Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

[Feba]

http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2007/08/21/comcast-is-starting-the-tiered-internet-whether-we-like-it-or-not/

I'm going to contact comcast about this, and if they don't fix it soon, they can bet their asses they're going to lose a customer.

[Omni]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

they'll probably be glad.

you might save them a few cents a month by leaving them.

[DakAttack]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

Cry about it.

Who actually uses torrents legally? I know Blizzard does with their awful update and download system, but that's all that comes to my mind. Everybody else is using it for pirating purposes. I thank them for having DRM forced down my throat.

It's also a drain on bandwidth and can upset other connections on the network they're being run on. That's probably my biggest complaint.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2007/08/...ike-it-or-not/

I'm going to contact comcast about this, and if they don't fix it soon, they can bet their asses they're going to lose a customer.

I'm amazed Comcast has customers. Not that Time-Warner is much better, you can't get local Baseball games from the very region I live in because they want you to watch ESPN networks and not MASN.

Its utterly amazing and disappointing at the same time that these old corporations refuse to evolve with the times and must insert a beuracracy into every place where it isn't neccessary. And its all from a corprorate level, feeding the pockets of the politicians as they slowly take away our rights.

Cry about it.

Who actually uses torrents legally? I know Blizzard does with their awful update and download system, but that's all that comes to my mind. Everybody else is using it for pirating purposes. I thank them for having DRM forced down my throat.

It's also a drain on bandwidth and can upset other connections on the network they're being run on. That's probably my biggest complaint.

You have no clue what this is about.

It will start with trying to eliminate torrents and the bandwidth price hikes will then come for "more internet access" but ultimately its going to end up just like Radio and Television are now. There will be no free speech, you'll only get to see the sites corporate entities want you to see.

This isn't about piracy, its about corporations and the government controlling the information you see. Just like the radio stations play what they want you to hear, ISPs will eventually let you see only what they want you to see.

They'll play it up with some rubbish like "protecting the children" and they hope you'll eat that shit hook, line and sinker.

[Feba]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

Who actually uses torrents legally?

Dak, I try to like you, but you can be freaking retarded sometimes.

As you mentioned, blizzard, but also MANY online games distribute via torrent. Some things are pretty much only distributed via torrent because of their size or stresses it would place on a single host. Look at linux, most distros are much quicker to download via torrent than other means. Same with a lot of games. Just because YOU don't use it legally doesn't mean there aren't a lot of people that do. If you want to stop pirating, cut off limewire, not torrenting.

EDIT:

you might save them a few cents a month by leaving them.

I doubt this. Given how much the service costs as a base, and the fact that I don't have the hard drive space to download very much a month, and I don't spend a ton of time on online games, not to mention on demand movies and such, I doubt they'd sell a service that they couldn't support their customers actually using it-- and if that is the case, I need to switch quicker than I thought.

[DakAttack]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

I honestly don't see this as step one in Comcast's bid to control what we see. I haven't found anything directly from Comcast explaining their actions, but I've found this:

Last year we had a discussion whether traffic shaping is good or bad, and ISPs made it pretty clear that they do not like P2P applications like BitTorrent. One of the ISPs that joined our discussions said: “The fact is, P2P is (from my point of view) a plague - a cancer, that will consume all the bandwidth that I can provide. It’s an insatiable appetite.”, and another one stated: “P2P applications can cripple a network, they’re like leaches. Just because you pay 49.99 for a 1.5-3.0mbps connection doesn’t mean your entitled to use whatever protocols you wish on your ISP’s network without them provisioning it to make the network experience good for all users involved.”

From here.

Torrents, for me, have always been a matter of network performance. It's no coincidence that torrents happen to be both a major drag on networks and the easiest way to transmit large amounts of data.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

And guess what?

Data is speech. Controlling the flow data is controlling speech.

Again, it'll just start out with bandwidth measures and protecting kids and then one day, you won't be able to visit a site they consider a lower priority to one where you'll be forced to see advertising and media content they want you to see.

