Time Warner Disrupting Internet Service to Warn Torrent Users?

A reader wrote, "I came home to find my Internet cut off. Turns out Warner Bros got my IP address from a ROM emulator I downloaded containing some Harry Potter games. I have downloaded countless TV shows over the last 5 years. They busted me on some Harry Potter games I didn't even want. I was going for some old Gameboy games to add to an emulator I put on my Wii, and those just happened to be along for the ride.

First violation is a warning. Second one carries a $39.95 fee. Looks like I'm done with torrents. Though I may have to take the risk to finish up this series of Ashes to Ashes."

Has anyone else been warned about using BitTorrent or had their Internet service disrupted? 

Comments

[Swampy]

I received warnings from Verizon when I used TED to d/l TV Torrents. I think that TED hit some honey pots that were setup to detect such a thing and to get your IP address.

[curtis]

yep, got a notice from the MPAA on Tuesday in the same manner.

[Mike]

Have a friend who got a few notices from Time Warner. Now he has moved back to usenet.

[Dusty T]

Yes I was cuaght for D/L Drag Me to Hell...which was a great movie had been doing it for YEARS! I got a warning from AT&T so I stopped.....sigh...would still like to do it but I like my internet more.

BTW what is usenet?

[Smy]

I don't download movies, I'll state that right off the bat. I download episodes of TV shows I can't watch at the time they are aired or, as I prefer a lot of times, to watch an entire season at once. Occasionally I will download a PPV sporting event because there is no way I am paying $50 to $100 to watch the live event much less the same price to watch it in re-run. That is just ridiculous. If media outlets were to charge a normal PPV price, such as $3.99, for the event the next few days after the live event, then that strikes me as fair for all parties.

Now, I am not suggesting this to download movies and content you can watch via a service like Netflix, which is by far one of the most fair services out there, but when you torrent or download you need to use a proxy or some other anonymity service. There are several proxies for free all over the world and there are many new anonymous based services that charge fees of $5 or so that will make everything from your computer untraceable to things like web-ads, cookies, and other prying eyes.

There's a reason why content companies are becoming more and more involved in buying or investing in internet service providers and other means of content distribution. Control the product and the means of distribution and you have total control. Such monopolistic power can and has been used to fix prices because there is no competition to keep abuses in check and in most cases no standing regulations because there had been at least some competition before buyouts, mergers, and plain old corporate warfare.

[J]

who still downloads torrents? warez community messageboards are 10000 times easier and safer. everything you'd ever want, need, or dream of is available via rapidshare, megaupload, megashares links, etc in easy-to-unzip, coded filename rar files. eff torrents.

[Kimberly]

Are they actually analyzing the traffic to see what you're downloading? I've downloaded legit torrents before, and it's a shame the protocol is getting a bad rap for pirated materials.

[Scott]

Not saying this guy's lying, but his story is suspect in my opinion. I'd need to see an official notice from Time Warner cable stating that this is policy before I believe it.

[B]

As the content distributors make it harder for the consumers to get movies they want to see, then consumers are going to adapt. When a consumers options to see a new movie once that just came out are:

1. spend $25-$30 on the blu-ray and own it, only to view it once.

2. rent it from the one rental company, in which the distributor has a monopoly with.

3. wait 28 days to see the movie

4. download the full quality blu-ray off of the internet three days after it showed up on the retail shelves (or in some cases three days before it shows up)

I am sure at least several thousand netflix customers use to pirate movies, because it was cheap and convenient. Netflix came along, making legal movies cheap and convent, so they no longer had to download the movie to watch a good quality version of that new flick that just came out.

The movie studios just took the convenience out of it, and they expect the consumers to go to the retail stores and spend $25.00 on the blu-rays? Yeah, that is going to happen.

[Benjamin]

The guy is not making it up at all.
The same thing happened to me a year ago with a different Cable provider. I however did not get a warning at all, but was shut off without warning. I had to call up to find out why the hell my internet wasn't working. They said they got a complaint from the ESA (or something like that) for downloading copyrighted material from a torrent.

I no longer use torrents and just check out forums whenever I want to check something out. When you use torrents and connect to a bunch of ip address's (pc's) some of them are actually these companies that monitor to report your ip address to your isp.

[R]

The first rule of usenet is don't talk about usenet. ;)

[Herbert]

You guys need to learn how to encrypt your bitTorrent traffic and use Peer Block. I've never had any problems with my ISP.

[Perkins Cobb]

Serves the guy right. Illegal downloaders are ruining it for the rest of us who want high quality copies of a wide range of movies and are willing to pay a fair price for that.

[Stephan]

Did I say anything about movies? My email stated that I download tv shows (no different then VHS or DVR recording) and old video games I have already bought (sometimes several times over

[Jack]

I've used peer block along with Vuze - haven't had a problem. I just download TV shows I miss. A friend of mine does the same thing; same ISP; and got a warning letter from AT&T. Definitely use peer block when downloading - it may not be bulletproof, but I haven't gotten a letter yet.

The torrents will continue until we get a decent pricing model - we didn't get iTunes until Napster.

[Jay]

newsgroups ftw

[RT]

I was using uTorrent to watch Law and Order SVU Season 11 since they don't have it available on the NBC site at all. Then a few weeks after, I get a notice from my ATT warning to me to stop with a copy of a letter from NBC with a list of episodes I was downloading. I stopped right away!

[tiffany1837co]

There's a reason why content companies are becoming more and more involved in buying or investing in internet service providers and other means of content distribution. Control the product and the means of distribution and you have total control. Such monopolistic power can and has been used to fix prices because there is no competition to keep abuses in check and in most cases no standing regulations because there had been at least some competition before buyouts, mergers, and plain old corporate warfare.

[Obama sucks]

Yes !!! i got the same thing on email...I was using isohut..with utorrent. Downloaded Shitty Avatar and got the notice !!! So why is time warner worried about it? if anything there loosing customers after they kick the peeps off there plan(what they threatened me with)and fine. Anyways i thought all this torrent stuff was a Share type deal so you cant get in trouble?? ahhh what should i do now?? bail torrents and move on to what?

[Ty Mitty]

To those idiots who say eff torrents, you must not be on the right private sites. :) Look around a bit, if your worthy you'll find them and perhaps be invited. Besides, if you read anything about how BitTorrent really works you'd see it has a way more advanced technology of transferring packets than a direct download.

[JazzyGroove]

Hi, I also have Time Warner and also was cut off. I was referred by the online chat rep to a phone number that was their abuse division.

They said I or someone on my network had downloaded True Blood episodes twice and the MPAA complained twice.

They said that I was notified -- in the browser. With 3 computers + iPads and phones, I'm not sure if any of us saw the notice. You'd think they would send an email or a letter, but I received neither so far.

[mindgap89]

although this has already been said, limit yourself when it comes to public torrents(the pirate bay, sumotorrent, torrent reactor, etc) and try and find a private one with login and security pre-cautions. I was luckily invited via email, of all my social networking sites i use( facebook, myspace, youtube, etc) it was in a random email on yahoo mail in which i had recieved a golden ticket. lol hope this helps

[baalbot 9000]

Just had my time warner road runner service cut off. Get ready people, the end of public torrents is here. I suggest not tempting them after your first warning and moving onto safer pastures (usenet, ultra-private trackers, VPN etc)