Verizon Blocking 4chan 677
An anonymous reader writes "According to 4chan's owner and administrator 'moot,' Verizon has explicitly blocked all traffic on their network from boards.4chan.org, where all of 4chan's boards are located. Moot explains that only traffic to and from port 80 is being dropped and they were able to confirm that it was intentional. 4chan's downtime for Verizon users has been in effect for at least 72 hours since Saturday, February 7."
DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Interesting)
Rules #5, #6, and #7 [encycloped...matica.com]
Verizon, you are doomed. Pissing off 4chan is probably the worst thing you can do on the Internet.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh yes, Verizon is sooo screwed, one of the largest ISPs in the world might get DDoSed by a hundred retarded people who will actually have the knowhow to DDoS, while thousands of others will wind up downloading trojans that spam 4chan.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, Verizon is screwed. If they wish to maintain certain legal status they'll unblock 4chan and fast. Otherwise they'll become liable for any copyright infringement going on their network because they're showing that they are actively monitoring and controlling data, instead of acting as a neutral data routing service.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Informative)
for about the 500th time, ISPs are not, and do not want to be common carriers.
The DMCA safe harbor provision is completely different from common carrier protection and applies regardless of whether the content host monitors their content or not.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Insightful)
How is that a troll?
You just learned the difference between throwing out an insult and presenting a well-formulated argument. Being convincing and polite is all about format. tone and attitude.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:4, Interesting)
ISPs are not common carriers. Not under current US laws.
Per 47 USC 153 (44), any "telecommunications carrier" is a common carrier to the extent of its telecommunications services. Telecommunications services are defined under (46) as the offering of telecommunications, which is defined under (43) as the transmission of information of the user's choosing, between points specified by the user, without change in form or content of the information as sent and received. In contrast, "information services" is defined under (20) as the offering of the capability to use information "via telecommunications." Note that these definitions have been summarized by me to exclude some bits. Thus, providers of information services, unlike telecommunication carriers, are not subject to mandatory common carriage regulations (who are subject to those regulations only the extent of their telecommunications service).
The FCC decided in High-Speed Access to the Internet over Cable, Declaratory Ruling & NPRM, 17 FCC Rcd 4798 (2002) that internet access provided by cable companies was an "information service" and not a "telecommunications service." (Some of the logic here is that users' don't know exactly where they're getting or sending information from/to, and do not choose all of the information they are sending or receiving, thus internet use does not fall under the telecommunications definition. Not saying I think that's a good interpretation) Therefore, such ISPs are not subject to mandatory common carriage regulations, but may be regulated by the FCC under its ancillary powers.
The United States Supreme Court upheld the FCC's interpretation in National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X Internet Services [wikipedia.org], 545 U.S. 967 (2005).
The FCC has subsequently found that the provision of internet access over telephone wires (DSL) is an information service in Appropriate Framework for Broadband Access to the Internet over Wireline Facilities, R&O and NPRM, 20 FCC Rcd 14853 (2005).
I hope this puts to rest all of the claims here on Slashdot that ISPs are Common Carriers. (yeah right).
Here's another way of looking at it. Common carriage means that the carrier must provide open service to any who ask for it at a reasonable rate (See 47 USC 201 & 202). If, for example, Comcast was a common carrier in regard to cable internet service, it would be required to permit independent cable internet service providers to directly compete with its cable internet service, using its own wires. Ditto for Verizon and DSL. I remember, a long time ago (1998, to be exact), getting cable internet from a small company in Carlisle Pennsylvania called PlanetCable. I have no idea if they still exist, but its unlikely - because they don't own the cable lines, and so their existence depends on the local cable company allowing them to use their lines. And why would a cable company permit a service to compete against it, using the cable company's own infrastructure?
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Informative)
I won't agree "common carrier status" is a valid argument. ISPs don't have common carrier status. But there's another protection that applies to them, that should make the DMCA notice sender think twice, before going any further than sending a notice.
