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Verizon to throttle pirates’ download speeds

5 points by derpenxyne 14y ago

bediger4000 14y ago
How is this throttling different than an admission that Verizon snoops all your traffic? Perhaps they just pealize all traffic on certain well-known TCP ports? As a Slackware Linux user, I have used BitTorrent to get the latest release of Slackware a half a dozen times, but that's the extent of the Torrenting I've done. It's all legal, as near as I can tell, and I'd hate to get penalized for legal behavior. How is Verizon protecting themselves against loosing customers and lawsuits over this?
anonymouz 14y ago
Going to court against single users over fantastillions of dollars didn't prove effective for the RIAA/MPAA, and going after the hosters in court didn't prove effective. The methods employed there were bad enough. It is frightening to see that their new weapon of choice is essentially a sort of collusion with monopolists (or oligopolists) in the ISP market. I'm sure them messing with basic infrastructure in the name of profit, ah, sorry, "justice", will work out really well for the rest of us...
csense 14y ago
Assuming pirate connections use encryption, how can Verizon tell the difference between piracy and legitimate downloads? How do they know that "torrent" isn't actually videoconferencing, online gaming, remote desktop, or VoIP? For that matter, there are plenty of legitimate torrents -- when I last played World of Warcraft, for example, Blizzard was using Bittorrent to distribute updates if they were above a certain size threshold. I also download Linux distros over torrents -- a small way I can give something back to the creators. Also, it bothers me that a private company would be able to cut off the one wire bringing freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of association into the home, with no oversight and no appeal process.
- gizmo686 14y ago
  Not only can they cut of the connection, but they can do it specificlly for what you use it for. Still, as long as my speech is protected, It is only bad guys who suffer.

5 points by derpenxyne 14y ago

How is this throttling different than an admission that Verizon snoops all your traffic? Perhaps they just pealize all traffic on certain well-known TCP ports? As a Slackware Linux user, I have used BitTorrent to get the latest release of Slackware a half a dozen times, but that's the extent of the Torrenting I've done. It's all legal, as near as I can tell, and I'd hate to get penalized for legal behavior. How is Verizon protecting themselves against loosing customers and lawsuits over this?

anonymouz 14y ago

Going to court against single users over fantastillions of dollars didn't prove effective for the RIAA/MPAA, and going after the hosters in court didn't prove effective. The methods employed there were bad enough. It is frightening to see that their new weapon of choice is essentially a sort of collusion with monopolists (or oligopolists) in the ISP market. I'm sure them messing with basic infrastructure in the name of profit, ah, sorry, "justice", will work out really well for the rest of us...

csense 14y ago

Assuming pirate connections use encryption, how can Verizon tell the difference between piracy and legitimate downloads? How do they know that "torrent" isn't actually videoconferencing, online gaming, remote desktop, or VoIP? For that matter, there are plenty of legitimate torrents -- when I last played World of Warcraft, for example, Blizzard was using Bittorrent to distribute updates if they were above a certain size threshold. I also download Linux distros over torrents -- a small way I can give something back to the creators. Also, it bothers me that a private company would be able to cut off the one wire bringing freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of association into the home, with no oversight and no appeal process.

gizmo686 14y ago
Not only can they cut of the connection, but they can do it specificlly for what you use it for. Still, as long as my speech is protected, It is only bad guys who suffer.