question about what an isp can do

[Dogbyte]

i hope im putting this question in the right spot, if im not then im sorry. but a friend of mine emailed me and said, "hey heads up, so and so got busted from his ISP (cox) for using bittorrent." he said that cox called him up and said that he would be getting a call from some oranization called Electronic BLAH BLAH BLAH, he couldnt remember, so thats all i know of the name. His friend said that he told the person from cox that he thought he was pulling a prank on him, but then this so called person from cox gave him the exact dates and times that he downloaded a game. So this got his attention and led him to believe he was telling the truth. after they hung up, this guy hurriedly went and deleted bittorrent and deleted what was left of this "game" he downloaded, like it would even matter anyway, i think he mentioned that he didnt even get it all downloaded, but anyway......after cox called back a few days later, so and so said that he had deleted all that stuff and the guy from cox confirmed this somehow and so and so thought for sure that he was looking at the content on his computer, because the guy from cox said " yeah, i see that you dont have it installed anymore, and that game is deleted too". now after i heard this i thought for sure that this was a prank, because i dont see how an ISP can have access to your computer remotely without permission. is this bunk? or no? also the so called oranization never called because the dude from cox said, "we wont report you and consider this a warning". the story just didnt add up and i think this guy is gettin pranked because of ignorance. sorry if this is a stupid post, but i just wanted to confirm that an ISP cant remotely connect to your computer with you at least knowing, this i think would be a security risk and thats an understatement.

 

[Dogbyte]

also keep in mind im getting all this 3rd person, so i couldnt ask obvious questions, like:

did you get a name from the so called cox caller or...
why didnt the other organization call you after the first cox call like they said....why did cox call back instead and issue a "warning".
also...why would cox take an active role in protecting data that his has no rights to? i can see them cooperating after a court order, but not taking the initiative. sorry if the above post seems confusing, but this was all i could get out of a short email.

 

[spidey07]

Even the dumbest of drug dealers know not to use the phone to do business.

Guess that makes them smarter than your "friend".

prank or ot, stop the ifederal crime stuff.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Did he install any software when he set up the cable? I'm not sure about Cox, but both Comcast and Charter give out software to to install when you get cable internet. I do not doubt that this software can send information back to the ISP with both hardware and software specs.

However, it does sound like a prank also.

 

[JackMDS]

So I guess that when every one would move to Fiber Optics.

Coz it is Optics they would also be able to visually see would you do. :shocked: :brokenheart:

 

[skyking]

The ISP could detect any type of traffic, and thus tell if he was running a torrent and sharing out a file. They could bluff the rest.
Or more likely, a friend he was bragging to decided to have a little fun with him

 

[InlineFive]

That seems far too intrusive to be legal, even if you did install their software. From what I see of ISP traffic it's typically BOOTP related, nothing that might involve a backdoor.

 

[ScottMac]

Gee, it might be a good time to review your "Terms of Service"

That's a contract (that you've signed) that tells you exactly what is permitted and what is not (for both parties).

I couldn't swear to it, but I'll bet a nickle that "illegal downloading copywritten material" is on the no-no list.

You can probably find a copy on your provider's web page.

Good Luck

Scott

 

[Cooky]

That's the thing...in many areas there's only 1 or 2 broadband ISP's, and you'll have to pretty much agree to their terms and prices, doesn't matter how ridiculous they are.
I'm not saying we should be allowed to download illegal material, but just things in general are controlled by ISPs and we have no say over them.

 

[bluestrobe]

Originally posted by: Cooky
That's the thing...in many areas there's only 1 or 2 broadband ISP's, and you'll have to pretty much agree to their terms and prices, doesn't matter how ridiculous they are.
I'm not saying we should be allowed to download illegal material, but just things in general are controlled by ISPs and we have no say over them.

I've been using my ISP for well over 6 years now and never had a problem with their TOS. Downloading illegal content isn't right no matter where you do it although some ISP's don't have the resources or technology to curb it. Using the internet isn't a right, it's a privilege.

 

[Dogbyte]

yeah im like you guys, i kinda thought this was a prank, it just smelled like one. however...isnt there a way an ISP could sniff your outgoing or incoming data strings and pretty much tell what you were doing? just curious...

also when i heard that they confirmed that he deleted an unfinished game and the torrent software(only after he admitted it), that sent up a red flag that pointed to a prank. unless you give remote access willingly, or you let it happen unwillingly, one is called stupid, and the other is called intrusion. and even if it was nestled down deep in some terms of agreement somewhere, that sort of thing would be front page news as far as ISP's go, i could see one isp using it as leverage to combat its rival for gaining business. what do yall think?

i guess im just gonna have to call bull sh*t on this one, just doesnt mesh. not that i have the complete knowledge neccesary to give any weight to that statement, hehe, but still.......

 

[Dogbyte]

LOL by the way i know this sounds typical, but he's not my "friend", its even worse, he's a friend of a "friend". straight up.

i just thought it was funny, and thought i'd share it.

 

[blemoine]

sounds like an urban legend to me

 

[Tarrant64]

I thought technically if any company requested information from an ISP they were not allowed to give that information out?

 

[RebateMonger]

Another possibility is that, if it's legitimate, it's because the friend has P2P file-sharing turned on. Anything that he's downloaded could very well show up in his UPLOAD directories, available to anyone who has the right tools.

That's how the RIAA suits work. They check the files you're offering and compare their signatures to known "illegal" copies of music.

 

[hoorah]

Back in the day (I'm getting old) when I was on dialup, I had a problem with Bellsouth dropping my connection after 24 hours. I called them up to ask why they were doing that and to please knock it off.

The tech support rep asked if I was downloading pirated music. Now I could have just said that I wasn't (and I wasn't), but I maintained that it really didn't matter what it was that I was downloading because it didn't have anything to do with my problem. The rep then told me that downloading pirated music was wrong and that they weren't going to help me at all. Its not totally impossible the tech was just making stuff up.

Now, granted that today tech support and customer service centers are ever increasing the monitoring they do of their tech support employees, my point is that the tech probably just embellished a little to scare the kid and hoped no one would find out. Yes, the ISP can see if you have a BitTorrent client running, but they can't see what it is and they can't see what is on your computer. Its either a tech support rep that overstepped his bounds with a little embellishment of what he could "see" or a prank.

 

[nweaver]

there are tons of tools to see what someone is downloading, unless they encrypt stuff.


ntop is a good tool, the WISP I help with uses it to track down problem users.

 

[chocoruacal]

The copyright holder, or their rep, contacts the ISP and notifies them of a DMCA violation. The ISP then uses the IP to track down and contact the customer. The customer then deals with their ISP.

Your ISP may or may not give out your personal info without a warrant...depends on whether or not they voted for Bush in the last election.

 

[Eos]

We were recently contacted by Adobe because a customer of ours was uploading Photoshop 8 VIA DIALUP!!!

We called him and he denied it of course, then we told him about the lawsuits headed his way if he didn't knock it off. No letters from Adobe since.