Does Virgin have an internal ‘file share’ board?
p2pnet view Freedom | P2P:- Virgin Media is about to deploy CView, a consumer spy application developed by a weapons manufacturer which specialises in covert surveillance systems, in secret trials’ against Virgin customers.
But does a bulletin board used by employees to trade file sharing information exist within the company itself?
Earlier today p2pnet reported the European Commission will “closely monitor” Virgin Media’s plans to use CView, a Deep Packet Inspection systen, to monitor 40% of subscribers for file sharing activities. This is “equivalent to 1.6 million accounts”, noted paidContentUK.
“The Commission confirms its commitment to the protection of privacy and security of electronic communications as one of its priorities, and it keeps a close eye on the further development of technologies in favour of businesses and consumers, in order to ensure they are used in a way that complies with EU rules,” said ISP Review.
But the EU isn’t alone in keeping a close eye on CView, p2pnet observed, going on >>>
Phorm nemesis Alex Hanff believes Virgin’s protestations that it won’t use the Detica spyware to ID individual file-sharers are, at the least, questionable.
CView maker Detica in London, England, says although it’s “the first commercially available solution to provide a metric highlighting the volume and nature of Peer to Peer (P2P) file sharing activity on an ISP network”, it doesn’t and can’t, “identify individual Internet users.
Rather, it’s the “only accurate way of providing a ‘digital piracy’ index to both ISPs and CPs is to measure the actual P2P activity taking place within an ISP network.”
But as p2pnet said recently, “Virgin’s decision comes in the midst of entertainment cartel plans to have the UK government officially deploy the ‘creative’ industry’s Three Strikes net censorship plan.
“The company already has an unfortunate record of caving in to record label demands.
“Last year it sent about 800 letters to customers as part of a campaign it was running with Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s BPI (British Phonographic Industry) to ‘educate’ users‘.”
The BPI told the BBC “thousands more letters” would be sent, and the BPI said it was a “stricter stance on illegal downloaders” which “might result in some ISPs being taken to court”.
Intercept and inspect
Now, “Regular p2pnet readers will know that I have spent a great deal of time on the Virgin Media/CView issue over the past couple of months,” says Hanff, continuing >>>
I have been in discussions with the Information Commissioner’s Office and the European Commission raising questions about the legality of the technology – which will be used to intercept and inspect the private communications of approximately 1.6M customers.
I am no stranger to campaigning against the unlawful use of Deep Packet Inspection (which is what CView is) and in fact I have dedicated the last 2 years of my life (and many more in the future) looking at issues surrounding the sanctity of private communications.
In my work as a privacy advocate I have many strange experiences, deal with a great deal of hypocrisy and witness stupidity and an absence of common sense which often leaves me at a loss for words. But rarely have I fallen upon a story like the one I am about to share with all of you.
It would seem that Virgin Media, the company that want to spy on 1.6 million of their customers, are no stranger to unlawful filesharing.
Earlier today I was contacted by an ex-employee of a company called Telewest; Telewest were a Cable Internet Service Provider who merged with NTL in March 2006 to become ntl:Telewest later rebranded as Virgin Media.
My source, who’s name I cannot disclose in the interests of protecting their privacy, contacted me to talk about a staff bulletin board on Telewest’s Intranet (a private internal network) which existed during their employment with the company. Rather than summarise our discussions, I asked for their permission to do an interview which I could then publish so that everyone could see the level of hypocrisy which exists within the ISP industry when it comes to the unlawful sharing of copyrighted material.
Hanff: You used to work at Telewest is that correct?
Ex-Employee: Yes, I worked in the Albert Dock office in Liverpool between 2003-2004.
Hanff: Did you work at Telewest after they merged with NTL and became Virgin Media?
Ex-Employee: No, I had left the company when that happened.
Hanff: You contacted me to make me aware of a bulletin board Telewest had on their Intranet when you worked for them. Would you mind repeating what you told me in email about some of the content on that internal system?
Ex-Employee: Telewest Broadband had an Intranet system called oneline – accessible at http://oneline.telewest.co.uk – the default homepage. Under this site employees could visit Broadtalk – Broadtalk Forum, where they could engage in discussion about the company across departments, across sites.
Under this forum various topics of discussion revolved around downloading of copyrighted material – for example, employees would talk about downloading movies, music etc, along with how to transfer files to DVD media. Employees were posting links to BitTorrent sites with infringing material.
The purpose of the forum is discussion between employees about issues affecting the company, and as such it had a wide range of visitors, from customer services representatives to seniors managers. At the time the executives of the company would take part in periodic “Broadtalk” sessions, where they would directly answer employee questions about the business.
Hanff: Do you know if this internal bulletin board remained after the merger between Telewest and NTL?
Ex-Employee: No. I know after I left it still existed until at least 2005, although the name was changed under internal branding. It may still exist today.
Hanff: I understand you complained about some of the topics being discussed by Telewest staff on the bulletin board – what response did you receive to your complaint?
Ex-Employee: One topic contained a link to Suprnova.org – at the time the biggest BitTorrent site – in relation to downloading Xbox games. I challenged this on the forum as it seemed a wholly inappropriate considering this was happening on Telewest’s own internal systems. Somebody from customer service (a “CSR”) replied saying they couldn’t afford to buy video games, and so downloading was good for them. I flagged the topic with the forum administrators. The link was not, to my knowledge, removed.
Hanff: As someone who has worked in the Cable ISP industry, what are your thoughts on Virgin Media’s plans to deploy Detica’s CView?
Ex-Employee: I did not work in the Internet side of the business, so cannot comment.
Hanff: Do you have an opinion on the Digital Economy Bill currently under debate in the House of Lords?
