dammed if you do
not always a fan of VM but there wasn't much else they could do. They took it to court and lost.
Perhaps annon should be taking on the media industry rather than third parties.
Virgin Media's main website dropped off the interwebs on Tuesday with hackivist collective Anonymous claiming responsibility for the DDoS attacks in response to the company's recent cut-off of The Pirate Bay. The telco said it had to down its "customer-facing" website for about an hour last night, after it was hit by …
Really? The BPI are fuckwits, and conform to so many of the stereotypes that it's untrue. The senior people barely know what an Interwebs is, much less if their Interwebs are Metel or Normel(tm).
Their early lameass online store got penetrated pretty much as soon as it went online, years ago, and defaced, and it took them ages to notice.
Oh, and they're useless, stupid and evil, too- having seen the things they hire consultants to explain to them, I am also amazed that they manage to cross roads safely.
AC for professional reasons.
"....Perhaps annon should be taking on the media industry rather than third parties." That would require some intelligent thinking on the part of the Anons to realise that. Besides, Anon skiddies DDoS the BPI, no-one notices, therefore no bragging rights. Anon skiddies DDoS Virgin and maybe a few people notice, and the skiddies can pretend to each other they're 1337 hax0rs. Don't fall into the trap of believing there is some higher, enlightened motive for their digital vandalism. Meanwhile, they're silly posturing over the Pirate Bay just makes them look like they're advocating theft as a lifestyle choice. Pathetic!
/Jolly Roger for the lulz, of course.
Problem though... Anonymous are idiots, scum and fucktards!
I would be more impressed (pronounced 'believing that they can live up to their own hype') if they were to announce BEFOREHAND that a site was going to be taken down. As it is now, they are just the IT industries version of the Zodiac killer. Claiming practically every outage, but only after its common knowledge that a site is down.
Pathetic!
I don't like Virgin Media, at all. I don't agree with the blocking of the Pirate Bay either. However, I accept that VM have to comply with the court order and, on this occasion, I do not think they are at fault.
If anyone wants to protest the blocking of TPB, then I believe the more effective route would be some kind of legitimate action like writing to MPs to let them know we don't agree with censorship of this kind. If enough people did that, we *might* be able to nip the problem in the bud, and I hope we can because I find the ideas of judges and MPs that don't understand the internet calling for this kind of measure, and censorship of the internet in general, very alarming.
This does not send the right message to the right people.
Agreed, write a letter to your MP, but.....
"....we don't agree with censorship...." The legal action against the Pirate Bay has nothing to do with censorship, it is about the pirating and distribution of copywrit material. Now, you may or may not agree with the laws regarding piracy, but to deny the simple facts of the matter by dressing it up as "censorship" is just going to get you laughed at.
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@Matt Bryant: I actually don't disagree with you, and admit I may be guilty of jumping the gun and mixing different issues here, as I fear this could be the top of a slippery slope that will lead to censorship. The court order has been issued stating the ISPs have to block the site and that sets a precedent that could be used by other groups later, and there is already debate about trying to restrict access to adult content going on right now by blocking it. It looks like we may heading in that direction if we are not careful, if you join the dots. Joining the dots in that way isn't so crazy. Effectively what happened here is the site was blocked because it ran against the interests of one group, in this case, an industry making profits, except the evidence that pirancy is making this industry lose profits is widely debated and disputed in many corners. Next time, it might be the 'anti-filth' lobby, with inaccurate evidence that porn is harming the children. Then it might be the anti-gaming lobby, with questionable evidence that games are causing violence, then political parties wanting to wipe out opposing views... anything.
So, you're right, censorship is not the right word for this, I stand corrected. But it is a related issue and risk as it would be easy to slip into censorship from where we stand. In any event, there is a fine line. I do not disagree with the piracy laws, but I still disagree with this block because because I do not think it is the right approach to the problem:
a) the line has to be drawn somewhere. Should we block Google et al as they help people find illegal content too? What about the other torrent sites? Why is one being singled out?
b) Because of the precedent I ranted about in the first paragraph of this comment and the damage I feel it could do to the freedom of the internet
Oooo look the big bad VM have censored the web by blocking access to a site, I know what we should do, a DDOS attack.
There look what we just did.......censored the web by blocking access to a site.......
But we are not bad just defending your rights to a free web.
Thanks for that but I wanted to check my bill online and you have removed my freedom to do so......Tossers......
Hmm. Let me see...
