It doesn’t take long to find dozens of recent news articles about Internet filtering. Nearly every major ISP has at least talked about the issue, but very few of them have made a firm decision. Sometimes they claim they don’t like filtering, but then they turn around and implement packet shaping, which not only hurts Internet power-users but also annoys those who use services like VoIP.
The idea of filtering the ‘net is flawed from the beginning. If it is implemented at the network level (ISP, routers, etc), all a user needs to do is use SSL connections, use a proxy, etc. In the case of packet shaping/bandwidth throttling all they would get is slower speeds, but their data would still download. If some type of software is required to access the Internet that also serves as a filter, no software pirate with half a brain would install it and a workaround would be quickly made. Plus let’s not forget filtering always causes unintended consequences (such as those I listed above).
I remember back during my days of school the administration felt they needed to put blocks on a handful of websites, some of which were good sources of information (I think MSNBC and CNN were two of them). The first block I remembered them installing could be bypassed by putting “%20″ before the protocol declaration in the URL (http://”). The newer filter (possibly the one they still use) could be bypassed by using a basic web proxy. Their filters were easy to bypass. The same is true for newer ones as well. Back in early February Danish ISP Tele2 was ordered to restrict access to The Pirate Bay. The filter was implemented successfully, but from what I understand a workaround was quickly created.
I’m not saying piracy is good, I’m simply saying filtering is not a good solution to the problem. There are always unintended consequences, and there’s always a workaround.
Please subscribe, or else I will cry. Do you really want to make a programmer cry?
March 7th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I think they should just not bother and face the music that Piracy has been here, will be here, will stay here, and will always be here.
There are so many ways to profit from the ways downloaders get their pirated stuff. But it seems that when they try, they get greedy and they lose consumer interest.
I would gladly pay a buck to download a movie and not worry about ratio.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
OH, and especially when I can download a DVD quality movie and get my hands on a release straight away.
March 7th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
The amount of money they spend chasing down the Ma and Pa downloaders they could use to help upgrade every piece of network cable in the US, Canada, Europe, etc to fiber and offer everyone 100 mbit connections to help people download even more legal content. The resulting income from upgrading the connections would pay for it all in no time.
At least now it seems music is going in the right direction of being cheap and DRM free, we will probably go through all the nonsense with the MPAA that already happened with the RIAA. I give it a year or two before movies are released on a massive scale digitally, are fairly priced, and are DRM free. After that I think software will be the next thing to go through a massive transformation in how it is distributed, although I think that will be a much easier transition since software developers aren’t a bunch of old farts trying to cram old business models down our throats.
March 7th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Oh, almost forgot, thanks for your thoughts MacBros
March 7th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Interesting POV, Jeremy. I know that one of the reasons that Macbros ISP, Rogers, implemented traffic shaping, a la P-Cube, is because their network couldn’t handle the demand. Its not really as much the bandwidth, but more the # of connections that many home users now have to their computers, due to protocols such as bittorrent and direct connect. They found that their routers couldn’t handle the requests and they were trying to offer a new product (home phone) that would be routed through the same headends. Perhaps they have a plan for upgrading, but its not now. So, that’s the real reason that they shaped the traffic. It really didn’t have much to do with piracy. All that they do with threats is pass them on to the supposed offender in the form of an email form letter. The rest is up to the customer (which means install Peerguardian2).
March 7th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
My ISP implemented traffic shaping as well (Time Warner). Drives me loony. Based on their statements it’s pretty obvious they did it due to “bandwidth intensive applications”. I think we all know what that means.
What’s really stupid is they promise 10 mbit (and I think premium is 15 mbit) down speeds, and of course you never get full speeds, but now our connections are slowed even more by this lame packet shaping.
I also love how TW is warning customers not to circumvent it by using secured connections (at least that’s what they told me when I asked them about the packet shaping when they first implemented it). So basically if you run any high-bandwidth secured connections (sftp, ssh, file uploading via a secured HTTP connection (if that even happens), etc) across the Interwebs you’re screwed.
March 8th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Actually Corey, I have no speed problems with either Uploading or downloading. I am actually getting what they say I’m supposed to get.
What they ARE doing is bottlenecking sites. I know that one Torrent site that I use is not on their list because I have no problems with it either uploading OR downloading, but there’s another one you can barley upload to but download at full speed.
I think it has something to do with our laws that state we can download anything we want, but just can’t upload.
JS, You idea of spending the cash on upgrades hits the nail right on the head.
Can you imagine just downloading a movie and watching it at home instead of traveling to the theater? The Big screen isn’t a good defense anymore as we are now in the HDTV’s and Home theater era.
March 8th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I’ve pretty much lost faith in movie theaters. When I saw the fifth Harry Potter movie there were some kids sitting in the next row with their darn cell phones, texting away and not even watching the movie, with the screen on the phones constantly shining toward me. By the time the theater booted them out (they spoke to them twice before that), the movie was 3/4 over and I didn’t get to enjoy it until it came out on DVD. I would have much rather stayed in my cave and enjoyed it on our HDTV to begin with.
As far as packet shaping goes, I have no clue what system Timer Warner uses but all I do know is that since they implemented it I can’t download a single thing at speeds anywhere near where I used to. Sure it is good in the sense that now their system doesn’t slow down nearly as much during peak usage, but unfortunately now you’re lucky to get even 300 kb/s speeds at all times.