The DMCA does not apply to ISPs who merely route traffic (and don't host the content on their network, or their equipment)..
Contrary to popular misconception, the DMCA does not have just ONE safe harbor, it has two separate safe harbor provisions, and each one has different requirements, and applies under different circumstances.
One of the safe harbor provisions [US Title 17, Chapter 5, Sec 512, (c)] pertains to content providers, web hosters, etc, companies that store content on behalf of their customers, and has the infamous provisions for notice and takedown requirements.
These people must arrange for an agent to receive DMCA notices, and expeditiously remove content, in order to enjoy that particular safe harbor protection.
That one is the 512(c) safe harbor.
This is not the safe harbor that ISPs should rely on.
ISPs should rely on the 512(a) [chillingeffects.org] safe harbor, which does not require having an agent to receive notices of infringing content, and does not require doing anything with such notices, in order to enjoy the protections of this provision.
US Title 17, Chapter 5, Sec 512, (c) ... A service provider ...."
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#512 [copyright.gov] " (c) Information Residing on Systems or Networks
at Direction of Users." versus
"(a) Transitory Digital Network Communications.
shall not be liable for monetary relief, or, except as provided in
subsection (j), for injunctive or other equitable relief, for
infringement of copyright by reason of the provider's transmitting,
routing, or providing connections for,
The DMCA doesn't say anything about severing connectivity to computers on a network. That's just what the wronged party wants (if they try to send a notice to an ISP that a user happens to subscribe to, or that their traffic happens to pass through), the collateral damage doesn't effect them, if the ISP cuts off innocent users in the process.
The current DMCA provides some decent protections for ISPs that don't have unjust requirements like takedown procedures.
Big **AA organizations ignore this fact, and send notices anyway.
Because (A) they wished the takedown procedure applied in all cases, or they may even be trying to get the law changed to do that...
(B) They rely on the misconception; they would like ISPs to think they must disconnect the user immediately on notice.
(C) They want to minimize the number of "outs" or legal protections any future counterparty might have -- by sending the notice, regardless
(D) Scare tactic.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Funny)
they'll become liable for any copyright infringement going on their network because they're showing that they are actively monitoring and controlling data, instead of acting as a neutral data routing service
Some people simply say that they are not a lawyer, rather than feeling the need to prove it dramatically.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:4, Insightful)
Wish I had mod points. This pretty much makes this entire slashdot story pointless.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry, your analogy doesn't work as it doesn't reference cars in any way.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:4, Interesting)
Sorry, your analogy doesn't work as it doesn't reference cars in any way.
Indeed, ISP's are more like Cab Drivers.
Imagine if you flag down a cab at the airport, You tell him to go to the west side of town. Half way to your destination you tell him you're going to a strip club. He says he can't take you there. What do you do?
I'd say get out, Refuse to pay, and call another cab.
In this case If i couldn't access the site after complaining I'd cancel the service and refuse to pay the bill as they refused to provide unfiltered internet access as they agreed.
It's the same shit as when they block port 25. Call them and complain and if they can't fix it, go somewhere else.
Besides who needs to access 4chan from their phone anyway
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Insightful)
"Besides who needs to access 4chan from their phone anyway"
I don't, but I'd prefer to nip this little urge for some dipshit who takes my money to decide what websites I should be accessing before they go blocking access to something that I do have interest in accessing from my phone.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Informative)
go somewhere else.
In the United States, home of 4chan, Verizon, and Slashdot, there are five ways to get on the Internet:
What do you recommend?
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Funny)
Canada.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Interesting)
And if I were new here (perhaps a displaced /b/tard) and had RTFA, I would have known that the block actually only affects VZW.
Here's where 4chan organizes, everyone buys a 3G card and plan from VZW, and torrents like mad. When VZW's entire 3G network comes to a grinding halt, the message will have been made. I'd post this idea directly to /b/ (not really!!) but I'm in the last 5 days of a 2 week ban... meh... w/e.
