Slashdot Mirror
UK ISP Disconnects Customers For File Sharing
think_nix writes "Karoo, an ISP in Hull, in the UK, is disconnecting subscribers without warning if they file-share, or are even suspected of file-sharing. Karoo is the only ISP in the area. Copyright owners are working with the ISP helping them identify and report suspected filesharers using their services. In order to get service restored, subscribers have to go to Karoo's office and sign a form admitting guilt and promising not to do it again. The article states that some subscribers have had their access cut off for more than two years." Update: 07/24 16:29 GMT by KD : The Register is reporting that Karoo has relented and has changed its policy. A spokesman said: "It is evident that we have been exceeding the expectation of copyright owners..."
Your problem is you go for the joke exclusively. I like to go for the joke quite a bit myself, but you have to sprinkle in some actually worthwhile (or at least karma whoring) posts more often, or your starting score will render you invisible to the vast majority of Slashdot readers. Building up karma on this site is easy. You already know that the majority of mod points are spent early in threads, so if you're looking to rebuild your karma, post something on-topic early in the thread that you know will be modded up. For extra points, start your post with "I know I'll be modded down for this" and then post something that's clearly in line with the prevailing Slashdot groupthink.
Example for this thread:
I know I'll be modded down for this, but it seems to me these ISPs need to stop bowing down to the **AA and start doing what's best for their customers. Why should I be cut off because I want to use bittorrent to download the latest Ubuntu release? This is why we need to support Net Neutrality!
Had you made that the first post instead of what you posted, you would have been guaranteed a +5, Insightful and would be well on your way to re-earning that karma bonus.
Join us next week when we'll discuss how to craft a proper car analogy on Slashdot in order to hit the coveted trifecta of vaguely on-topic, completely nonsensical, and +5 moderated.
"For the millionth time, file sharing is stealing. Shouting the same lie from your noise hole over and over again will never make it true."
There, I fixed it for you.
"Content creators are not owed a living."
Just like factory workers, cops, teachers, doctors, engineers, etc aren't owed a living, right?
"The quality of the vast majority of content is low, and the price is too high."
If it's so low, why are you downloading it? If it's so low, surely you can live without it? If I don't like the quality of goods at a particular store, that doesn't give me the right to steal there stuff. I just won't shop there. There's other stores, with better goods at more reasonable prices. Is it ok to steal luxury cars and goods because the prices are too high?
If you think the price is too high, just move on. Don't buy their music/movie, but don't steal it either. That's called *negotiation*. I know people think that in modern society, the concept of negotiating price is dead. It's not completely - it just works different. You might not *individually* negotatiate prices on a customer by customer basis. But, as a business, if too few people are buying your product/service, you lower the price and/or increase the quality until people are buying in sufficient volume.
"They will lose, if only because the two sides of this debate are divided by age, with the young respecting the freedom of information flow, and the old desperate to hang onto the economic privileges they lose."
Its more like the young have no patience - they want everything *NOW*, and if they can't afford it, they'll just take it; if you wait, generally the prices of anything goes down. Particularly if the quality is low - how many DVDs are in bargain bins for $3-5 in stores all over the country, because they will only sell at that price? The market works, prices on both good and bad things generally comes down over time.
Yes, there are exceptions occasionally, but those exceptions are usually things that are very popular and have gone out of print/publication (like, for example, trying to find a copy of Final Fantasy 7 means you will probably be paying more than the original price of the game when it was released, because Square stopped selling it, and there are fewer licensed copies in the market than people who want to buy it, but most things aren't collectors items).
Actually I've found that if people don't agree with you they will mod you to oblivion with flamebait or troll
Yes, it happens to everyone, but if it's a good post it will be remoderated; I've seen posts with a score of -1 go all the way to +5, and I'll bet you have, too.
The way you put things affects it as well; an otherwise insighrful post that's also insulting will be modded "troll", and the mod will be deserved.
Free Martian Whores!