UK ISP Disconnects Customers For File Sharing 311
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..."
Here's a plan (Score:5, Funny)
Re:so? (Score:1, Funny)
The UK isn't like the U.S.
From TFS: Karoo is the only ISP in the area.
It isn't simply a matter of moving from one ISP to another. The UK is very big, so local monopolies are very common. These victims have no recourse.
Re:A modest proposal (Score:1, Funny)
Wow, that really is a bad analogy (and long one too)!
Silly Karoo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Legal CYA (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Legal CYA (Score:3, Funny)
"...hire a team of lawyers"
[looks at wallet, then dials phone] - "Hello, Lionel Hutz?"
Re:Here's a plan (Score:5, Funny)
Alternately, park outside his house and/or outside the Karoo offices, hack into a wireless router, and download as much music as you can.
I particularly like the idea of some Karoo tech setting some options to block a reported IP, and then asking, "Hey, did our network go down?"
Or... (Score:4, Funny)
How about going to their office en masse and burning it down?
Re:so? (Score:3, Funny)
All other parts of the UK are served by BT
I hope BitTorrent becomes an ISP in my area too!
Re:Legal CYA (Score:1, Funny)
Bart: A thousand dollars? But your ad says "No money down".
[shows his paper ad: "Works on contingency basis. No money down."]
Hutz: Oh! They got this all screwed up...
[makes a few corrections: "Works on contingency basis? No, money down!"]
Bart: So you _don't_ work on a contingency basis?
Hutz: No, money down! Oops, it shouldn't have this Bar Association logo here either.
Re:A modest proposal (Score:3, Funny)
Interesting? Insightful? Informative?
From BadAnalogyGuy? His sole purpose is to give us witty analogies, which, true to his name, are terrible – although it sometimes requires a bit of inspection to find what is so glaringly wrong (thus their brilliance: what should be glaringly obvious is not always so obvious at first). They're puzzles... brain teasers... just like his post here. His insight lies not in his straightforward posts, but in the bad analogies themselves!
Asking for interesting, insightful, or informative posts from BadAnalogyGuy would be like asking for apples from a peach tree. Now, I like apples, and don't get me wrong, I like peaches, too. But apples from a peach tree? Come on. You get apples from apple trees.
Re:Karoo is NOT the only ISP in the area. (Score:3, Funny)
Dialup is guaranteed by the regulator through a Universal Service Obligation [ofcom.org.uk]. However pressure by BT, the dominant ISP in the UK, on the regulator prevented the universal service obligation including broadband.
You're doing it wrong (Score:1, Funny)
This is like asking for your driver's license back by driving into another policeman.
Re:Here's a plan (Score:4, Funny)
Alternately, park outside his house and/or outside the Karoo offices, hack into a wireless router, and download as much music as you can.
Make sure that you download as much Hannah Montana, Vanilla Ice, Kriss Kross and Alvin and the Chimpmunks Sing Christmas Carols as you possibly can. When people see what he's been 'downloading', it should be the most embarassing mess of awful music the world has ever seen.
Re:A right not a privilege (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, I like that. Taxpayers are obligated to subsize unrestricted file sharing. That'll go over big in ANY country.