But, you say, Verizon will be more than happy to take money from a bunch of /b/tards. Right, but will they be happy to lose business when their Droid, BlackBerry, and WinMo users have no access for a week, while AT&T's iPhone, BlackBerry, and WinMo users are unaffected? Will they be delighted at the lost income when tens of thousands of tweens and teens can't send MMS messages (remember, those are a data service, not sent via the control channel like SMS)?
Also, don't forget the likelihood that many of the type of people who would willingly participate in such a scheme are likely to:
A) Open the account with fraudulent or stolen identity information
or B) Not give two craps about their credit and just not pay the bill
In the end, should something like this occur, it would be BAD for Verizon.
Verizon Wireless, not Verizon (Score:4, Informative)
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Insightful)
is it actually necessary, though, that the be a 'neutral data routing service'? Say I own a restaurant. Let's get fancy, call it a Food Routing Service. If I feel that it's immoral to serve veal, or dogmeat, or endangered animal flesh, or something possibly dangerous like pufferfish, then I can do that. People get to know me as the restaurant with that kind of menu and if someone needs something off my menu, they're welcome to go somewhere else to get it but I just wont serve it.. or is my analogy lacking something? Seems solid to me... There's got to be a hundred-thousand other web pages where a person can get images of -*ahem*, that sort, if it's really that important.
Your analogy works as long as people have a choice. In some areas, people only have one ISP available to them as a reasonable source of Internet access. If Verizon was someone's only choice, then they can't really go anywhere else. Or, to go along with your analogy, if you owned the only restaurant in town and there were no supermarkets, convenience stores, etc...
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Funny)
Remember we're talking about posters to 4chan here:
"Mum, can we move house?"
"Why?"
"So I can look at stuff a million times worse than what you imagine to be the worst possible thing I could look at on the web"
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Your analogy IS lacking.
The ISP is not a restaurant with a menu, because on the Internet, you do not obtain content (food) from your ISP.
Rather, the Internet is a cafeteria and the ISP is one of many plate-dispensers in the cafeteria. You put whatever you like in your plate and the plate dispenser has no business deciding if it likes what you're eating, it's just serving plates for you to carry around your food in.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:4, Insightful)
By saying "We filtered this dangerous food out," you can now get in trouble when dangerous food you missed or slipped past your filter gets served to people. Hell, you can get in trouble for specifically NOT filtering it out, and that's the trouble Verizon is headed towards if they don't say "whoops, this was a mistake."
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, win/win --- they'll have to deal with my angry mom, and I won't have to. :-)
(uhh, if you're reading this, sorry, Mom)
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Insightful)
In this case they are not filtering content, they are censoring a particular web site by blocking it's IP address range. This represents an infringement of trade designed to favour Verizon's other business interests. First 4chan than others to follow.
I smell a trap though, instigate internet digital 'terrorism' sic, then claim justification for the commercial disruption because of the resultant attacks, meanwhile your friendly professionally paranoids are monitoring (they are short on their quota of harsh interrogation, isolation and imprisonment of children). In this case better to stick it to them in court, it is a slam dunk freedom of speech thing, one case by 4 chan and a class action by it's users.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:4, Insightful)
That's not the point. The point is to retain common carrier status, you have certain rules to abide by. The only thing saving Verizon (and other companies) from being responsible (by law) for every last bit of copyright infringement occuring on their networks is that they are simply providing the pipes. The moment they start blocking any of it, they have to block all of it.
I'm not saying it is necessarily what the creators of the law intended, or even what is right (or that it isn't right), just that that's the way it is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_carrier [wikipedia.org]
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a myth you need to drop belief in.
Why do you think net neutrality is such a big issue? If they had common carrier status, it would be a moot point.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Funny)
I herd u liek mudkipz
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Interesting)
Please show me the documentation demonstrating that any single ISP, or any group of ISPs, or ISPs in general, have common carrier status.
