AT&T To Cut Off Some Customers' Service in Piracy Crackdown (axios.com)

AT&T will alert a little more than a dozen customers within the next week or so that their service will be terminated due to copyright infringement, news outlet Axios reported, citing sources familiar with its plans. From the report: It's the first time AT&T has discontinued customer service over piracy allegations since having shaped its own piracy policies last year, which is significant given it just became one of America's major media companies. AT&T owns a content network after its purchase of Time Warner earlier this year, an entity now called WarnerMedia. Content networks are typically responsible for issuing these types of allegations to internet service providers (ISPs) for them to address with their customers.

Comments

Alleged Copyright Infringement = Loss of Essential

[Anonymous Coward]

What a shithole country!

corporate plaintiff, judge, and executioner

[sittingnut]

" discontinued customer service over piracy allegations"

allegations!

a tech/media corporate decides who allegedly committed alleged crimes (alleged "piracy", alleged "hate speech", alleged "election interference", etc are just the beginning) against related or fellow tech/media corporates or supporters, and deal out de-platforming punishment too.
welcome to rule by big corporates, according to their rules and their courts.

Re:corporate plaintiff, judge, and executioner

[lactose99]

As engaging in media piracy isn't a protected class this is just doing business.

Re:corporate plaintiff, judge, and executioner

[rogoshen1]

We give them monopoly power, then wonder why they behave like a monopoly.

When it comes to regulations or blocking community broadband they'll bleat "free market..!" (how's that for mental gymnastics?)
But they'll *gladly* take gigantic government subsidy gibs for infrastructure improvement that of course they'll never deliver on.

They also managed to get one of their stooges (okay, the last couple at least) To run the agency that's supposed to regulate them.

The internet as it has existed since the 1990's has been nice. But once it was found that there was significant money to be made, it had absolutely no chance of lasting in the long-run. Fantastic times we live in.

Re:corporate plaintiff, judge, and executioner

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong analogy.
This is not about invitation to a private house, it is about a publicly offered service, usually provided by a monopoly or an oligopoly. A service sometimes tightly tied to taxpayer funded government services to the point of no being easily available elsewhere.

As such, mere allegations of violations should not be the cause of banishment.

     

Re: corporate plaintiff, judge, and executioner

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, especially since the 12 can all just get service from the competing provider in the area...

Capcha text "inequity"

Re:corporate plaintiff, judge, and executioner

[rogoshen1]

I really don't think content providers and ISP's should be allowed to co-mingle like this. It leads to a situation where you have a company that's positioned itself as a regional monopoly (either naturally, such as access to coax; or through pure evil -- shutting down community broadband, or other competitors) that's able to completely control communication. And in this particular case, if you do something they don't like, they can completely cut you off. Besides, the bigger the company, the more abusive they are to their customers.

ISP's should be dumb pipes for getting whatever bits you request to your box. Letting them do anything else is just inviting disaster.

On a tangent though.. regarding your comment about the internet thriving:

You really don't see how the internet is going from a democratizing thing, where people can freely express their opinions and views.. to a curated swamp of social media that's fed through advertising and monetizing personal information?

The thought that's slowly creeping in is that it's the duty of the gatekeepers (be it google, facebook, reddit, whoever) to censor inconvenient or 'problematic' views. They may dress this up with whatever fashionable terms they like; but it's still censorship. Which can sound nice, at least in the near term since it's fringe views that get shut down. (not many people will stick up for a neo-nazi, or antifa or whoever else goes against the current)

BUT that line, or what constitutes 'acceptable' speech will invariably shift towards the middle -- the definition of "being a troll" or "being a dick".

Also troubling is the desire to abolish privacy. Which again, having these gate-keeping companies acting as the arbiters of online discourse, will result in the death of privacy, and as a result -- the death of free speech.

I'd say instead of thriving, it's grown to the point it's liable to tip-over.

Re: corporate plaintiff, judge, and executioner

[NFN_NLN]

Live by the sword die by the sword. Then I should be able to start a new ISP using the tax payer funded infrastructure they laid down and they better not whine and cry about it.

Re:corporate plaintiff, judge, and executioner

[rtb61]

Prove you have never ever enganged in media privacy, prove it, go right fucking ahead, prove you never copied once or get cut off, you can always spend a few years in court trying to get reconnected. The wrong political speech will be equal to copyright infringement, prove elsewise in court for a couple of hundred thousand dollar of a couple of years and then whoops get caught again and be required to prove your innocence.

just now noticing?

[Anonymous Coward]

"discontinued customer service "

I think AT&T discontinued customer server many years ago.

Re:Alleged Copyright Infringement = Loss of Essent

[DontBeAMoran]

It's the first time AT&T has discontinued customer service over piracy allegations...

Maybe these people were using encryption, thus AT&T can't confirm they are not pirates, thus the allegations.

How does "if you don't have anything to hide then everything you do should be public knowledge" sound to you?

Re:Alleged Copyright Infringement = Loss of Essent

[fahrbot-bot]

It's the first time AT&T has discontinued customer service over piracy allegations...

Maybe these people were using encryption, thus AT&T can't confirm they are not pirates, thus the allegations.

How does "if you don't have anything to hide then everything you do should be public knowledge" sound to you?

Sure. And when politician are fully transparent, like releasing their tax returns and stop holding closed-door sessions and accepting anonymous and/or non-disclosed donations, PACs that don't have to disclose their donors and/or expenditures are abolished, and corporations do away with non-disclosure agreements and private meetings, and things like that, then maybe we can talk.

Re:Isn't disabling 911 service illegal?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Good thing Internet voting isn't a thing.

Considering the atrocious options in the USA ..

[AbRASiON]

This is pretty bad. A lot of areas seem to be only serviced by one provider, it's kinda terrible.

Time for more VPN use.

Outsourced it to Lily Tomlin

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I wonder if they'll also start to check that their customers who play Music On Hold to their victims paid the requisite royalties OR ELSE disconnect them for "piracy". Sauce for the goose, etc.

(Yes, the message is very much implied: ISPs playing copyright cops? Don't go there, idiot ISPs. But of course it's a telco that has to go and be just that stupid.)

Re:Alleged Copyright Infringement = Loss of Essent

[DontBeAMoran]

Wow, nine fucking warnings?

Okay, fair enough.

Re:Cheap cheezy VPNs

[Anonymous Coward]

Use of an unlicensed (i.e. not paid for, and without a back door for monitoring; possibly, simply one that's not work-related and not sold by the ISP) VPN will be considered evidence of piracy in the not too distant future.

Regulate

[zedaroca]

More reason to regulate them like an utility. Also, prohibit them from looking into traffic.