Well that's set it in stone for me...
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When my broadband contract is up in about 6 months, I'll switching to another company (probably O2). Apprently BT, Sky, CPW, Orange, Tiscali and Virgin are going to start "assisting" in the detection of piracy. I'm not advocating piracy at all, but as far as I can see, the only way they can do this is by snooping around and looking at your detailed online activity, most likely looking at those with "higher than normal usage" which I would probably fall under. So thanks but no thanks, I don't care how good their intentions are, and I expect a fair amount of people to follow. Article[^]
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
modified on Friday, August 1, 2008 6:18 AM
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When my broadband contract is up in about 6 months, I'll switching to another company (probably O2). Apprently BT, Sky, CPW, Orange, Tiscali and Virgin are going to start "assisting" in the detection of piracy. I'm not advocating piracy at all, but as far as I can see, the only way they can do this is by snooping around and looking at your detailed online activity, most likely looking at those with "higher than normal usage" which I would probably fall under. So thanks but no thanks, I don't care how good their intentions are, and I expect a fair amount of people to follow. Article[^]
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
modified on Friday, August 1, 2008 6:18 AM
I've been with UK Online[^] for about 3 and a half years, and I'd recommend them when you make the change. As far as I'm aware, they don't participate in the snooping you're on about (which disgusts me as mush as you). Also, for twenty notes a month I get: * unlimited upload/download (not metered) * 8mg advertised, but I typically get around 6.75 which I think is good * it's worked 100% of the time from their end. The only time I've had a problem it turned out to be BT's fault at the exchange, nothing to do with UK online * excellent customer service. They actually called me up a few months back to tell me that they had reduced their rates, and I had been paying too much for 2 months. So they refunded me and said sorry - not many firms would do that.
- Dy
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I've been with UK Online[^] for about 3 and a half years, and I'd recommend them when you make the change. As far as I'm aware, they don't participate in the snooping you're on about (which disgusts me as mush as you). Also, for twenty notes a month I get: * unlimited upload/download (not metered) * 8mg advertised, but I typically get around 6.75 which I think is good * it's worked 100% of the time from their end. The only time I've had a problem it turned out to be BT's fault at the exchange, nothing to do with UK online * excellent customer service. They actually called me up a few months back to tell me that they had reduced their rates, and I had been paying too much for 2 months. So they refunded me and said sorry - not many firms would do that.
- Dy
Cheers for the info, looks good! At my current address they estimate me being able to at 14-16mbps, with BT I currently get about 5.5 of the advertised "up to 8". But I'm moving in about 3 weeks to Aylesbury, hopefully it's just as good there.
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
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When my broadband contract is up in about 6 months, I'll switching to another company (probably O2). Apprently BT, Sky, CPW, Orange, Tiscali and Virgin are going to start "assisting" in the detection of piracy. I'm not advocating piracy at all, but as far as I can see, the only way they can do this is by snooping around and looking at your detailed online activity, most likely looking at those with "higher than normal usage" which I would probably fall under. So thanks but no thanks, I don't care how good their intentions are, and I expect a fair amount of people to follow. Article[^]
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
modified on Friday, August 1, 2008 6:18 AM
When is the music industry going to wake up and realise what a dinosaur they are. 1) Stop trying to prevent file sharing. It will continue to happen no matter what you do. If you have ISPs search for/warn/cut-off down loaders, it will only go underground. There are already concepts like Tor that make p2p networks anonymous. These will only be improved once you add the motivation to be anonymous. 2) Embrace the new social desires. People want lots of varied music, cheaply. They don't want to pay £13+ for 1 album. People don't sit down and focus solely on music any more. They want continuous music they can listen to while they do other things. (Look at the popularity of last.fm). They want more live music. If you make music cheaper, more people will get into the artists and there will be a bigger demand for the live gigs. 3) Accept the fact that piracy exists and always will. Acknowledge the analogue hole[^], it will always exist as a last resort for people who want to copy music. Just accept it. 4) Realise that making music available for free doesn't mean people won't still buy it. Radiohead[^] did it, and it worked fine for them. 5) Realise that DRM only harms customers and drives them away. (Incidental, I don't illegally download music. I use last.fm[^] a lot. I use digitally imported[^]. I download music from some of the unsigned artists I hear about through DI. I listen to the radio. I occasionally purchase CD's, always after hearing the artist somewhere else first. I will *never* pay for a digital music download that is protected by DRM. music I buy is for me to play where I want it. I took a CD back to the shop once because it wouldn't play on my PC without installing software, and I couldn't rip it for my MP3 player - yes I could have done an analogue recording, but that's not the point)
Simon
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When my broadband contract is up in about 6 months, I'll switching to another company (probably O2). Apprently BT, Sky, CPW, Orange, Tiscali and Virgin are going to start "assisting" in the detection of piracy. I'm not advocating piracy at all, but as far as I can see, the only way they can do this is by snooping around and looking at your detailed online activity, most likely looking at those with "higher than normal usage" which I would probably fall under. So thanks but no thanks, I don't care how good their intentions are, and I expect a fair amount of people to follow. Article[^]
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
modified on Friday, August 1, 2008 6:18 AM
My O2 conection got switched on Wednesday, 1 day early. Got home, loaded the CD, followed the instructions and within 20 or so minutes was done. Very easy.