The modern ISP marketplace is defined by the very fact that they are NOT common carriers, and thus not subject to regulation under Title II of the Communications Act. This is why we do not have choice in broadband suppliers at the local level.
Instead, some of the benefits of common carrier status have been conferred upon ISPs via the Communications Decency Act, which made them not liable for 3rd-party communications across their networks. Common-carrier status, however, has not been ascribed.
The key here is that ISPs get most of the benefits of common carrier status, without any of the drawbacks. They escape the kind of regulation that opens them up to competition in providing data service, and the kind of oversight that would require them to provide decent service... yet they can pick and choose what packets get delivered at what speed (if at all) and at what cost.
If ISPs had common carrier status, they could not throttle certain users based upon inequitable usage. They could not choose to deprecate certain kinds of data. Data transmission would need to be 100% content-agnostic. I think it makes sense -- but they'd need to shift to a different pricing model, a tiered one based on usage volume, to make it work.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:4, Insightful)
And for what it's worth, I spelled out in a successive post why I believe that the all-the-good-but-none-of-the-drawbacks status of the ISPs is a bad thing... so hopefully the more in-depth consideration merits your approval
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Funny)
Pissing off 4chan is probably the worst thing you can do on the Internet.
I disagree: http://xkcd.com/591/ [xkcd.com]
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:4, Insightful)
Gore and porn... Isn't that pretty much what the modern vampire has become? Blood and sex?
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:4, Interesting)
4chan is a bunch of bitches compared to Verizon. One has an army of juveniles the other has an army of congressmen. Which one do you think will win?
Sure the juveniles have anonymity and a mob willing to play unfair, but what are they gonna do? Attack Verizon? That happens everyday. Boycott them? Get in line. Complain? No solution there.
Looks like 4chan is shit out of luck. They need to convince people they are obeying the law or else they'll just keep getting nailed and it will get worse. Having pedo-porn posted on your site every single day is not a freedom of speech issue.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:4, Funny)
Actually knowing 4chan they're just as likely to do something utterly productive as they are utterly pointless.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Insightful)
One has an army of juveniles the other has an army of congressmen. Which one do you think will win?
It depends on your definition of victory; however in most cases I would bet on juveniles - many are vicious and unrestrained by social norms, while politicians are just greedy and power-hungry.
To put it differently: who would you prefer to meet in a dark alley in a bad part of town - a group of juveniles or a group of congressmen?
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Insightful)
You are bound to get replies that basically amount to "What can Anonymous possibly do to freaking Verizon?!"
They have no idea what they've done. 4chan isn't your average bastion of internet malcontents. DDOS? Please. Kevin Mitnick could be called a precursor, and we know with the Scientology war, they're more than willing to hack meatspace. If 4chan as a group takes issue with this, everyone down to the CEO of Verizon will be essentially fair game for various levels of harassment. They'll have the address and private phone number of anyone who matters within days, and they, probably more than anyone, know how to abuse such information.
I really, really don't envy Verizon right now. This of course hinges on whether or not 4chan will actually care, and that's anybody's guess. It's not a good precedent, though.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Insightful)
See, I'm not so sure about that. This is more akin to kicking a nest of fire ants. Generally—but not always—they'll leave you alone if you leave them alone, but deliberately provoking them is hardly recommended behavior.
4chan is absolutely not a den of terrorists. They're like a microcosm of society, reflecting all the dirty little things we don't like to acknowledge, but exist anyway. It's something most people would not like to confront in any manner, and certainly wouldn't want all those unrelated agendas focused upon them.
Let's get this straight: there is no unified 4chan. It's just a group of loosely associated contributors. But I guarantee if enough of them feel offended, retaliation will seem like a unified force; that's an illusion. 4chan isn't a terrorist organization. It's not even an organization. But humans trend toward common ground, and threatening that is an "at your own risk" proposition.
