Slashdot Mirror
US ISP Adopts Three-Strikes Policy
Andorin writes "Suddenlink, a United States ISP that serves nineteen states, has implemented a three-strikes policy. Subscribers who receive three DMCA takedown notices are disconnected without compensation for a period of six months. According to TorrentFreak, the takedown notices do not have to be substantiated in court, which effectively means that subscribers can be disconnected based on mere accusations. In justifying the policy, Suddenlink turns to an obscure provision of their Terms of Service, but also claims that they are required by the DMCA to disconnect repeat offenders."
If you are a customer of theirs, immediately cancel your service and tell them why you are doing it. that ought to send the right message.
OK, everybody start submitting DMCA reports. They'll be out of subscribers in no time flat.
...but the reference to the DMCA is horseshit.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Get a movement within their customer base and employ the classic school scenario where a rule doesn't work if it has to be applied to everyone. Start filing tens of thousands of DMCA take down notices for suspected violations. If their policy is as described, cutting service to that many people will put a direct stop to it.
Time Warner's Roadrunner service has had a similar policy for a while, and it's really not that bad of a deal. Basically, if the RIAA/MPAA sees your IP address, instead of trying to extort you for money, they just tell TWC, who redirects you to an angry-sounding webpage next time you try to use the Internet. You click "Accept" or whatever, and then the problem goes away. No subpoenas, no lawsuits. You can do this twice. It's not until the third time that something actually bad happens, and if you're incompetent enough to get caught three times, you shouldn't be on the Internet.
Countdown to someone sending DMCA takedown notices for random Suddenlink customers begins now...
Their network is overloaded and it easier to trim the fat (heavy downloaders=pirates after all) then to build out their network.
Do they serve business customers as well? Because if they do, this is probably going to get them sued before long.
People should drop this company, ASAP.
Submit DMCA reports on the board and management of suddenlink. They all most likely have full speed connections. Maybe you think they are misusing your IP.
The policy allows no review of the DMCA, so it would be interesting to see how that develops.
Company name:
Cequel Communications Holdings I, LLC
and from their web page:
Mr. Jerald L. Kent Chairman
Mary Meduski EVP - Chief Financial Officer Age: 51 314-315-9603
Mr. Thomas P. McMillin Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President Age: 48
Ralph Kelly SVP - Treasurer 314-315-9403
Mr. James Fox Chief Accounting Officer and Senior Vice President Age: 40
Mike Pflantz VP - Corporate Finance 314-315-9341
Mr. Terry M. Cordova Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President Age: 49
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
suddenunlink.com is now a registered domain name that points to the original article.
Maybe they should change their name to SuddenDisconnect?
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
It just doesn't make sound business sense to me to voluntarily implement this when there aren't other ISPs doing the same -- especially the major ones. Could this ISP be getting some incentive money to implement this? I just hope the folks who are currently with them have an alternative high-speed alternative.
Moot's Canadian, he sends it to CSIS, they sell it to the CIA/NSA.
Major Areas of Operation: Texas, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma
Oh.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
I see tons of frivolous items that could be reported on throughout their site to the DMCA. Just start submitting and eventually 3 notices will make it through....Should be great to see Suddenlink have to take their own site down.
Ave Molech Setting
Of course, it's not like so many ISPs don't have a ton of other obscure terms that allow them to terminate your service on a whim.
If you are a customer of theirs, immediately cancel your service and tell them why you are doing it. that ought to send the right message.
That it does.
It tells them that they have shed another geek who clogs their pipes and will never upgrade his service.
I've been reading the TF thread for about an hour now, and I still can't help but think this is a horrible and stinky decision;
I've written Suddenlink to communicate my dissatisfaction :
@SuddenLink : "I've contacted Suddenlink in order to communicate my dissatisfaction. I was given the opportunity to move to an area for a job, that was serviced by Suddenlink. Their policy was the deciding factor in me choosing to reject the job opportunity.
Way to go Suddenlink, not only have you cost yourselves a reliable customer - your policy is affecting immigration to your country."
Their response was to play dumb ;
"I apologize, sir! But I'm not quite sure as to what disconnect policy you're referring to. We do not have any cancellation fees or contracts, and you're free to leave our company without any charge or penalty. "
To which I replied and pointed them in the direction of the TorrentFreak article ;
"The disconnect policy in which I refer to, can be found here;
http://torrentfreak.com/us-isp-disconnects-alleged-pirates-for-6-months-100924/"
And their reply was ;
@SuddenLink : "Thank you for your email in regards to the DMCA Violation. I appreciate the opportunity to assist you today.
I apologize that you do not approve of this, sir.'
wow... I'm glad that they 'apologize' that I don't approve of their policy. Great customer service skills - both on a CSR level and Company-Wide, that this is the best response they can come up with.
I got a notice from Time Warner about three years ago regarding a movie I was supposedly sharing. They suspended my internet until I clicked a button promising I wouldn't pirate anyone. They also warned me I only had one warning left (i.e. on my third strike they would discontinue my service).
