Slashdot Mirror
Toledo Uncappers Getting Shafted
Jacob writes "Broadband Reports has a well written article detailing the plight of those Ohio cable modem users who found themselves facing gun wielding FBI agents for uncapping their cable modems. Buckeye Cable has clearly crossed a line and the tech community and consumer groups should be all over them like a wet, angry rag. Kudos to Broadband Reports for not letting this thing die." Granted, those who were indicted were violating their service contracts, but having their posessions siezed by FBI agents is overkill.
What's next? An FBI sharpshooter killing a pregnant woman? The ATF burning down a cluster of buildings full of people? Or maybe the INS stormtroopers kicking down a door in the middle of the night to carry away an 8-year-old who's mother died trying to get him to freedom?
if they were estimated to have stolen $11k each I think that they should have gotten what they did.
EVERYONE KNOWS THAT UNCAPPING YOUR MODEM IS WRONG. "Maybe the worst that would have happened was getting disconnected..."
How about the collective theft of all the other people that were getting screwed b/c these people were stealing THEIR bandwith?
Oh, he was only getting 128k downstream... I used to live in the Toledo, OH area and worked with multiple people using Buckeye-Express. ALL of them had NO complaints. If you had a problem you would call up (and due to the fact that it was ALL local) the problem was usually solved in short-order. So I think that if this guy was only getting 128k downstream he wasn't on the phone asking Buckeye questions.
I'm sorry, but I don't feel a thing for these people. If you stole that much money from someone, I hope that they would try to get you w/everything they could.
Search the web for "hacking cable modem config files", you'll find TFTP instructions, how to setup the cfg file, etc. HACKING is illegal and punishable.
Again, no sympathy. I just want my whatever bandwith. I don't want it to goto hell b/c someone else hacks their cfg file.
These people were stealing a VERY valuable commodity.. bandwidth. For those of you who don't work near the ISP industry, bandwidth is --VERY EXPENSIVE--. $200 per megabit per month is an absolute STEAL (to get that rate, you need to be buying it on the DS3 level). $400 per meg is more realistic on lower levels.
Cable companies simply cannot afford to let people steal this stuff. Quite literally, someone who is uncapping a cable modem and mooching 10 megabits of bandwidth could easily be costing them several thousand dollars a month.
I'm sorry, but I have no sympathy for these people. What they did not only violated their agreement, but it cost someone else a LOT of money. Stealing is stealing, folks. And unlike the arguments that may apply to software piracy, this really does directly affect someone else's pocketbook.
-- People who hate Windows use Linux. People who love UNIX use BSD.
Amen.
These people violated the contact they agreed to. I support every action taken against them. Perhaps if we'd hold more people accountable for their actions this world would be a much better place to live in today.
-Brentand what makes you say that? You think that people who uncap their modem cfg files aren't breaking the law? They aren't stealing service?
Are you seriously saying that you don't care that someone else would be taking ALL the bandwith that you MIGHT possibly have? If someone is taking a 10mbit pipe and you are only supposed to have 1.5mbs there are 7 other people that are out of luck b/c of one person.
Get real, moron.
Liberarians are okay, except for their stupid stance on drugs (ie, legalize it and crime will go down). The same things could be said for rape or murder (ie, legalize them and crime will go down). As for the ACLU, if you think they are the good guys then I'm afraid for your children too! For a detailed description of the true ACLU you can read the excellent book "Trial and Error: The American Civil Liberties Union and Its impact on Your family" by George Grant. The ACLU supports: Legalization of child pornography, Legalization of drugs, Tax exemption for satanists, Legalization of prostitution, Abortion on demand, Mandatory sex education, Busing, Ideological testing for court appointees, Automatic entitled probation, Public demonstrations for Nazis and communists, and Legalization of polygamy. I doubt the founding fathers would approve of any of those things. The ACLU was founded in 1917 by Roger Baldwin, who said "We are for Socialism, disarmament, and ultimately for abolishing the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. We seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and the sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal." Many other ACLU founding members went on to lead the Communist Party USA. To this day, ACLU board members read like a Who's Who of the American Left! The ACLU (All Communists Love Us, or American Criminal Lawyers Union) is still staffed by communists and socialists who work almost exclusively on the left or extreme left side of the political spectrum, but occasionaly take a case on the right or extreme right side just to create the illusion of moderation (ie, the Nazi's march through Skokie, Illinois, years ago). You have been fooled, but you were not alone. Read the book! And FYI, the left always name their groups that way (like People for the American Way, etc.) Know what you are getting into!
GO TO RED ALERT. Space and Time are grinding to a halt.
Fucking idiot SHITSTAIN McGuspaz is speaking.
Fat man living off of government or with parents with no sex jerking off to pedophile porn and trolling Slashdot is speaking. WOOP WOOP.
Captain, people cant take much more of this shit. I'm giving it all shez got.
The alien Guspaz, with his corpulent fat face and fronds of flash drooping over belly into cheap assed keyboard try is coming. He farted on the left nacelle!
NO!!!!! That will massage his prostate, GUSPAZ likes anal pleasure, we must go to warp 69!
FAT SEXLESS GUSPAZ pursues the captain in a long brown skidmarking journey through space.
Fat fucking pig. Fat stupid. All Your Base Are Belong To Us was meant to be funny, its not the 11th commandment you dumb motherfucker.
FUCKING ASSHOLE ALARM.