Like I said in my post, it's yet to be determined whether or not a critical mass of 4chan members will care enough about this to take action, but Verizon is playing Russian Roulette regardless of the outcome, or where any of this stand on the issue.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:4, Insightful)
We really need to stop abusing the word terrorism into yet another fear talking point.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Insightful)
Look at what America has become since 9/11.
When I was a kid it was popular to point to various things in the USSR like the inability to travel freely without "showing your papers" as evidence of totalitarian oppression. Here in 2010 "showing your papers" is as American as apple pie! Fuck, kids can't even bring techie looking projects to school without triggering a terror scare and being in danger of prosecution under insane laws that make it a crime to do anything that some uneducated moron might confuse with a terrorist act.
They terrorists HAVE ALREADY WON, no doubt about it.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Informative)
It's a matter of numbers.
4chan is a community. For better or worse, several hundred thousand people go there to hang out and blow off steam, screw around, debate, whatever. When that community is threatened, the members may seek retribution as is their prerogative. A common empathy may also affect them, and you get things like their campaign against Scientology. Not everyone takes part, but it's associated with that group.
In a group as large as 4chan, the chances of someone feeling annoyed or offended by basically anything is high. The greater the prodding, the greater the chance of eliciting a response from a larger cross-section of the user-base. Unlike say, your local community center, the chances are essentially guaranteed that one or more of these people will have either the technical or psychological competence to undermine some aspect of Verizon's organization either directly or surreptitiously.
There is no "4chan." There are no members. People go there, yes. But if 4chan were to vanish, those people would simply disperse into the greater internet and form smaller communities, or rebuild something similar to what 4chan was. Call 4chan a cesspool if you want, if that makes you feel better. Its diversity is as much a strength as a meaningless distraction. The fact remains that 4chan serves a purpose, and people who frequent it, for whatever reason, are essentially unpredictable in the veracity of their response, if they have one at all. Most will probably just sit back and laugh at Verizon's futile gesture. Some, of course, will not.
Thinking all 4chan-ers are the same is the same misconception as when people wonder how Slashdot simultaneously maintains diametrically opposing views. It's a fallacy to assert all "members" of a site believe the same basic tenets, and woe to any who underestimate a gathering as large as 4chan. Is Slashdot any different? Fark? Digg? Reddit? Would not the members not take kindly to Verizon arbitrarily blocking them? Would not a few, wack-jobs or not, do something in retaliation? Maybe a prank. Maybe extra junk mail. Maybe convince a major media conglomerate the CEO has suffered a massive heart attack, like they did to Apple in 2008?
You never know what will happen, and Verizon is basically inviting everyone at 4chan to do their worst. Hopefully, everyone there has better things to do.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not that they've pissed of 4chan. They've pissed off ME. And I don't know what 4chan is beyond a reputation that it's supposedly more childish than fark and slashdot combined. All I know is Verizon's decided I'm not allowed to view a site that doesn't appear to be breaking any laws.
And if that wasn't bad enough, customer service is pushing it under the rug. I just spent 20 of the stupidest minutes on the phone with Verizon listening to some smarmy shit apologize that I mistakenly perceived that I was being blocked. This is clearly a device issue as he can access boards dot 4chan dot org on two devices with no trouble at all. But he wouldn't even consider opening a ticket until I'd gone through every troubleshooting step in the book. Including a HARD RESET. (For those who aren't familiar with the lingo, that's the one where you reset the device to factory fresh.) Only then would he have opened a ticket. And the whole time, he's insisting that Verizon isn't blocking the site, saying I shouldn't trust blogs. Nevermind the fact that Verizon has admitted that they're blocking traffic and plan to lift the block tonight. After playing along with his bullshit for 20 minutes, I just couldn't stay on the phone any longer without calling him a lying sack of shit so I hung up.
