Throttling of users for questionable Internet Traffic

[ConsultingSvcs]

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@Smith6612 wrote:

[...] Verizon will be throttling pirates starting this month. [...] The gear used to monitor traffic does cause [...] 

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Have you actually looked into this? Verizon isn't doing any interception and monitoring of your traffic at all; MPAA and RIAA use MarkMonitor to monitor P2P networks, browse the files that users are publicly sharing (as any one of us could) and when MarkMonitor identifies a P2P user sharing copyrighted material, the provider (Verizon, TWC, etc) is notified of that user's IP. Verizon has actually been quite supportive of consumers' privacy rights; they even went to court to fight part of the DCMA subpoena provision.

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@Smith6612 wrote:

The equipment is already in place and this will mean slower network performance for all, even if you are not throttled. The gear used to monitor traffic does cause latency and definitely reduces the "Snap" you'll feel. I see it all the time at places with web filtering and bandwidth management for pesky users.

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What is your basis for this claim? More than likely Verizon will simply use QOS on their routers to throttle users, which they already do in order to give tiered connection speeds 50, 75, 150, 300 etc. I doubt if this requires any new "gear" at all. The "gear" we're talking about are backbone internet routers designed for multi-gigabit networks that process traffic so fast, that any latency caused by running QOS would be undetectable to end-users.

[smith6612]

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@ConsultingSvcs wrote:

Have you actually looked into this? Verizon isn't doing any interception and monitoring of your traffic at all; MPAA and RIAA use MarkMonitor to monitor P2P networks, browse the files that users are publicly sharing (as any one of us could) and when MarkMonitor identifies a P2P user sharing copyrighted material, the provider (Verizon, TWC, etc) is notified of that user's IP. Verizon has actually been quite supportive of consumers' privacy rights; they even went to court to fight part of the DCMA subpoena provision.

What is your basis for this claim? More than likely Verizon will simply use QOS on their routers to throttle users, which they already do in order to give tiered connection speeds 50, 75, 150, 300 etc. I doubt if this requires any new "gear" at all. The "gear" we're talking about are backbone internet routers designed for multi-gigabit networks that process traffic so fast, that any latency caused by running QOS would be undetectable to end-users.

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I've spent what little time I actually have looking into this, and what turned up was nothing more than very broad interpretations of what could be taking place. No solid, technical details on how this is being done per provider, no solid mention of who or what is going to be doing the monitoring and reporting, and on the throttling aspect, no mention on how they will be implementing it. If they're throttling right at the routers by adjusting rate limiting or traffic handling, then that is as you state, no different than what they're already doing (besides making their profiles a mess in the routers which they already are...). If they're using equipment from Sandvine for example for throttling, that equipment is nutorious for falsively identifying traffic as it is. If they're doing Protocol-based QoS, who's to say it's going to affect anything that is not a "super mainstream" application?

As far as I'm concerned, if they're using MarkMonitor they have no need to join into such a plan. They have been obligated since inception of DMCA to do something about reported infringers. It doesn't mean instant boot, but it also doesn't mean instant throttle or heavy handed approaches. Plenty of provisions are already in place to deal with abusers. I've always appreciated Verizon standing up against issues they feel affects customers like the cases you mentioned against the DMCA, so don't get me wrong on not keeping that in mind.

If you do have some nice, juicy information for me to go on what Verizon is done, I'd appreciate it and if it's completely different from what I'm anticipating I'll go away. Always open for info. I haven't had the chance to squeeze that info out from Verizon yet. For now, I'll continue sitting 50 feet away from a Juniper router I configured that handles 180Gbps (yes, Gigabits) of traffic on a routine basis that doesn't spit bricks because it is being asked to do more than a router was intended to do.

[skyliner34]

Is this for real? This is completely stupid why don't they just block the website instead of slowing down our speed. I play

lots of ps3 and games on computer also I use pandora 24/7 when I am at home so what will happen to my gaming

experience and my music that I am listening to? I hope this doesn't actually happen because that will not be good for

gamers and music or for legit people? I also have an Iphone on the network over wifi and 2 ps3's using and 2 computer

using so what will happen to my internet connection?

[mm112]

November 28 was to have been the start of the six strikes policy where verizon, comcast, cablevision, time warner and at&t were to start penalizing their customers if a customer was believed to have engaged in anything online that was deemed suspicious where the perception was that movies or other content  that is available online for people to see for free was being downloaded. Now things have changed and it may be a good sign for customers who have those companies as their internet service provider. It was just announced today that the six strikes policy will be delayed until at least early 2013 and it could even be longer than that because hurricane sandy ended up affecting the testing schedules of CCI (The Center Of Copyright Infringement) where first they have to make sure that everything is fine with their system before they start tracking the customers of those companies where they then accuse them of engaging in illegal activities where they are esentially guessing at who they believe might have broken the law. They are using markmonitor which will track down according to them anyone who has downloaded anything illegally. CCI executive director jill lesser said they want to make sure that they cross the t's and dot the i's before they start accusing customers of the five companies who have signed on for the policy of illegal activity. Now there have been countless cases of people being falsely  accused of downloading things where if you needed some examples then google "torrentfreak grandma" and click on the second link to see how a 70 year old was falsely accused of downloading x rated movies. In that story you will see two other links for a blind man and a dead man who were also falsely accused of downloading things that they did not. The delay might also have to do with the customer outrage over this new policy and if more verizon customers speak out along with the customers of some of the other companies maybe verizon and some other companies will think about opting out of this policy. Class action lawsuits will be filed against the internet service providers once the false accusations are made against customers so perhaps they should start targeting the websites who have that content on there rather than hard working good customers. Google "six strikes" to see more news about the six strikes policy delay. 

[lukedwards]

Agreed!

I also am unable to give kudos to many posts on many threads, all regarding throtteling or torrents. Yes I'm signed in as I can give kudos to other un-related posts. Not this one or some others though and I can't see a reason it would be locked other than Verizon doesn't want people supporting these posts.

"Sorry,  you can't give kudos to this post." - Thanks Verizon... so that's they way you run a forum.

[armond_in_nj1]

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@lukedwards wrote:

... I also am unable to give kudos to many posts on many threads, all regarding throtteling or torrents ... I can give kudos to other un-related posts ... I can't see a reason it would be locked other than Verizon doesn't want people supporting these posts ...

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You cannot give kudos to posts or edit your own posts until you have made a certain number of posts.  Evidently you only registered this morning (with this user name) and you've only made a single post.  Perhaps you have used a different user name in the past, but there should be no reason to change user names in the normal course of business.  When you do so, you abandon any earlier posting privileges based on previous contributions.

For best results, make sure you meet the minimum requirements for particular posting privileges.  Good luck.