Brit ISP threatens customer
p2pnet.net News:- The Big Music record label cartel now has at least one UK ISP to do its work for it, a p2pnet reader in Britain has revealed.
And the ISP, E7even, is using The Register and the BBC as frighteners.
E7even also promises to start spot checks on behalf of the labels, “to ensure that users are not illegally sharing/downloading files”. The Big Music-owned BPI (British Phonographic Industry ) will no doubt be suitably grateful.
“Beware illegal file sharers,” says E7even in an email to our reader.
The company’s sudden desire to become a good corporate citizen may well have been sparked by the recent bid by the cartel to stamp out file sharing in the UK by ‘suing’ Britons who share with each other online.
Big Music is trying, and failing, to terrorize people in the US and, to a lesser degree, elsewhere into buying its cookie-cutter product, by threatening them with lawsuits which never actually go to court.
That’s because having launched subpoenas at its victims, it then immediately follows up with an offer they can’t refuse. ‘Settle out of court. Or else.’
Victims always settle, garnering huge amounts of anti-p2p PR in the process.
“Here is a copy of an email I received today (March 12),” our reader writes.
Dear Mr xxxx,
Beware illegal file sharers.
We would like to bring your attention to the following articles:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/11/isp_file_sharer_order/
http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4318765.stm
We would like those of you that are file sharing illegally to be aware that should we be required by the authorities to provide the details of those customers whom are sharing files illegally we will, without hesitation, provide this information. We will also, if required, provide the authorities with a log of the activity from your ADSL connection.
We would advise our customers whom are sharing files illegally to put a stop to this activity. Not only is it illegal but it is also a breach of our terms and conditions. For those of you that use file sharing for legal purposes this does not affect you and you can disregard this email.
In the near future we will be carrying out spot checks on our network to ensure that users are not illegally sharing/downloading files, any users found to be sharing/downloading files illegally will have their E7even accounts terminated in accordance with clause 6.1 of our Terms and Conditions.
This does not affect the majority of our customers but there are some who do partake in this activity.
If you are unsure whether your activity on the Internet is legal or not please contact our customer services where one of our operatives will advise you.
Email: customer_services@e7even.com
Tel: 0870 224 5126
Fax: 0870 224 5127
We thank you in advance for your support in keeping the Internet a safe and legal place.
E7even Customer Services
“I’m going to change isp when this contract runs out for sure!” – says the p2pnet reader.
We’ve asked E7even if its effort is voluntary, or if the BPI asked it to email the notice to this (and presumably other) customers.
Stay tuned.
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UPDATE: We’ve just had this from E7even (9:33 AM Pacific)
Dear Jon,
Unfortunately for internal confidentiality reasons we are unable to either confirm or deny wether this is a forced or voluntary action.
I hope you understand our position and we feel very strongly about any internet users, ours or otherwise, downloading/uploading or sharing any copyrighted or other illegal material.
We have absolutely no problem with people using file sharing programs for legal reasons.
Kind Regards,
E7even Customer Services
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
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See:-
suitably grateful – BPI to get 31 file sharer names, p2pnet, March 12, 2005
go to court – File sharing, p2p criminals, p2pnet, March 12, 2005
March 13th, 2005 at 11:42 pm
How can the isp tell if the files are legal or not???
March 13th, 2005 at 11:46 pm
Why wait? Cancel now! Hopefully alot of others will also.
March 14th, 2005 at 7:47 am
Forget about the contract, and run baby run!
If you’ve signed onto a year, it’s based on the initial contract. If that has changed, then get out!
Too bad the dentists in England don’t peer down as many throats!
March 14th, 2005 at 9:47 am
Well first this is total rubbish, if they do what they say there then they would be breaking 2 laws.
First Data Protection Act, they can not or not allow to submit any information about your activities on-line with out your consent. They have to submit to you what they are going to supply before they can do anything. Also they must disclose what they are log upon you connection. They must be registed to log such information. If they are not then they are breaking the law.
Secondly Misuse Computer Act, they can not do anything upon your system without you authorization.
This are important law’s. Use them!
Computer Misuse Act
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1990/Ukpga_19900018_en_1.htm
Data Protection Act
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/19980029.htm
http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/
March 14th, 2005 at 3:10 pm
For many years customers have wondered why ISPs do not scan for or block viruses, which would have been a valuable service to all. The reason was that if an ISP began taking any responsibility at all for content passing through their servers, they could be sued for any failure to block harmful content. Very silly ISPs like this one have now opened Pandora’s box by demonstrating that they can and will scan for content when it suits them, and they can therefore in future expect to be held liable for any and all failures to prevent harmful content flowing in either direction.
March 15th, 2005 at 12:41 pm
I think this is just another attempt by E7even to reduce their bandwidth use. It’s just like when they dropped the binary groups from their news servers.
April 19th, 2005 at 6:12 pm
the problem with e7even contracts is you pay for the whole contract at the outset, in return for a very cheap service (although nowadays it isnt particularly good value) you can cancel your contract early, but must pay a £50 cancellation fee, and are refunded what you have left of ure contract – 3 months fees. So you stand to lose a lot by them disconnecting you. Beware such ISP’s. Valid point about them now being totally responsible for all traffic – any obscene/illegal forum posting must be included there, as well as viruses, and all other illegal activities.
June 5th, 2005 at 2:49 am
Just signed up for 12months with these since they were the cheapest around. After reading this im quite dissapointed about the risk. The big question is, when they connect me next week, do I or do I not download files from p2p packages? Suppose we wont find out if they mean what they say until someone gets caught, just dont want that someone to be me. Anybody else using e7even and using p2p packages? What about programs like bit torrent? are they similar?
July 16th, 2005 at 3:29 pm
Been with e7even over 12 months now. Use WinMX regularly – no troubles to date.
September 21st, 2005 at 12:37 pm
E7even SUKs
I use WINMX. I find the program not sharing.
I bleive the ISP moniors then blocks that port.
Trying a new port & sure enough after sometime thats blocked.
I dont want some ISP takin my money & then blockin my services.
Will read thru contract & find the best option OUT!!!
October 11th, 2005 at 9:55 am
I am an E7Even customer and for some reason cannot at the moment access: http://rapidshare.de/
The rest of the www seems fine. It doesn’t appear to be a DNS issue local to my pc. If I use http://www.dnsstuff.com to ping the rapidshare site I get a response. If I use the same IP address and ping from my pc I get a timeout.
Can other E7 users confirm if they are blocked from rapidshare?
October 21st, 2005 at 12:12 am
nope ive got no problems with it
January 4th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
I haven’t found them blocking my access to WinMX, but their service sucks. I have had my broadband down now, for the third time. The latest for five days. they don’t even acknowledge my e-mails when I ask them to do something about it. After the first time they gave me an 0800 dial up number, but the best download speed I could get on that was 473 bytes/sec. Their customer service is non-existant, and they seem to be in a total shambles since they started their so-called network upgrade. An ISP to be avoided, at all costs.
February 3rd, 2006 at 3:49 am
Almost one year on from when this story was posted, and no problems whatsoever. I’ve definately got my money’s worth out of e7’s bandwidth, but as someone else touched on in a Jan’06 comment, the company is a total jip now anyway..awaiting my MAC code.
I’m pretty certain that this was just scare tactics to reduce bandwidth consumption, and now have they resorted to completely screwing their network to reduce consumption? Maybe, but for UK file-sharers the current situation with the BPI adopting the “sue-em-all” policy is making things look pretty grim. I’m hunting out an ISP with full binaries access
“our reader”