Which, of course, is exactly what Verizon wants. They didn't have to open a ticket documenting a problem. My call just got logged as an uncooperative customer who refused to complete the troubleshooting process.
The worst part is they could have had the same effect if they'd just said, "We apologize for the inconvenience. Some of 4chan's affiliates were staging network attacks and we chose to block traffic from that site until the problem was resolved. There have been no attacks coming from that network today so we're going to restore access this evening." That's it. A simple statement that tells the customer what is going on, doesn't require opening a ticket, and ends with a happy customer. Perhaps even grateful. Or at least one who isn't pissed off.
Oh, and the best part of the call came a couple minutes after I hung up. "FREE VZW MSG-DO NOT REPLY:Start > Settings > All Settings > System tab > Memory > Clear Storage tab Enter 1234, tap OK in upper right of screen Display: Confirm"
Yep, that text message popped up on my phone shortly after I hung up on the tech. WinMo folks should recognize the Hard Reset instructions. I don't suggest you follow those instructions as it will wipe your WinMo phone clean. No explanation or warning came with that message. I assume he sent it for the lolz, hoping I'd follow the instructions blindly.
BTW, if you call Verizon's Network Repair Bureau at (866) 298-5373 as advised by 4chan, they won't do anything for you unless you have a ticket which you must get by calling Customer Care at 800-922-0204. Of course, it'll take you a good half hour of bullshit (and hard-resetting your phone!) to get a ticket assigned. But I suggest every Verizon customer who gives a shit about censorship should call anyway and let them know how you feel about censorship.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It has also been confirmed by many vzw customers.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Informative)
Are you aware of *just* how many posts are on 4chan? The most active board, "random," has over 100,000 posts a day. I think the entire site averages something like 1,000,000. Per DAY. You just can't effectively police something like that with the kind of set up they have. It was never built for that volume of traffic. They'd need to make everyone register, and that'd take away half the appeal of the place.
Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:NSFW!!!!!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Fraud? (Score:5, Interesting)
So Verizon sold me internet service. Implicit in that is service to all internet hosts.
Has Verizon criminally defrauded me?
Subject to change without notice. (Score:3, Informative)
You acknowledge and agree that Verizon (a) is not responsible for invalid destinations, transmission errors, or the corruption of your data; and (b) does not guarantee your ability to access all websites, servers or other facilities or that the Service is secure or will meet your needs.
So, the service doesn't meet your needs? FUUU
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That sounds more like a hold harmless clause [businessdictionary.com] to keep you from suing them if you aren't able to access your local radio station's Web contest because of Internet traffic or server failure on their part than it does a notification that they may at anytime decide to block a Web site.
I think Verizon has done something wrong here. If they want to offer something more along the lines AOL's old walled garden, they can't advertise it as the Internet, o
Re:Subject to change without notice. (Score:5, Informative)
you can be sure that somewhere in the agreement there's a section which boils down to "we reserve the right to do whatever we damned well please and are in no way obliged to do anything"
Re:Subject to change without notice. (Score:5, Informative)
Which in no way protects them from a lawsuit.
Works fine for me (Score:5, Informative)
I'm a FIOS customer and I can get to 4chan just fine at the moment.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Fraud? (Score:5, Informative)
Implicit in that is service to all internet hosts.
I bet if you read the terms of service - which you agreed to - you'll find that it doesn't support that assumption.
For example, from Comcast's terms of service [comcast.net]:
Comcast reserves the right to refuse to transmit or post, and to remove or block, any information or materials, in whole or in part, that it, in its sole discretion, deems to be in violation of Sections I or II of this Policy, or otherwise harmful to Comcast's network or customers using the Service, regardless of whether this material or its dissemination is unlawful so long as it violates this Policy.
Re:Fraud? (Score:4, Informative)
They're talking about VZW -- The slashdot title is wrong. Durr, it's slashdot, after all.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I can't access 4chan using my VW modem for my laptop.
