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UK ISP That Used To Cut Off Users On Accusation Now Wants Court Order
from the see-what-publicity-can-do dept
It's amazing what a little publicity can do. Often when we write about things here, people who disagree with us post comments along the lines of "if you don't like it, stop talking about it and change it." They say this as if getting some publicity on a bad situation doesn't help change it. A few weeks ago, we wrote about Karoo, an ISP in the UK that wasn't just taking claims of unauthorized file sharing from the entertainment industry against its customers at face value, but was cutting them off on the very first accusation, with no real recourse. Except, after all the publicity from the original BBC report and others discussing it, Karoo quickly caved in, and said it would switch to a three strikes policy. Now, a few weeks later, the company is admitting that it will only disconnect someone over file sharing if it gets a court order. So in the period of just a few weeks, a little publicity turned a bad situation into a much better one.
Reader Comments (rss)
(Flattened / Threaded)
Well
If you don't like it, quit reading about it...
Wait...that's not right...oh hell, now I'm all confused.
Who's on First?
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You can just see the industry execs now:
"Hey, they want a court order"
"Damn - that means the judge will want some form of evidence"
"Ah, screw it. Let's just sue and hope they settle..."
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Only reason they even tried is they are virtually only ISP with a monopoly over their particular market in the UK (small geographic area in the north east).
Any other ISP in any other part of the country would not even try something so draconic as all their banned customers could move to any of the 100 possible competitors within a few days
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Very happy to hear this, as that's my local (and only as JackSombra pointed out) ISP, and we've been sut off twice before, having to write to them to be reconnected each time.
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Just to clarify...
It's one thing for Techdirt to write an article and "complain".
Quite another when those who comment do it. As if this UK ISP (or other idiotic system changing business) would ever show up here, read the comments, then change.
THAT'S just wishful thinking on those getting screwed.
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Re: Just to clarify...
Um.. Mike didn't even come close to trying to take credit for this:
"Except, after all the publicity from the original BBC report and others discussing it, Karoo quickly caved in, and said it would switch to a three strikes policy"
Last time I checked, Techdirt != BBC.
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