Bandwidth is nothing more than a corporate excuse to control speech, period. Present bandwidth issues can only improve as the technology improves. Torrenting will then become less and less of a strain and whats the excuse then? Piracy? A company or politician not liking what was said about them on YouTube?

It may seem like good intentions, but that's what the path to hell is paved with. Someone will come along and pervert those good intentions and the internet will be no different than radio or television. It will no longer be a public domain.

[Akashimo]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

Bandwidth is nothing more than a corporate excuse to control speech, period. Present bandwidth issues can only improve as the technology improves. Torrenting will then become less and less of a strain and whats the excuse then? Piracy? A company or politician not liking what was said about them in YouTube?

By then, I think sadly they'd pay off politicions to prevent the technology to improve to bandwidth for the sole purpose of cutting off our friends while underlining reason for illegal activities.

>_> I hate governments current control on freespeach. Espically with FCC holding a nice noose on the TV/Radio and the quality of tv shows gone down. Hell even kid shows suck these days. Ten years ago ones that are on late night reruns rocked more >_>; Classic MMPR vs PR:OOD, TMNT(classic) vs TMNT(present).

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

>_> I hate governments current control on freespeach. Espically with FCC holding a nice noose on the TV/Radio and the quality of tv shows gone down. Hell even kid shows suck these days. Ten years ago ones that are on late night reruns rocked more >_>; Classic MMPR vs PR:OOD, TMNT(classic) vs TMNT(present).

Quoted for truth. Heck, compare the Pokemon anime's first season versus whatever the crap they're running now. (Got the first season on DVD, and, so you know, it's night and day.)

I can hardly stand to watch T.V. anymore: I'm only really interested in whatever a family member of mine is watching at the moment, if even that. My little sister excluded, though, as she eats all kind of corporate crap they put on her plate; it makes me scared for the future.

[DakAttack]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

No offense, but you guys sound like hippies.

I don't understand why the FCC would censor Pokemon when I can watch all the violent programming I want during prime time on Spike and Sci Fi? That's like saying the FCC is why Family Guy hasn't been funny for years. It's not like the writers are being cockblocked by the FCC, they're just out of ideas.

Family Guy has been getting funnier lately.

[Akashimo]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

No offense, but you guys sound like hippies.
I don't understand why the FCC would censor Pokemon when I can watch all the violent programming I want during prime time on Spike and Sci Fi? That's like saying the FCC is why Family Guy hasn't been funny for years. It's not like the writers are being cockblocked by the FCC, they're just out of ideas.
Family Guy has been getting funnier lately.

FCC censors what ever the president of the FCC wants on a whim. They aren't directly controlled but still government owned. They target only popular shows cause that'll be what those crazy protestors in washington will protest about cause of some reason like, "Johnny attacked his little sister cause this cartoon show said its ok to!" >_> Even parodied/extreme example would be the Canada-US war over Tarance and Philip in South Park Movie.
Or like that episode of Family Guy where Peter made his own TV station.

[Armando]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

While I'm not too informed on the matter, I will say that people will protest the stupidest things at the drop of a hat. E.g.

The controversy involving The Angry Beavers first started in 1998, when "Alley Oops!", a story in the series' 24th episode (seen during its 2nd season), contained the following lines:
Dag: "You stink!"
Norb: "Oh, shut up, Dag!".

After its first airing a viewer anonymously complained about the phrase "shut up" in a Nick program, although it had been used by Dag twice in the episode "Go Beavers" in season one. So the second time this episode was aired, the "shut" in "shut up" was bleeped out. This bleep generated more controversy surrounding the show, as some mistakenly thought that it had vulgar language in the dialog. However, between airings, Nickelodeon has changed Norberts' line to "Shush up, stupid!" It was the first time any Nicktoon had a line changed between airings.

It does seem to me that the quality of cartoons has declined these past years as well. Compare Rocko's Modern Life, Ren and Stimpy, The Angry Beavers, Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo, etc. etc. to more recent cartoons and the horrible anime english dubs that are ever-so-popular.