My Time Warner Cable gets 4chan just fine.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd settle for 10! dollars [google.com].
Re:Fraud? (Score:4, Informative)
171! would overflow a double [wikipedia.org].
Hassen ijou da! (Score:5, Informative)
Get it right, you can sue for OVER 9000! dollars.
Or 8000, in the original Japanese...
Do they also block goatse? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Do they also block goatse? (Score:4, Funny)
I feel split in this matter (Score:4, Insightful)
On hand hand this is malignant censorship, the forebode to a society with no free information. On the other hand, this is 4chan.....
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:4, Funny)
On hand hand this is malignant censorship, the forebode to a society with no free information. On the other hand, this is 4chan.....
I was going to say the same thing. I am torn between condemning them or nominating them for a Nobel Prize for acting for the good of all humanity.
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:4, Interesting)
I would imagine all this does is give 4chan something to bitch about.
The main downside is that there are people trying to reach 4chan who cannot, and therefor will visit other parts of the internet. Before now they were contained, now Verizon broke containment.
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:5, Insightful)
Imagine if you will, Verizon blocked Slashdot, and the internet was glad that all those FSF loving Unix-beard hippies would finally shut up about "This is the year of Linux on the desktop" rather than hoping for its return and condemning such censorship. Does that represent a portion of the populace? Sure. But if you loved going there you'd still be upset about not getting it back.
I love 4chan, I hate /b/, but 4chan as a whole is a unique collection of message boards with a much faster rate of posting than anything else on the internet, its almost part chatroom. The individual boards all have their own culture and sense of humor, and many of them are great sources of discussion and debate (sup /v/).
Please don't blindly judge 4chan based on /b/ and its stupid memes alone. People got tired of that whole "anonymous is legion" and "lolcat" shit a long time ago.
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:5, Funny)
Has anybody bothered to find out WHY Verizon took this action?
For the lulz.
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:4, Insightful)
On the other hand, this is 4chan.....
Exactly. 4chan is blocked, and nothing of value was lost.
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:5, Insightful)
Free speech is only free if the speech you hate is free.
there's an awesome dynamic there (Score:3, Funny)
between your comment and your sig
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:4, Insightful)
I expect a statement from Verizon shortly.
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:5, Informative)
"Recently, Verizon Wireless security and external experts detected attacks from an IP address associated with the 4Chan family of web sites that was disruptive to our customers and our network. To protect both, we eliminated connectivity to the IP address. At no time was 4Chan itself blocked. Ongoing network security team monitoring has now determined there is no longer an immediate threat. Connectivity to those sites is being restored later today."
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:4, Interesting)
"To protect both, we eliminated connectivity to the IP address. At no time was 4Chan itself blocked."
Oh, I get it. They didn't 'block' 4chan. They simply 'eliminated connectivity'.
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:5, Insightful)
A DDOS attack originating from port 80 of boards.4chan.org? Think again.
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:5, Insightful)
First they came for 4chan, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a 4chan member...
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:5, Funny)
First they came for 4chan, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a 4chan member...
Then they came for... well, they didn't come for anyone else. There wasn't really a good, next logical step in the continuum. The rest of the Internet was safe. Story over.
that's not now the quote goes (Score:5, Funny)
the correct quote is
"First they came for 4chan, and I did not speak out--because I was looking at boobies;
Then they came for fark, and I did not speak out--because I was looking at boobies;
Then they came for slashdot, and I did not speak out--because I was looking at boobies;
Then they came for the boobies-and I started building truckbombs, mailing anthrax, and hijacking airplanes."
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:5, Informative)
You have my word that when the government starts rounding up and mass-murdering 4chan users, I'll speak up.
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:5, Interesting)
4chan is the radio active waste dump of the internet and for the most part all of their shenanigans tend to stay at 4chan, when you close 4chan it spreads.
