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ISP Message-pirating
Septus
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My ISP, Timewarner, appears to have sent me a message via my browser. I couldn't access the internet until I had accepted that I would take measures to address my actions, which are claimed to be using a P2P program to download media illegally.
While I may have done the occasional...questionable downloading via bittorent, I wonder if either
1) The message itself is bogus
2) My unsecured wireless is the cause
3) They actually noticed my downloads via bittorent
Anyone have an idea as to what is actually likely the cause?
While I may have done the occasional...questionable downloading via bittorent, I wonder if either
1) The message itself is bogus
2) My unsecured wireless is the cause
3) They actually noticed my downloads via bittorent
Anyone have an idea as to what is actually likely the cause?
PSN: Kurahoshi1
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1 and 3 are both unlikely with some big caveats. 1 could be some nasty malware taking the theme of fake antivirus extortionware in a new direction, but it could be legit as well, Charter uses a similar interrupt page once to notify me my bill was past due.
As for 3, Timewarner may have noticed your torrents, it's possible to identify even encrypted torrent traffic (and very easy to identify unencrypted traffic), but they're unlikely to do anything except throttle the traffic, which they aren't dong for copyright reasons, though they might dress it up that way.
More likely, I think, your IP (or somebody accessing your network) was pulled by somebody at one of the copyright enforcement groups perusing torrents looking for potential targets. Your information is pretty much hanging out in the breeze there, it's not a private service by any stretch of the imagination. There are steps you can take to make it more private, but it'll never be completely private. The RIAA and MPAA themselves aren't in the big lawsuit business anymore, but a lot of other groups still are, I believe the ESA still has a firm sending violation notices to ISPs for individual users, and a lot of studios are doing it on their own even with the RIAA and MPAA backing down. You might remember the (some still ongoing) lawsuits about The Hurt Locker.
I guess you should define "occasional". Time Warner cares less about copyright infringement and more about bandwidth usage- I've heard tales of people who swap copyright-free concerts getting hit with similar notices.
I don't think the RIAA/MPAA are suing individuals anymore but Time Warner can certainly throttle your service if they want.
The message did specify a P2P program, maybe that indicates someone using my wi-fi, or it's just a catch all term?
The wording on the page is probably meaningless as far as individual cases go - it's probably just a standard page everybody gets with nothing specific, just like 99% of communication you get from them on any subject. Rather than individually setting up these pages, they just flag your account and it pops up next time you try to fetch a web page.
As for the cause, you might be able to contact them to find out exactly what triggered it. I don't know anything about Time Warner's policies in that regard.
NintendoID: Nailbunny 3DS: 3909-8796-4685
I've seen these in the past so, you may also want to contact time warner and let them know they have a false positive in case it actually went on your record. For all you know you got someone's just released IP and you were never actually doing anything illegal. Your IP isn't static unless you paid for static so, lots of little things like that can happen.
A quick story about my last ISP (A subsidiary of Time Warner here in Texas). I set up a torrent to download the original Assassin's Creed from a major torrent site. Is downloading the game illegal? Not entirely. I was downloading it due to a cracked DVD that I bought off impulse while browsing games at Best Buy. Everything was fine until I had to format and went to reinstall all my games. Kept giving off an I/O error at 44% through the install. Took it out, inspected it, sure enough...a small internal crack right in the plastic. So I downloaded it and was going to plug in my CD key from the back of the case. Bzzt. My ISP had other ideas. They shut the internet off as soon as the torrent was done. Received a call from my fiance at home while I was at work saying the internet didn't work. I walked her through power cycling everything and couldn't get it working. Called my ISP and asked what was up. They gave me the entire story from their end. Receiving information that my IP had downloaded, and I quote, "Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed from (not naming site).". I didn't deny it. Told them my story, and they had to flip my internet back on.
I mean, any other time I would've been in trouble, but that's about as "legit" as you can get. I would recommend Peer Guardian 2. It's free and works wonders in blocking folks from seeing what you're doing. It's not a 100% protection from your ISP, but it will at least stop other nasty things from seeing what you're doing. And you shouldn't have to worry about the WoW patches. That connection is secure and there's very little upload involved.
Basically, law firms have realized that they can mass-subpoena people and the majority will settle out of court. It's lucrative and very little if any of the money actually makes it back to the people who created the copyrighted content to begin with.
it takes only minutes to set up the most basic of security, and most ISPs provide secure routers when they set you up. Secure your internet, and then your usage should make absolutely no waves - although it is still technically illegal so make your own judgement based on that.
The argument is pretty prevalent on the internet, and I've seen it on this forum a LOT (hence why I mentioned it in my first post off the bat) that having your wireless network open constitutes some sort of legal protection. Which it doesn't, even less so in the US which has no federal and very few state laws on electronic trespassing or internet service theft.
IANAL, and YMMV and all that, but I've had a bit of experience with this.
A few years ago a kid tried to steal the hood ornament off my dad's car, and damaged the hood up pretty bad but someone must have walked by during it and he ran off or something. Anyway, a couple days later we catch a kid in our garage going through the beer fridge, catch the kid, get his student card and call the police to deal with the break and enter issue (despite the cop claiming it was just trespassing, and us not really wanting to press charges, just to scare some sense into the kid.) Anyway, after the police left we looked the kid up on Facebook, and find someone posting on his wall along the lines of "I have no idea how much a Jag hood ornament would be worth, why?", and checking that kid's profile showed him posting "Cause there's one on Whisperwood (my street, its also the only Jaguar on the street) that I'm trying to jack". We printed this, showed the police the damage and what essentially amounted to an entirely non-coerced confession, to which the police responded "Well, we'd need to see if it was posted from his IP address, and even then he could have a wireless router and someone else could have stolen his internet and posted that under his account."
This is in Ontario, Canada, so again, YMMV, but even the police here are convinced that having an open network counts as protection.
Your situation is a pretty simple one, to be honest. Ever tried to get police to investigate a minor vandalism charge? A hood ornament, even on an expensive car, doesn't register on their radar. They'll give all kinds of excuses, but it's not because the case isn't there. It's not even because the open network matters - they know Facebook uses real names, and they know you connected that Facebook to the student ID procured from kid while he was actually on your property. They know that's enough to pick the kid up.
They gave you the runaround because some teenage punk for a petty crime for which he'll get a warning and community service on a bad day is about up there with arresting the coffee shop owner who illegally provides free food to on duty officers on the list of things they just aren't going to deal with. If you pushed matters with them, they might tell you, "You did the detective work, take him to civil court. You've got a case."
Also, those particular police officers in Ontario sound terribly lazy. While a Facebook confession isn't enough evidence to convict in a court of law, it's surely more than enough to convict in the court of the kid's parents' kitchen.