EDIT: Ok, in retrospect bringing up anime dubs was stupid, since they've been sucky since forever. DBZ's dubs, even before it was popular, still crack me up. HFIL indeed.

[Akashimo]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

While I'm not too informed on the matter, I will say that people will protest the stupidest things at the drop of a hat. E.g.It does seem to me that the quality of cartoons has declined these past years as well. Compare Rocko's Modern Life, Ren and Stimpy, The Angry Beavers, Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo, etc. etc. to more recent cartoons and the horrible anime english dubs that are ever-so-popular.
EDIT: Ok, in retrospect bringing up anime dubs was stupid, since they've been sucky since forever. DBZ's dubs, even before it was popular, still crack me up. HFIL indeed.

Lol, i remember those episodes of Angry Beavers. Back in DBZ/Sailor Moon era, its was soo easy to see what they did to the anime to censor or change anything in it. Oh and Harpy Lady's outfit from Yugioh. Some of those dubs are just incrediably horrible. Espically what ever they are feeding on 4Kids TV >.>; Gawd I miss hearing "Fox Kids Rocks Kids!" Though Disney did hit a good mark on making Gargoyles. Even with the dark feel to the show, it was great watching it. It really should be a crime to the lack of pur quality to these cartoons have compared to the wonderful ones we grown up on ; ;
Oh don't forget Invader Zim and that whole blood on Gir bit =x

[Mhurron]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

And guess what?

Data is speech. Controlling the flow data is controlling speech.

Again, it'll just start out with bandwidth measures and protecting kids and then one day, you won't be able to visit a site they consider a lower priority to one where you'll be forced to see advertising and media content they want you to see.

Bandwidth is nothing more than a corporate excuse to control speech, period. Present bandwidth issues can only improve as the technology improves. Torrenting will then become less and less of a strain and whats the excuse then? Piracy? A company or politician not liking what was said about them on YouTube?

It may seem like good intentions, but that's what the path to hell is paved with. Someone will come along and pervert those good intentions and the internet will be no different than radio or television. It will no longer be a public domain.

Irrelevant since I think you'll find every Comcast user agreed to a series of restrictions that includes not serving data.

BTW, the internet has never been public domain in the US.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Well this explains why I haven't been able to torrent for shit lately.

And guess what?

Data is speech. Controlling the flow data is controlling speech.

1. While some data can contain speech, data is not speech. 1. Not all speech is protected under the Constitution.

#1 is intuitive to me, so I'm not sure how to explain it well:
Source code clearly articulate designs, so it's speech. But, if you you do is merely putting up a copy of someone else's source code and perhaps do some trivial packaging (.zip), you've added no new meaning, so your action cannot be construed as "speech". The data stream for transmitting that, therefore, cannot be called "protected speech", since it's not speech to begin with.

The same idea apply to music recordings, etc.

#2 is a bit easier to explain:
Many forms of speech are not protected; slander and libel, for example. Same with any communication intended to support criminal acts (e.g. fraud). Yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theater when there's no fire is another. (Duh.)

None of those are protected by U.S. Constitution, to my knowledge.

BTW, the internet has never been public domain in the US.

There you have it. Property rights dictate that any ISP is largely much free to do whatever it wants on its network, as long as your EULA covers it.

I suspect ISPs will filter P2P traffic to the extend that it would save them money in either bandwidth cost or RIAA lawsuits. i.e. More to come.

Of course, if there's a business case for welcoming more data traffic--P2P or otherwise--then, you'd see those very same ISPs "Defending customers' free speech rights!"

That business case is "metered pipelines"--you pay for as much bandwidth as you use, packet by packet. Yes, if you pay for every packet of data you sent and receive, ISPs will be clamoring to to install P2P clients on your computer to entice you to use more bandwidth.

Put it another way, ISPs would love BBQ's "free speech", if only consumer would only pay for the data packets used to carry it!


* * *

I wonder if there have been court rulings on how much/which part of Internet is "public forum". Without establishing that, it's almost moot how much of what data is "speech"...