Ex-Employee: I have not read the bill. My only knowledge comes from the BBC News article today, where a Virgin spokesperson mentioned the need to “reduce illegal file-sharing”, whilst refering to monitoring theircustomer connections.
This was the only company I’ve worked at which allowed open discussion across the company of how to abuse copyright using its own network, so the idea they wish to explore how to police their customers connections is, quite simply, ridiculous.
I have to agree with my source that it is ridiculous. How any company which allowed it’s own resources to be used in such a way has the nerve to then turn around and declare they are going to spy on their customers to determine what they are doing, is simply beyond comprehension.
I would like to thank my source for coming forward with this information. If any current employees at Virgin Media would like to confirm whether this internal bulletin board still exists, please do so in the comments.
Alexander Hanff
Stay tuned.
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
p2pnet – EU to watch Virgin Media ’spy on users’ trial, January 26, 2010
paidContentUK – VirginMedia, January 26, 2010
ISP Review – EC to Monitor DPI CView Trial on Virgin Media UK Broadband ISP Users, January 26, 2010IT Pro – The EC is keeping an eye on Virgin Media’s piracy gauging system, January 26, 2010
Virgin’s protestations – Campaign protests Virgin Media spyware, December 3, 2009
net censorship plan – Hollywood touts ACTA, November 22, 2009
‘educate’ users – Virgin goes after UK P2P file sharers, July 3, 2009
BBC – Warning letters to ‘file-sharers’, July 3, 2008
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Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
January 26th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Hanff: Did you work at Telewest after they merged with NTL and became Virgin Media?
Ex-Employee: No, I had left the company when that happened.
This was the only company I’ve worked at which allowed open discussion across the company of how to abuse copyright using its own network, so the idea they wish to explore how to police their customers connections is, quite simply, ridiculous.
As a Virgin Media customer i am somewhat dissapointed at some of the things they do,but what Telewest and their employee’s did should not be laid at VM’s door.
If Ex-Employee or Hanff has proof that VM still allows this behavior then let it be shown.
January 26th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
You don’t seem to understand that Telewest and Virgin Media are not different companies. Telewest merged with NTL and the result was rebranded to Virgin Media – many of the staff from NTL and Telewest remained with the company when it was rebranded to Virgin Media. Essentially, they are one in the same.
January 26th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
As for proof – well we wouldn’t know would we because Virgin like to keep their communications private – shame they don’t have the same opinion of their customers’ communications eh? Maybe we should intercept their internal comms to make sure they are not engaging in unlawful filesharing?
January 26th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
“You don’t seem to understand that Telewest and Virgin Media”
Yes i do understand.But as you have stated that many of the staff have remained,therefore it must be resonable to presume that many have also left and of that “many”many could have been senior management who would have allowed it to continue
“As for proof – well we wouldn’t know would we”
This is exactly the point here.You have either got proof that VM still allows this behavior or you have maybe just got the word of a disgruntled EX-EMPLOYEE.
I have no ties with VM other than as a customer,and have no axe to grind either way
January 26th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
You don’t need proof. You just need reasonable grounds for suspicion (which you define yourself) and then issue a notice accusing them of copyright infringement. After the third such accusation Telewest/Virgin can be disconnected from the Internet.
January 26th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
So basically what you are saying is, it is not hypocritical if an organisation allows such behaviour so long as they change their name afterwards? So if I go out and rob a bank and then change my name afterwards, is that ok?
If Virgin Media are confident that their networks and staff are completely beyond reproach, perhaps they would be so kind as to deploy CView across their entire internal network to ensure there is no unlawful filesharing taking place. Corporate LANs are nice and fast and would therefore be ideal for sharing media and in my experience I have yet to see a large corporate/public sector or academic network which does not have network shares full of “unlicensed” content which network members share between each other. Will they also ban staff from bringing USB keys, optical media, mobile phones, PDAs and other data devices into the office so they cannot share copyrighted works offline? Again my experience is that every large corporate/public sector and academic organisation I have worked in has had at least one “Knock-Off Nigel” on their staff.
January 26th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
My last comment was to Settler not Fitch. But in response to Fitch.. oh the irony.
January 26th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Busybody:Hey VM stop allowing your staff to use your internal network to download stuff.
VM: We don’t.
Busybody:Yes you do.
VM: No we dont.
Busybody:Yes you do
VM: PROVE IT………………
BTW Fitch.. that did make me laugh
January 26th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
A quick apology .I could have chosen a more suitable name (Busybody) and in no way did i mean that it refered to Alexander
January 26th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
@ Crosbie:
“You just need reasonable grounds for suspicion …”
Only as a last resort.
Cheers!
January 26th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
@Settler:
You need to get a clue.
Alex has merely pointed out that those who have no proven credibility or entitlement are now in the business of intercepting our communications and wrapping themselves in that fashionable cloak of righteousness that goes along with it. This represents a significant threat of abuse and betrayal we should all be actively working to prevent.
I don’t give a rat’s ass if there’s any proof of the one specific event. We already have enough proof that our privacy should not be entrusted to corporate interests, that DPI is their current weapon of choice, and there’s absolutely no need for DPI.
January 28th, 2010 at 5:19 am
I’m glad Mr Hanff is fighting this, but isn’t it just a tinsy winsy bit comedic that these accusations of copyright infringement are being publicised by the ex-operator of a torrent site?
January 28th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
“…it just a tinsy winsy bit comedic that these accusations of copyright infringement are being publicised by the ex-operator of a torrent site?”
Not as comedic as the inference that operating a torrent site is somehow a statement of intent to commit copyright infringement, or that people who operate torrent sites aren’t actively involved in the IP argument.
You say you’re glad Alex is fighting this, but you don’t seem to grasp exactly what the fight is actually about.