TorrentFreak Email Update |
| Comcast Users Blocked From The Pirate Bay Posted: 12 May 2011 03:09 AM PDT
Although downtime is nothing new for users of the popular BitTorrent site, this time around the connectivity issues appear to be affecting only a select group. Several tests and numerous user reports reveal that Comcast subscribers from all across the United States are unable to connect to The Pirate Bay. The traceroute from Comcast connections stops at thepiratebay.piratpartiet.se, as it’s supposed to, but The Pirate Bay website does not appear. Further tests show that the blockade is not DNS related. What is actually causing the issue is uncertain at this point. Although there’s been a lot of talk about censorship lately, it seems doubtful that this is an intentional blockade on Comcast’s part. That said, there is clearly a mismatch between the Comcast network and The Pirate Bay site which leaves access to the rest of the Internet unaffected. TorrentFreak spoke to The Pirate Bay team who confirmed that there’s a significant drop in visitors from the U.S. They are currently investigating the issue to see if there’s anything they can do on their end. When it comes to BitTorrent blocking, Comcast already has quite a reputation. In 2007 TorrentFreak broke the news that Comcast was actively blocking BitTorrent traffic. Comcast initially denied, but later admitted its wrongdoings. Comcast’s BitTorrent blocking fueled the Net Neutrality debates and eventually resulted in an FCC investigation and various lawsuits. A class action lawsuit was settled by the ISP who reserved a $16 million fund for affected subscribers. In the light of all the previous legal issues it therefore seems unlikely that Comcast has ventured out on its own to block The Pirate Bay website. When there’s more information available on the current issues we’ll update this article. In the meantime Comcast users can access the site through Anonymouse and other proxies. Update: It appears that many Rogers users in Canada have problems accessing the site as well. |
| Movie Pirate Sues Police & MPAA For Arrest With Deadly Force Posted: 11 May 2011 02:59 PM PDT During the summer of 2009 two Martinsville brothers were arrested in connection with the camming of the movie Bruno at a cinema in Manville, New Jersey. Tipped off by the MPAA, the police claimed the pair had been recording first-run movies and selling the copies on the Internet. As the brothers left the cinema, detectives stopped them and allegedly announced that they were under arrest. Paul Epifan complied without a struggle, but according to the prosecutor his brother Timothy fled and was pursued by police. After a short chase of 20 seconds, during which Timothy Epifan lost his flip-flops and was running barefoot, the suspect stopped at the sight of two marked police cars. But while he was standing still, a third and unmarked police car ran into him. For this arrest with deadly force, Timothy Epifan has now sued both the police and the MPAA, seeking thousands of dollars in damages. According to the complaint filed at the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, Timothy Epifan was hit from behind and dragged 10 feet into the parking lot. In a statement the plaintiffs claim the collision “left a 10-foot trail of skid marks, bone, blood and skin,” and as a result "Epifan sustained severe leg fractures, has undergone multiple surgeries, incurred hundreds of thousands in medical bills and now walks with a cane." Among other things, the defendants are accused of using deadly force when there was no indication it was needed. “Using a police motor vehicle to apprehend a suspect who is fleeing on foot by physically striking the suspect to disable and arrest the suspect constitutes deadly force,” the complaint reads. Epifan, who was sentenced to a year in county jail and three years of probation after pleading guilty last year, hopes to be compensated for the emotional, physical and economical damages he suffered as the result of the violent arrest. The complaint< Source: Movie Pirate Sues Police & MPAA For Arrest With Deadly Force |
Starting few hours ago, Comcast subscribers began reporting issues with accessing The Pirate Bay. | You are subscribed to email updates from TorrentFreak To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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