Optimum Online has sent an e-mail to ther customers warning them not to share files or use filesharing programs on their computers. You'll notice that they don't even get the name right for "Aimster" 1) it's no lonnger Aimster, hasn't been for a long time. 2) Madster (as Ainster is now known as) has been totally shut down. But worse than that, they are telling users that signed up for broadband because of filesharing not to use the servce for waht they signed up for. They even threaten to limit bandwidth.

THE LETTER:

Subject: Email to Optimum Online Customers Regarding Bandwidth Abuse

Dear Optimum Online Subscriber:

You may be running a server from you computer and not even know it.

If you use any of the peer-to-peer file services listed below without disabling the file sharing option, the entire Internet can access the files on your hard drive. In addition, use of these services can lead to network problems that may result in your upstream speed being temporarily reduced to control this abuse of service.

Aimster, KaZaA, iMesh, Audiogalaxy, eDonkey2000, NeoModus, BearShare, Gnotella, Gnucleus, GTK-Gnutella, LimeWire, Mactella, Morpheus, Phex, Qtella, Shareaza, SwapNut, XoLoX

Don't compromise your privacy or the performance of your high-speed connection.

See http://security.uchicago.edu/peer-to-peer/no_fileshare.shtml for easy instructions on how to disable file sharing for the peer-to-peer programs listed above. You and other subscribers can then continue to enjoy Internet services at peak performance speeds. And you'll steer clear of violating the restriction against running servers (see Optimum Online Residential Terms of Service: http://www.optonline.net/tos).

For further protection and optimum performance, we also recommend all Internet users maintain firewall and antivirus software. See http://wwwl.my-etrust.com/cvision/ for a very special offer exclusive to Optimum Online subscribers.

We want you to stay online and stay protected while enjoying the best performance of Optimum Online high-speed Internet access.

Thank you for being a valued Optimum Online customer.

Sincerely,
Your Optimum Online Team

Took long enough, this was on slashdot this morning.

There is some debate over why OO wants to do this. Some people say its because they dont want to be flooded with DMCA warnings, some say its just because its cheaper than upgradeing the network to handle the extra load.

They also mentioned the shut down Audiogalaxy network

Many ISPs tried throttleing p2p networks. They all failed. Customers buy broadband for illegal downloading, and if they dont get it they go to a competitor, or even back to dialup. Throttleing, threatening or blocking uploads is a more successful technique, as the users dont care. Most of them are leeches anyway. As long as they get their daily dose of assorted music, movies and software they are happy. The ISP solves two problems at once. No need to upgrade its network to handle the demand from unplaned-for uploads and a sudden reduction in the monthly truckload of complaints from p2p scanning bots looking for copyright infringeing sharers to threaten.

In my oppinion this is one of the biggest threats to p2p. ISPs which dont allow uploads degrade p2p performance for everyone. I have long been suggesting schemes to fix this, mostly involveing manditory shareing systems users cant disable and protocols which are too expensive to block. If these ideas arn't implimented soon, along with a lot of complaints to OO and ISPs trying similar tactics, p2p will be seriously damaged.

Ah, this explains a lot. The optimum online website says a lot about how great AOL is. Do I detect a little of the corporate tying anything TV-related is so famous for? I can trace OO over to cablevision easily enough, but thats it. The cablevision site doesn't display at all without javascript, but even with javascript enabled neither konqueror or netscape can view it properly. The "company information" section is completly inaccessable. Still, I suspect AOL might own at least part of cablevision or have some kind of agreement with them about provideing broadband to AOL users. Explains a lot then, no wonder its so anti-p2p. This is what happens when one corporation manages to get hold of both entertainment and internet companys: IT tears itself apart.

Hey I had other stuff to do...Man can't live by /. alone Even Rob got married....

Hmm, I wonder how many customers got this e-mail. When it was reported that ptd was doing this, I never got an e-mail or any kind of letter in the mail about it. Further more I can't find anything about it on their website.

It just makes you wonder...

I'm sure that RIAA had a hand in this too. Threatening lawsuits like it has in the past. If you keep putting this kind of pressure on ISP users they will find some other broadband provider. Chasing your customers away is not normally considered a sound business practise. Unless you're the RIAA.

The RIAA doesn't chase customers away. They are a trade group. They dont have customers. Individual labels have customers, but when they chase customers away they run straight to another RIAA-member.

I'm waiting to hear from Thasp, he's the usual Optimum Online champion, if I recall correctly...

I think this is just a anticipatory maneuver by OO to buy themselves time and/or credibility, for when the RIAA comes knocking on their down. I expect the Association to start pressing the ISP's soon, prolly by Q2 of 03.

Please spell check, FFS.

in answer to someone's question, ool sent that letter to every subscriber. my bandwidth was capped at 15k/sec until I called up and had it uncapped. I don't think that any of what you people are saying is correct. ool's main reason for doing what it has is because of the nature of cable internet. Upstream bandwidth is expensive and hard to get on cable. Cable is also a shared network. They're mainly going after people uploading more than a gig a day. I run an open http server which probably has copyrighted material on it and I turned it back on after I got uncapped. I have failed to get capped again. Nonetheless, I am switching ISP's. By doing what they are, they're also weeding out the most expensive to provide for customers. All that's gonna be left are some old grannies using nothing but e-mail. dslreports.com has a very good ool forum which I suggest you read.

