Archive for December 22nd, 2008
There’s nothing like getting home at 7:30 in the morning from Party! Super Party! and having your mom greet you with a letter indicating that you have “stolen” “copyrighted” “material”. That’s silly law lingo that you common folk wouldn’t understand.
This is the letter that I got and lots of other people got it too, so I am basically stealing the scan of the letter from some other angry Cablevision customer. If you’re not from New York then you should understand that there are two cable companies and you have to go to the one that is in your area. There is Time Warner and Cablevision and you are only allowed to use your zoned one. Cablevision also provides an internet service so we use that as well.
My problem is this: I know I am a piece of shit. We are all pieces of shit. We all borrow steal “copyrighted” “materials” of various sorts and forms. Are we ever going to stop? No. Of course not.
But what is annoying is the blatant fact that Cablevision is monitoring the way I use my internet, moreover they are the only company that I have ever heard of sending out such letters and that are very much willing to give away their customer’s information to the people who want to sue them.
Good thing I haven’t been looking at kiddie porn?
Obviously, you shouldn’t be doing anything illegal, but I don’t think I should be monitored. However, I honestly don’t care THAT much if I am being monitored, but I realize this is a personal preference and there are things wrong with this kind of invasion or privacy. Of course the Patriot Act is wrong and is a clear violation of the Constitution and that is fundamentally wrong for many reasons, etc.
I just think it’s odd and annoying because I thought all of us as a society agreed that we can’t find and sue every individual person who downloads illegal materials, that we can only hold accountable the people that choose to distribute these online materials, ie. Pirate Bay, Mininova, Textbook Torrents, TV-Links, etc.
This idea that seems to be widely accepted, creates a distortion of what is acceptable for the individual at home on a computer. Kind of how, everyone in the history of ever smokes pot, no one ever really gets arrested for it, but we all know it’s illegal and how you’re not allowed to butt secks in Texas or where-ever-the-fuck.
One company violating this social contract just seems kind of douchey, no ? So, amirite? Or amiwrong?
Do you think I should stop torrenting (I honestly, hardly do it)? Is this actually anything to worry about? The most I’ve heard of is them blacklisting you and turning off your account, but who knows if that is just propaganda?
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