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Piracy Notices Can Mess With Your Thermostat, ISP Warns (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by msmash on from the taking-up-a-notch dept.

U.S. Internet provider Armstrong has warned persistent pirates on its network of limiting their access to the thermostats if they didn't play by its rules. From a report: Our attention was caught by a recent letter the company sent to one of its users. The ISP points out that it received multiple copyright infringement notices, urging the customer to stop, or else. [...] While reduced Internet speeds are bad enough, there's another scary prospect. The reduced service level may also prevent subscribers from controlling their thermostat remotely. Not ideal during the winter. "Please be advised that this may affect other services which you may have connected to your internet service, such as the ability to control your thermostat remotely or video monitoring services." Accused pirates who want their full service restored, and regain control over their thermostats, have to answer some copyright questions and read an educational piece about copyright infringement.

4 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. Why the fuck is their thermostat exposed to the in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    See subject

  2. Re: Why the fuck is their thermostat exposed to th by saloomy · · Score: 5, Informative

    They are only pointing out what other ancillary services might be interrupted if the ISP shuts off the Internet. The ISP is hoping scare tactics will result in compliance. I donâ(TM)t think the ISP intends to log into the device and change its password or anything like that. They are merely saying âoethink of everything else you use the Internet for, donâ(TM)t lose all that functionality because you are piratingâ.

  3. Not wanting to freeze to death by nospam007 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Another reason to get a VPN.

  4. Re:This is why we need net neutrality by bws111 · · Score: 3, Informative

    You do realize that the reason for the 'segregated TV packages' is so that you don't have to pay for things you don't want or need, right? By far, MOST complaints about cable TV pricing is not about things people DON'T get, it is about having to pay for things they DON'T want. People don't want LESS granularity in cable, they want MORE.