They want just the old grannies using e-mail. In the town where I live, the first place they put broadband was out where the rich old people live. Two-thirds of them probably don't even know what a computer is.

I used to share quite a bit until recently. I had a good portion of my CD collection in MP3 format so I thought, "Why not"? I am reluctant to share now, not only because of all of this RIAA lawsuit and hacking crap, but also because ATTBI is the only broadband service provider I can get and I don't want to jeopardize my access to broadband. I am about 1/2 mile from DSL availability. Even with many of the reported RIAA hackers blocked by my firewall and filtered in the P2P client I use there are still many more IP addresses out there that the RIAA and its cronies can use. I love sharing music. I have a lot of old country stuff and that along with a few obscure songs were the ones most downloaded from me. Screw the RIAA!!! Shoot, I ought to go out and buy a new hard drive and put the rest of my CD collection on it... and share away.

dont give in!!! thats what they want!!! continue to share your cd collection!!! whatever you do dont stop, thats what they want and it will spell our death.

I also expect the RIAA (or equivilent in other countries) to start pressureing ISPs. Its not easy for them, since they have common carrier immunity, but there are ways to get round that. For example, the RIAA could hire a few bots to scan an ISP for p2p users and send complaints. A few thousand complaints every day. The ISP would quite quickly realise if it follows the complaints it would have to kick half its customers, and if it ignores them it becomes liable. So their only option is to block p2p. AOL broadband would obviously be very easy to stop . The ISPs wont want to block p2p downloads, because their customers would all leave, but they should be happy to block uploads. They could also save money then because they wouldn't need to rebuild their network to handle the huge upstream traffic it wasn't designed for.

P2P networks can be made harder to block. Random ports for a start. The OO block couldn't be avoided of course, it just looks at total upstream and doesn't check protocol, but with the right methods p2p could avoid most of the hastle of blocking and throttleing.

Day 1: OJ shares his 2700+ songs on the Soulseek network. Without limiting the upwards bandwidth. Firewall picks up 8+ scans per hour from his ISP, when one every two or so hours is normal.

Day 2: OJ shares his 2700+ songs on the Soulseek network. Limits upward bandwidth to 20k. Firewall picks up 4-6 scans per hour from his ISP.

Day 3: OJ shares his 2700+ songs on the Soulseek network. Limits upward bandwidth to 7k. Firewall picks up one scan every 1 or 2 hours, normal for his ISP.

Also, what I noticed when performing this little exercise, is that no matter what my bandwidth was limited to, the number of songs people got from me stayed about constant. 100-150 per day. It's more about the content than the speed. Well, on Soulseek, at least. It's a matter of testing your ISP's waters to see what they like and don't like.

I know.... my sis can't even use P2P at all at her college!! (rio grande) she has to do it the hard way. she only gets legal material anyway.. like music vids others make or just gets big programs. that's all she gets. now those who have web sites or links to buisnesses through ISP's are the ones who
ll suffer. what if you had to do a telecofrence over the line??? and you had to upstream data (video) to your boss ro the product testing dep. you have to do it in hi=speed and hi=bitrate in order for you to see them good!!! you don't wanna make yoursef look bad in the eyes of your boss!!!! this is not fair to smaller buisnesses or travelling buisness people who have not implemented wireless into thier systems yet! and doing it over wire si more secure than wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) thereforre, more buisnesses would choose to collaborate over wire based networks. I am shocked that they do not think this out. they need to!

I do not do much illegal downloading! I only use it to get rare songs not on cd's that i can't find elesewhere. for most of the songs I buy the cd anyway cause of my slow connection......

Sickening. Just plain sickening.

Well here is a fix for you... Our ISP Instantnetworks.net has a promo on ADSL 1.5 Mbps Down and 768Kbps with a static if for $69 a month! Can't beat that...
http://www.instantnetworks.net/internet/dsl/price.cfm

My 512/128 connection is looking slower every day.

I haven't received any notices yet.

OOL Capping and online college courses is not a good reason for using more bandwith.

I am taking an online course in graphic arts / desktop publishing and I have to upload sometimes 25-80megs files few times a day and after just 2 weeks of college my bandwith is capped and they say that even that uploading for good purpose is a VIOLATION of OOL RULES. I say where does it say I can't use all the bandwith I want. I said so whats a good size or what should I keep it at so I dont violate and he is like we have no setting like that, its just that your uploading has caused a flagged and thats why your bandwith is capped.

So I paid $1500 for course and now I have to choose between my cable internet or taking course and going elsewhere to upload my work.

OPTIMUM ONLINE THIS IS NOT FAIR AND THE CUSTOMERS WILL LET YOU KNOW.