Just grab their netblock and submit DMCA takedown notices for the entire range.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Whoring themselves out to this kinda of organized crime.
NONE Of the *big* service providers, who run a large, successful, and well managed network are jumping on this bandwaagon.
This ias *nothing* to do with "catching criminals" or 'stopping piracy', it's a trivial manner for them to legitimize disconnecting the heavy users so they can continue to run a network without having it implode.
Failure to run your business properly is not a good reason to pound your customers in the ass.
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
4. The methods used by copyright holders to identify infringement are not very reliable, so you get flagged without ever having done anything wrong.
5. Somebody who's out to get you makes a false complaint and your ISP is too lazy to investigate, so you get flagged without ever having done anything wrong.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
SeldomLink is what i call them. Service goes down constantly.
Submit DMCA reports on the board and management of suddenlink. They all most likely have full speed connections. Maybe you think they are misusing your IP.
Suddenlink googles for "Suddenlink."
Suddenlink finds this post to Slashdot. Suddenlink awaits events.
The geek submits his fraudulent DMCA complaint. Suddenlink neatly pegs him to Slashdot.
The timing is right. The complaints all take the same form....
1. Get customer list.
2. Send three DMCA takedowns per customer, no merit to claims required.
3. PROFIT!
PeerBlock Beat the ISP's at their own game. Pirate all you want.
Get your free Dropbox account with 2 GB Free storage!
I wonder if all those geniuses have a business plan for when they remain without customers, because they've disconnected them all?
Immediately start filing those DMCA takedown notices. Anyone, everyone. Neighbors? Yes. Businesses? Even better. Flood the service with spurious takedown notices and someone will learn how ridiculous that policy is.
And when all those affected customers cancel their accounts, it'll be much more effective than if it was just you canceling.
Happy takedowns!
...So it begins.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
I agree - I think anyone that gets disconnected WIHTOUT having been convicted of anything should sue the b@stards.
The Truth is a Virus!!!
Not exactly new in the US. Our hotel uses Qwest DSL, and we offer guest wifi. Guess what? A hotel guest torrented an obscure british sitcom and Qwest cut off our internet to our entire hotel (FIRST STRIKE) -- our servers, websites, reservation systems, -- ALL DOWN -- no notice was given by Qwest. Upon calling numerous departments within technical support, they finally informed us of the reason for the "outage" and then chastised us for downloading copyrighted material. After an hour and a half, we convinced them to turn our internet back on. However, they warned us that if a guest downloads copyrighted material two more times (i.e. 3 strike policy) we will be permanently disconnected and banned for Qwest Internet Services. There are only two other ISPs in town, and if we were to be without internet our business wouldn't be able to operate.
if the ISP of Congress and the Senate have a similar three-strike rule. Oh, the fun that could be had.
Yeah, 'cause its not like people can / are falsely accused using methodslike 3 strikes. /s
If there is a high chance of being wrongfully accused of something by using a particular means, damn right I will complain about it, and in no way does objection to this. automatically mean you pirate.
Maybe because the means of catching alleged lawbreakers plays judge, jury, and executioner without proof or due process? [and no, theft is not involved last I checked]
More like you don't have a fucking clue about what opponents of this are saying and you'd rather continue using tired and dis-proven talking points instead of actually *trying* to read up on the issue and intelligently respond.
Oh the irony...
1. No stealing involved 2. Not committing a crime != immunity from being accused of it.
Uh, yes you do when it comes to alleged crimes, you idiot.
IP addresses only point you to the router, not the person using the computer that uses that router, nor in a network of multiple computers, the computer itself. The dotted-decimal number alone does shit.
Again, you call people thieves when no such act is involved and when no proof of the contrary [that it is involved] has occurred. Piracy doesn't take money, or anything from somebody that they already had [but have no longer]. Copyright infringement is a totally different beast as backed up by years of case law. Doesn't make it right, and only a complete retard believes that you have to view it as stealing to view it as wrong, but it. fucking. matters.
Again, ironic you state that.
By acting on accusation alone? Bullshit.
Again, ACCUSED. These claims are over allegations, they BELIEVE you are illegally downloading something - doesn't mean you are, or aren't FOR SURE until it is PROVEN one way or another. Somehow, I think you have trouble with the words "accused" and "allegation," given how you have been so definitive about the unknown, and willing to prosecute without proof/due process.
[citation needed]
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
Problem is mr. brain your traffic still goes through the ISP. A simple inline bridge which most of them run btw gives them full access to your traffic. I don't care what you are running on your client that packet still has to reach the internet and when it does it is visible to the ISP.
Got Code?
It's a business, so they can cancel you for most any reason they want and dont need 'proof' or a judgment in court. Of cousre you can too, and it sounds like it is time to pack up and change services. Vote with your feet.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I hope the can. gov. does not start to imitate their american cousins....i would hate to think that after 3 strikes, I would have to change companies over and again.