My daughter downloaded a movie off of a website and WHOA NELLY they turned off my cable

[Horse with no Name]

internet today.
Apparently the company (I think it was 20th Century Fox) flagged it for copyright infringement.
I didn't realize she had done it, but for some reason my internet has been crawling slowwwww all week and I asked them to check it.
Apparently because of this download, it capped my box because we exceeded our bandwidth.
I learned something today that I didn't know.

[Catherine Vincent]

1. Big brother's watching.

:hi:

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. So was it copyright infringement or bandwidth excess?

It can't be both.

[MADem]

3. My question too.

I am not a fan of this bundled service shit. If you have cable, internet and phone through the same provider, you're screwed times THREE when the service dies. And how do you call to complain, if your phone is dead, too, unless you have a cellphone?

[Horse with no Name]

10. See answer 7.

They didn't turn anything else off this time though, just the internet.

[MADem]

18. The baaaaaastids.

Earthlink's pretty reliable. Not cheap, but reliable. Probably not as fast, either, but good enough.

[Horse with no Name]

7. It was both.

My internet was running slow all week and it was because the cable company said I exceeded my bandwidth.
However, on Sunday night 20th Century Fox flagged the account for copyright infringement.
They turned it off today.

[MazeRat7]

15. I'm guessing their ISP invoked a "Terms of Service" voilation... because they brought attention..

It takes me several hours to download a feature movie, but I don't have bandwidth limits. However if you did, and it took all weekend, well game over for the month would be my guess.

Secondly, if this was a copyright issue, it would not happen within hours/days. First they (MPAA/RIAA) have to request info from the ISP on "who" you are, then they have to file suit for infringement/violation, and if the daughter is under 12 that may be exactly what is happening.
See:
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/03/riaa-insists-on-deposing-tanya.html

In all reality, only the ISP has the right to terminate service. Considering the time line, I would say the OP called for bad service unaware of the massive download that had been running all weekend (thats got to be a sucky plan if it takes all weekend to dl a movie)... but I digress. The ISP investigated, and decided to avoid legal troubles with the copyright police by terminating service (the fact that they were using excessive bandwidth, per their plan, was a bonus and justified the service termination.

But I'm just guessing...

MZr7

[Horse with no Name]

17. My daughter said it took her 3 days to download the movie

She said it didn't finish until today, yet it was supposedly flagged last night.
They did reset my bandwidth with stern warnings. It was taking 5 min to load a page but I just went to a wireless router last week and it kind of coincided with that--unbeknownst to me that my daughter found a place to download movies. I was getting ready to dig my wired router back up.
But I called the cable company today because my internet was off. There have been a lot of storms in Texas so I really just assumed that it was weather related...until they forwarded my call and the woman explained the copyright infringement. It was after that that I inquired about the slow network--and that's when she told me about exceeding the allotted bandwidth. I had no idea we even had limits.
She told me the name of the movie and they wouldn't restore my service until I had deleted the movie off the computer.

[Bitwit1234]

4. That sounds unreasonable

Our broadband company will rent us a DVD so we can copy any movie we want. We don't need it because we have one, but they have never said a word about making a DVD.

[Horse with no Name]

9. Not only that

But they told me if 3 items were flagged--they would permanently disconnect my internet.
I have had #1.

[dysfunctional press]

14. take this opportunity to check into dsl service.

i've had cable, i have dsl...i prefer the dsl GREATLY.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

12. Yes but presumably this is so you can copy movies you have the "rights" to watch or download through

your broadband/cable service.

The law looks at it differently than sharing or downloading copyrighted movies from some other torrent user that you haven't purchased any rights to, depriving the artists/producer/distributor of revenue.

[Bitwit1234]

5. Forgot to add

my son has Limewire and he downloads stuff from the internet all day. What he doesn't want he deletes. Files, movies etc and again our broadband company doesn' do anything.

[Kelly Rupert]

6. So which was it? Bandwidth or infringement? n/t

[Horse with no Name]

8. Both. See #7, n/t

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

11. If you check the terms of service you agreed to, it probably says something about

not using the service to bogart copyrighted material.

In response to the poster who mentioned that the service did nothing about Limewire etc., I don't think they have good ways to detect that sort of filesharing yet, but if you use bit torrent services to download copyrighted stuff they can detect it. I'm not sure about all ISPs, but I believe Comcast and AT&T Broadband were tough on disconnecting your service for copping things with bit torrent.

I think there are ways around it, but I guess you have to decide if it's worth it.

[Horse with no Name]

13. Well I don't agree with the pirating

and I let the kids know as much. Hell, you can buy DVD's in the bin for $5, it ain't worth it.

[elocs]

16. The trick is to get the movies you want into the $5 bin. n/t