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I actually don't know why I got some downvotes... in my country I never had a single ISP who blocks torrents, I don't even think is legal for them to check what

by yulaow 11y ago

I actually don't know why I got some downvotes... in my country I never had a single ISP who blocks torrents, I don't even think is legal for them to check what you are downloading (except if they have a police warrant).

soylentcola 11y ago
It's not quite the same (although they will throttle torrents frequently). Basically some firm gets hired by a media conglomerate to look at a torrent swarm for one of their shows or movies, and log the IP addresses that are sharing the data. Then they look up the IPs, see that 123.456.78.90 was connected through a Comcast account. They send a big pile of requests to Comcast with all of the Comcast IPs and ask "hey, who had the IP 123.456.78.90 on January 14th, 2016 at 4:50pm?" Not sure how often they actually bother suing actual users these days but either way, the ISP got the complaint and turns around and sends you a letter saying "hey, stop downloading tv shows and movies over torrents or we will have to cut off your service." I'm sure the details of how this works change and are more complex but that's the essence. Even if you aren't sued, your ISP will cut you off if you keep torrenting stuff and generating complaints from rights holders.
- yulaow 11y ago
  Thanks, that was the part I was missing. In my country ISPs cannot tell _anyone_ which user has a specific ip at a specific time, they need a order from a judge based on a police request.
  - DarkLinkXXXX 11y ago
    Umm... mind telling me what country you're in?
    - yulaow 11y ago
      I was specifically referring to Switzerland and Italy.
    - charlesdm 11y ago
      Belgium as well
    - nness 11y ago
      Australia too.
  - Abraln 11y ago
    In the US it is not the ISPs "telling" the identity of the customer. They just forward the notices/warnings/thinly-veiled-threats to them. They don't let them know who the IP address is/was held by without a court order as far as I know.
hsod 11y ago
They aren't talking about blocking the torrent protocol. A rights-holder watches a torrent swarm for one of their copyrighted works and records the IP of people who are sharing it. They then contact your ISP (just asking nicely) telling them what they saw. The ISP will usually send you a warning or two before cutting off your service. Alternatively the rights holder can get a judge to issue a subpoena obligating the ISP to give up your name. So, since no one is watching Ubuntu swarms and reporting the uploaders, that's not really a concern.
- yulaow 11y ago
  Thanks, as I said to the other commenter in my country ISPs cannot tell _anyone_ which user has a specific ip at a specific time, they need a order from a judge based on a police request. And the police doesn't make those request so lightly... they would need to know you actually uploaded and shared a tons of movies/copyrighted material linking to them on some public accessible site to even think about asking a judge permission to investigate further.
ricksplat 11y ago
This is actually my experience too. A "friend" downloads a movie lets say, and for about 12 hours afterwards their connection speed is throttled in an apparently retaliatory gesture. Not so far fetched if you consider that the ISP has been recently been acquired by a conglomerate with media interests ... Said isp has been "only show in town" for serious internet access for some time so thankfully that is starting to change so a move might be on the cards.

by yulaow 11y ago

soylentcola 11y ago

It's not quite the same (although they will throttle torrents frequently). Basically some firm gets hired by a media conglomerate to look at a torrent swarm for one of their shows or movies, and log the IP addresses that are sharing the data. Then they look up the IPs, see that 123.456.78.90 was connected through a Comcast account. They send a big pile of requests to Comcast with all of the Comcast IPs and ask "hey, who had the IP 123.456.78.90 on January 14th, 2016 at 4:50pm?" Not sure how often they actually bother suing actual users these days but either way, the ISP got the complaint and turns around and sends you a letter saying "hey, stop downloading tv shows and movies over torrents or we will have to cut off your service." I'm sure the details of how this works change and are more complex but that's the essence. Even if you aren't sued, your ISP will cut you off if you keep torrenting stuff and generating complaints from rights holders.

yulaow 11y ago
Thanks, that was the part I was missing. In my country ISPs cannot tell _anyone_ which user has a specific ip at a specific time, they need a order from a judge based on a police request.
- DarkLinkXXXX 11y ago
  Umm... mind telling me what country you're in?
  - yulaow 11y ago
    I was specifically referring to Switzerland and Italy.
  - charlesdm 11y ago
    Belgium as well
  - nness 11y ago
    Australia too.
- Abraln 11y ago
  In the US it is not the ISPs "telling" the identity of the customer. They just forward the notices/warnings/thinly-veiled-threats to them. They don't let them know who the IP address is/was held by without a court order as far as I know.

hsod 11y ago

They aren't talking about blocking the torrent protocol. A rights-holder watches a torrent swarm for one of their copyrighted works and records the IP of people who are sharing it. They then contact your ISP (just asking nicely) telling them what they saw. The ISP will usually send you a warning or two before cutting off your service. Alternatively the rights holder can get a judge to issue a subpoena obligating the ISP to give up your name. So, since no one is watching Ubuntu swarms and reporting the uploaders, that's not really a concern.

yulaow 11y ago
Thanks, as I said to the other commenter in my country ISPs cannot tell _anyone_ which user has a specific ip at a specific time, they need a order from a judge based on a police request. And the police doesn't make those request so lightly... they would need to know you actually uploaded and shared a tons of movies/copyrighted material linking to them on some public accessible site to even think about asking a judge permission to investigate further.

ricksplat 11y ago

This is actually my experience too. A "friend" downloads a movie lets say, and for about 12 hours afterwards their connection speed is throttled in an apparently retaliatory gesture. Not so far fetched if you consider that the ISP has been recently been acquired by a conglomerate with media interests ... Said isp has been "only show in town" for serious internet access for some time so thankfully that is starting to change so a move might be on the cards.