will be many.

 

[TheInsideMan]

Actually, those protocols are becoming more and more attractive to those that provide legal downloads and applications as they reduce server load enormously. Apart from that, many open source and creative commons downloads have been available in this form for years. In fact, I just read a big America ISP retracted its policy of throttling p2p-traffic.

I wonder, though: Wouldn't this 3 strike policy have to be agreed with by the users? After all, it's a massive change in the contract originally signed. And what happens if you refuse to accept it?

It's far from certain they will succeed in implementing this. There's a bunch of obstacles to overcome first as you point out. I think they will run into big problems.

Not the least of which being that most of the ISPs are dead against it because it involves lots of effort n their part in identifying specific infractors, of which there will be many.

I'm sure I saw a story about Tiscali Broadband doing this sort of scheme, but they backed out when they realised the cost of sending out all the warning letters to customers caught downloading illegal content. Tiscali were saying "we're expected to enforce this law; pay for the tech to catch people, AND cover the cost of warning them too!?!??"

 

[Pingfah]

^When the government announced their plans to make ISPs responsible for what their customers are DLing most of them said they would not be prepared to foot the bill for it yeah.

The government will encounter a lot of resistance from a lot of different laces over this.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I really don't understand what they're hoping to stop with this. I mean if people want to get hold of pirated films, and music, all they have to do is go down to the local market, or ebay type site, and have your choice of them. It's those traders they should concentrate on, not individual downloaders.

 

[Count Zero]

I think the whole idea is absurd. It's like your phone company listening in to your calls and warning you if you do something illegal by phone. It's not the ISP's responsibilty to persecute criminal or illegal acts. That's for the justice system to do. I don't understand why the UK government supports this.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I think the whole idea is absurd. It's like your phone company listening in to your calls and warning you if you do something illegal by phone. It's not the ISP's responsibilty to persecute criminal or illegal acts. That's for the justice system to do. I don't understand why the UK government supports this.

Because they want to keep on the good side of the big corporations.

 

[TheInsideMan]

I think the whole idea is absurd. It's like your phone company listening in to your calls and warning you if you do something illegal by phone. It's not the ISP's responsibilty to persecute criminal or illegal acts. That's for the justice system to do. I don't understand why the UK government supports this.

Because they want to keep on the good side of the big corporations.

And the French Government started doing it a while ago.

I agree, its nonsense, its like asking the Post Office to open every letter and parcel to check for dangerous content.

 

[Deleted 2]

BBC iPlayer and Channel 4's VOD system use P2P systems right now, as will the proposed 'Project Kangaroo' service. They can't blindly think 'P2P traffic = Pirate!!'.

Easy to filter out actually.

 

[StolenThunder]

I apologise for this (it's somewhat on a tangent) but since there are a few people talking about Virgin here I thought I'd ask a question.

We have a Virgin Media cable connection here in the house. I use video calling a lot and recently my Internet is halting after using iChat for a few minutes on 500kbps bandwidth and a while longer on 200kbps. Skype does the same though less predictably. Basically all traffic stops and the video disconnects, only for the connection to return perhaps ten or twenty seconds later.

I know that Virgin have been introducing restrictions - do you think that this is the effect of some sort of traffic shaping designed to curtail P2P file sharing? Do iChat/Skype operate on the same principles? I get the impression they do but this isn't my field.

Sorry again for taking this sideways. Feel free to ignore me!

 

[TheInsideMan]

BBC iPlayer and Channel 4's VOD system use P2P systems right now, as will the proposed 'Project Kangaroo' service. They can't blindly think 'P2P traffic = Pirate!!'.

Easy to filter out actually.

I know it is - but I have little faith in VM to actually do this properly.

They have a hard enough time enforcing STM rules on customers now, let alone checking for illegal downloads.

 

[TheInsideMan]

I apologise for this (it's somewhat on a tangent) but since there are a few people talking about Virgin here I thought I'd ask a question.

We have a Virgin Media cable connection here in the house. I use video calling a lot and recently my Internet is halting after using iChat for a few minutes on 500kbps bandwidth and a while longer on 200kbps. Skype does the same though less predictably. Basically all traffic stops and the video disconnects, only for the connection to return perhaps ten or twenty seconds later.

I know that Virgin have been introducing restrictions - do you think that this is the effect of some sort of traffic shaping designed to curtail P2P file sharing? Do iChat/Skype operate on the same principles? I get the impression they do but this isn't my field.

Sorry again for taking this sideways. Feel free to ignore me!

Did someone say something???

VM don't cap P2P traffic......yet. They do Subscriber Traffic Management:

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/internet/traffic.html

....but I don't think that's the reason for your stop-start connection. If it only happens on Skype/iChat then it could just be their servers, if is happens elsewhere too then its a problem with your cable connection or router.

 

[StolenThunder]

Thanks. I wondered if it is a side-effect of their traffic management too (I expect we're reasonably high use). It is somewhat mysterious. Sat and reset the network and equipment back to factory settings the other day and that doesn't seem to have made much difference.

Very frustrating though!