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When is the music industry going to wake up and realise what a dinosaur they are. 1) Stop trying to prevent file sharing. It will continue to happen no matter what you do. If you have ISPs search for/warn/cut-off down loaders, it will only go underground. There are already concepts like Tor that make p2p networks anonymous. These will only be improved once you add the motivation to be anonymous. 2) Embrace the new social desires. People want lots of varied music, cheaply. They don't want to pay £13+ for 1 album. People don't sit down and focus solely on music any more. They want continuous music they can listen to while they do other things. (Look at the popularity of last.fm). They want more live music. If you make music cheaper, more people will get into the artists and there will be a bigger demand for the live gigs. 3) Accept the fact that piracy exists and always will. Acknowledge the analogue hole[^], it will always exist as a last resort for people who want to copy music. Just accept it. 4) Realise that making music available for free doesn't mean people won't still buy it. Radiohead[^] did it, and it worked fine for them. 5) Realise that DRM only harms customers and drives them away. (Incidental, I don't illegally download music. I use last.fm[^] a lot. I use digitally imported[^]. I download music from some of the unsigned artists I hear about through DI. I listen to the radio. I occasionally purchase CD's, always after hearing the artist somewhere else first. I will *never* pay for a digital music download that is protected by DRM. music I buy is for me to play where I want it. I took a CD back to the shop once because it wouldn't play on my PC without installing software, and I couldn't rip it for my MP3 player - yes I could have done an analogue recording, but that's not the point)
Simon
Simon Stevens wrote:
When is the music industry going to wake up and realise what a dinosaur they are.
Indeed - the music industry, and for that matter TV, are still operating for the most part on models that evolved from the 1950s through 70s. That is models based on expensive and limited bandwidth, and how to maximize profits / patronage from those. Through the 80's and 90's the cost of producing music professionally plummeted, through the last 5 years the cost of distribution has dropped to nearly 0. Companies are lining up to make money of wide bandwidth and fractionalized markets while seemingly the dinosaurs plod on towards extinction, happily suing their own customers. Like all markets transformed by technology, those who fail to adapt won't survive. I expect to see very large labels cease to exist.
I'm largely language agnostic
After a while they all bug me :doh:
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Simon Stevens wrote:
When is the music industry going to wake up and realise what a dinosaur they are.
Indeed - the music industry, and for that matter TV, are still operating for the most part on models that evolved from the 1950s through 70s. That is models based on expensive and limited bandwidth, and how to maximize profits / patronage from those. Through the 80's and 90's the cost of producing music professionally plummeted, through the last 5 years the cost of distribution has dropped to nearly 0. Companies are lining up to make money of wide bandwidth and fractionalized markets while seemingly the dinosaurs plod on towards extinction, happily suing their own customers. Like all markets transformed by technology, those who fail to adapt won't survive. I expect to see very large labels cease to exist.
I'm largely language agnostic
After a while they all bug me :doh:
MidwestLimey wrote:
Through the 80's and 90's the cost of producing music professionally plummeted, through the last 5 years the cost of distribution has dropped to nearly 0.
That's an interesting point, they have falling costs, but don't pass these savings on.
MidwestLimey wrote:
I expect to see very large labels cease to exist.
Oh wouldn't that be lovely :laugh:
Simon
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When my broadband contract is up in about 6 months, I'll switching to another company (probably O2). Apprently BT, Sky, CPW, Orange, Tiscali and Virgin are going to start "assisting" in the detection of piracy. I'm not advocating piracy at all, but as far as I can see, the only way they can do this is by snooping around and looking at your detailed online activity, most likely looking at those with "higher than normal usage" which I would probably fall under. So thanks but no thanks, I don't care how good their intentions are, and I expect a fair amount of people to follow. Article[^]
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
modified on Friday, August 1, 2008 6:18 AM
ISP's won't be checking anymore than they are now. Your ISP will only contact you if they are asked to by the British Phonographic Industry. If you download via bittorrent you're sharing your IP address and that's how they track who is downloading what. The initial step is just a warning via a letter in the post like this http://www.virginmedia.com/help/documents/2008-06-05bpi-letter-vm-%20customers.pdf[^]