- VM throttle my 30Mbit connection to 15Mbit if I download more than a certain amount at peak times
- no other ISP in my area is capable of providing more than 6Mbit *at any time of day*, regardless of what I or others are doing
Yep. Makes sense to ditch VM and go elsewhere, for sure!
"- no other ISP in my area is capable of providing more than 6Mbit *at any time of day*, regardless of what I or others are doing"
HAHAH, what planet do you live on?
every single ISP in the country* provides more than 6mbit (as long as you don't live down a well in the outer hebrides)
(*Talk Talk excluded for obvious reasons)
Muppet
It's a bit more of the country than just wells in the Hebrides, my folks live about 15 miles from Cheltenham (ie, slap bang in middle england) and can get a max of 2Mb on their ADSL.
Mind you, they only have the choice between ADSL, dial-up and satellite.
Not everyone is lucky enough to live in a big town with copious bandwidth.
Nope, you fail...
I believe he said 'no other ISP in HIS AREA' (not the entire U.K.) can provide more than 6Mbit.
i.e. Whatever ISP he chooses (other than NTL which provide their own infrastructure to his door), all are subject to the limitations of his BT phone line quality, distance from local exchange etc... They might well advertise 'up to 8Mbit' but that does not guarantee those speeds in reality.
Muppet :o)
Ben, I'm taking it that your signing off as Muppet and not calling someone so because that would be a little childish wouldn't it...
I think the chap is making a reference to advertised speed vesus actual speed. Point being, often on ASDL, these values can be quite different. As pointed out though, Virgin isn't without is own "speed" issues.
The point being that you appear to think you know about the OP's ISP options than he does. You've either been looking in Mystic Meg's crystal ball, or you are assuming that the OP is a fool.
Judging by your downvotes, it seems that most people have made the judgement that your assumptions are not well founded.
I think you'll find its the equipment in the local exchange that dictates the broadband speed, the end users speed is also affected by their distance from the exchange and no, not every exchange provides ADSL2 or ADSL 2+. Check out samknows.com
(Talk Talk included for obvious reasons)
Tit
Yep, throttling. It's utterly terrible isn't it? Well ADSL in my area ( just about 5 miles outside of a major UK city ) is 1.2MB max even at "low tide" around midnight. Jumped to VM and it's consistently 50MB and moving 120MB very soon!
So you laugh it up all you like dillweed, as BT can stick their crappy little 25MB max ( with the right wind direction and sunshine ) fibre lines up their arses!
Oh and no one uses TPB these days anyway! Anyone with any sense uses private invite-only torrent sites where the users actually care about helping to supply each other with quality controlled ( public broadcast only I might hasten to add ) media!
I agree. I see people slagging off VM all the time but I'm happy with the service I get. I currently get 40 down/10 up which I think is pretty reasonable. I can download a DVD quality movie in a lot less time than it takes to watch it.
The speeds are about to double with no extra cost and if I'm being throttled (I don't think I am) then I don't notice.
This is the fairly boring standard of Anon these days "ohh, you did something we don't like, lets take down your website!". Seems to me this is their default volley and getting a bit boring.
Now.. if they managed to take down the whole of VM ISP.. now THAT would be a stand worthwhile of notice. As it is I think I along with many others are getting bored of Anon's "protests" as they do nothing except give people who are against this kind of censorship a bad name.
Bizarre logic you have there. Take down a website = boring and gives protest a bad name. Take down entire ISP = a "stand" worthy of notice.
Taking a "stand" involves principles. It means identifying yourself and saying this is what you believe and this is what should be done. It means actually accepting that you are willing to be inconvenienced yourself, on principle, to make a point. You are, literally, standing up for what you believe.
What you suggest is none of these, any more than DDoS attacks are. Taking down an ISP is not a "stand". It's more of a "punching someone in a crowd in the back, then hiding".
*That* is what gives give people who are against this kind of "censorship" a bad name.
This is an unwarranted move to interfere with peoples access to the the Internet.. It is driven by companies, who are unwilling to adapt to the market. If prices were low and quality high then the levels of copyright infringement (Note not piracy) would be greatly reduced. It is a dangerous road to embark on, and should be challenged. The PB wasn't actually hosting ANY copyrighted material. Does this mean that google should be blocked?
o Move from one of the five targeted ISPs. Loss of business is a good incentive to make them support your cause
o Downgrade your package
o Write to your MP http://www.- http://writetothem.com. Make supporting you easier than opposing you A written letter is even more effective. Phone their office if you don't get a response.
o Use a different DNS provider such as opendns - http://www.opendns.com
o Use a VPN so they can't see what your are doing. Also useful when using open wifi's