Re:I feel split in this matter (Score:4, Insightful)
Funny thing about other *chans (kusaba or equivalent image board sites other than 4chan), they hate 4chan for the immeasurable amount of shit posting, where in comparison the smaller *chans have slower post volume but better content (usually)
When 4chan goes down, gets blocked, whatever, all these 4channers start migrating to the other imageboards and spread their 4channiness around either HAI GUISE IM GONNA POST HERE WHILE 4CHAN IS DOWN, K or just bitching about how they can't get on /b/.
So the members of these smaller boards realize 4chan needs to be alive to function as sort of a floodgate of retardation. I'm sure this principal applies to more than just *chan style boards though.
rebellion? (Score:5, Interesting)
Didn't some kid just get three years in jail for participating in an anti-Scientology DoS attack which was organized on 4chan?
Will that be enough to keep the users in line?
Re:rebellion? (Score:5, Informative)
Works From Here (Score:5, Funny)
I was able to connect to boards.4chan.org from a Verizon FiOS connection.
Sadly, it seems that I have contracted Syphilis.
Misleading Summary (Score:5, Informative)
Moot himself said on the 4chan status blog that it's only Verizon Wireless from what they can tell.
It should be interesting to see the fallout from this. 4channers aren't exactly the paragon of maturity.
Bad summary (Score:4, Informative)
Granted it's /. so I don't expect anything else.
The block is only in place for Verizon Wireless traffic, not all of Verizon's traffic.
Wouldn't want to work at Verizon support right now (Score:5, Funny)
ANONIMOUSE IS LEEGON"
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like yelling. Filter error:
Obligatory article tag. (Score:4, Funny)
it's like freudian psychology (Score:5, Insightful)
4chan is the mindless id, verizon is the superego of executive function control. the superego attempts to suppress the id. but it will just comes out anyways, in some subconscious way, it always does. you can't kill something 4chan, it's immortal and undead. the mindless id always finds a way
yes: alchemy is the basis for modern chemistry (Score:4, Insightful)
there would be no modern chemistry if it were not for the foundational inquiries of alchemists
likewise, there would be no modern psychology without the insights and work of sigmund freud
show some respect for your history. what you believe in today is superior to what they believed in the past. but you wouldn't believe in what you do today if they didn't believe in what they believed in the past. likewise, in a thousand years, some arrogant kid will snort at your brutal crude understanding and beliefs as well. apparently, with all the progress we've made in rationality and science, we still haven't cured arrogance and disrespect
Re:has the blocking stopped (Score:5, Informative)
What the summary fails to note is that this -only- affects users of Verizon Wireless, namely DROID owners.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Why anyone would want to access 4chan is another matter.
Re:has the blocking stopped (Score:5, Informative)
Re:has the blocking stopped (Score:4, Funny)
FYI This would effect any Verizon wireless device, unless it routes traffic through a proxy, like a blackberry.
Who would use a blackberry as a proxy? That just seems stupid.
Re:has the blocking stopped (Score:5, Informative)
http://status.4chan.org/ [4chan.org]
Re:I CAN HAZ KITTY PORN? (Score:5, Insightful)
Are they also going to block email, then? How about filefront and megaupload?
Because otherwise it's a hollow reason.
Not that any reason for censorship isn't hollow.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't know much about the #chans, but I don't think 4chan is the kiddie one. Infact the little #chan research I've done (after someone said to me:"You DONT piss off 4chan!", me:"WTF is 4chan?") was that 4chan expelled the kiddie porn people a while back, proving, that 4chan does have limits, which was news to me.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Except free speech.
why the hell is this modded up? (Score:4, Insightful)
some anonymous coward says he spoke with someone and the problem will be fixed?
well i just rang up obama and he said we'll have belgian style socialist waffles for every man, woman and child in this country in time for midterm elections
oh, that's absurd?
but you just modded an anonymous yahoo "informative" on the same fucking criteria