Thread: It's a pretty bad day for torrents! (if you live in the US)

Stupid courts. Stupid ISP's. Corporate greed needs to end.

Wow, the US really seems to be stepping up its transformation into a complete corporate state.

While I enjoy the services and products the US provides, I am so very glad to not have to live in a country run by giant corporations dictating what I do or who I am.

I really feel for all of you Americans out there. That really sucks.

I'm going to crib a bit from a post I put up in the General Discussion section (there is a parallel thread over there). Also, a small correction to T.H. Huxley's excellent opening post--the court in question is the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, not a district court. This means the only avenue of appeal left in the judicial branch is an appeal to the Supreme Court (a dicey proposition at best).

Still, all is not lost with respect to undercutting this decision since a more likely-to-succeed option is Congressional action to impose some version of net neutrality. The Obama Administration at least somewhat supports it so some action is not out of the question.

Also, here is the NY Times story on the decision--it contains a bit more detail than the flash news reports.

Finally, I note that this decision certainly is bad for BT users, but it has a much broader scope. Some ISPs have wanted to charge Google (including its affiliate YouTube) and other similar sites more for access since those sites are bandwidth-intensive. This may have the net effect of affecting end user ISP fees in unpredictable ways as well as affecting the distribution of content itself.

I really think this paragraph say's it all..


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Scott believes that the likeliest step by the FCC is that it will simply reclassify broadband as a more heavily regulated telecommunications service. That, ironically, could be the worst-case outcome from the perspective of the phone and cable companies.
"Comcast swung an ax at the FCC to protest the BitTorrent order," Scott said. "And they sliced right through the FCC's arm and plunged the ax into their own back."
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Originally Posted by LoadedM8

I really think this paragraph say's it all..


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Scott believes that the likeliest step by the FCC is that it will simply reclassify broadband as a more heavily regulated telecommunications service. That, ironically, could be the worst-case outcome from the perspective of the phone and cable companies.
"Comcast swung an ax at the FCC to protest the BitTorrent order," Scott said. "And they sliced right through the FCC's arm and plunged the ax into their own back."
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Reporters these days...

I'm safe in Australia :) Except for the Internet Filter that might be installed....No Clean Feed - Stop Internet Censorship in Australia

I don't get why ISPs are moaning about bandwidth intensive stuff taking place on their networks anyways. The whole point of a broadband connection is to do lots of bandwidth intensive stuff. And not to mention the fact that rather than controlling what people can and cannot access or download, they could just set up monthly bandwidth limits (as they already do) and enforce them. As long as someone stays within the monthly bandwidth cap, the ISP shouldn't care what they do with the bandwidth allotted to said person. And for users who need more, they can just pay more in exchange for a higher monthly bandwidth limit. Pretty simply and avoids the need for these insane censorship solutions.