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No Pirate Bay for Comcast Customers
An anonymous reader writes with a PC World article, according to which "The Pirate Bay is unavailable for customers of Comcast, even as the torrent site remains online for other users. Problems began early Thursday morning, when several Comcast users told TorrentFreak that they were having issues with The Pirate Bay. Commenters at Techland and Engadget are confirming that they can't access the site." Right now, I'm on a Comcast connection in Pennsylvania, and get an "Ooops, could not connect" message when I try to reach The Pirate Bay.
Engadget is reporting that it's not limited to Comcast. I'm on FIOS and I can confirm that it's unreachable as well.
Further comments in that thread suggest that it might be a problem with the LAN on their end, perhaps a routing issue or something.
that they don't block The Pirate Bay.
http://mailman.nanog.org/pipermail/nanog/2011-May/036088.html
That was the news THIS MORNING. Then it was found that Pirate Bay couldn't be accessed by anyone. Web server died. It sounds like they segment traffic to certain web servers based on IP ranges for load-balancing, and the one for the Comcast group died. No big conspiracy here.
And why link to PCWorld? Who are they? TorrentFreak broke the news and continually updated it through the day. They should be cited:
http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-blocked-the-pirate-bay-110512/
No, it's blocked along the Comcast route somehow. Even using a non Comcast DNS server won't resolve and you can't ping the IP, either.
http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-blocked-the-pirate-bay-110512/
which states
Update: After affecting only Comcast users for about 15 hours, The Pirate Bay seems to be inaccessible pretty much everywhere now. The Pirate Bay team is looking into it. (Update: one webserver died, should be back for most people who are not on Comcast now).
Everyone may be jumping to conclusions:
Update: Comcast just got back to us reaffirming that it is not the cause of this issue. "We're not blocking PirateBay and reports online indicate users from several ISPs around the world are affected." As we originally mentioned we're seeing those reports too, and many of you in the poll below are showing this isn't necessarily a Comcast-specific thing. So the question remains: what kind of a thing is it?
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
This is a common misperception, but in fact censorship can be performed by anyone who has power over what another person sees, hears, or reads.
However, the First Amendment guarantees only apply to government. The Constitution has no power over private party censorship.
Bitsavers has mirrors.
Web
bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de
computer-refuge.org/bitsavers
minus-zero.net
www.bighole.nl
University of Kent
textfiles.com
FTP
bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de
University of Kent
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
I just signed up with Comcast a month ago.
When I called to inquire about their service, I specifically asked if they had a bandwidth cap.
They LIED. I asked repeatedly in several ways just to make sure, because I'd heard that they did have a cap. I explained that I am a heavy user, download a lot, stream video, etc. I was repeatedly assured that there was NO limit on the amount of bandwidth you could use in a month.
The sales rep was not some uninformed contractor in another country, they were a Comcast employee right here in my town where Comcast has a headquarters.
Of course, I found out right away that they DO have a bandwidth cap, 250gb per month. My account page has a meter on it.
Never believe a thing these corporate persons say. Corporate persons are lying sociopaths.
This space available.
Tracert from Chicago comcast customer. (as image because of slashdot's lame lameness filter)
http://i.imgur.com/x26hd.jpg
Problem is in Sweden, not here.
I doubt it was an intentional lie. They're just incompetent, which is different.
I called a while ago and they told me no caps. I said I was certain they were wrong and asked them to ask their manager. The manager told me they had caps. As well as any lazy google search.
Sometimes its incompetence, not malice.
The nice thing about comcast is that Im not on any contract. So if they piss me off, out they go. No ETF or other BS. I dont have that freedom with dishnetwork, tmobile, or if I went with Uverse.
" The written contract (which you read and sign) overrules and verbal promises that a salesman or manager tells you."
Wrong, wrong and wrong. Those "verbal promises" are just as binding (in most US states and most other global common law jurisdictions) as the written / signed document.
And yes, I am a lawyer.
A dream is good. A plan is better.