My Own Biggest Fan

I am posting this Boing Boing post in its entirety, because it is important that this information gets out.

Shaw is censoring Internet feeds and lying about it

When customers of Canada’s Shaw Cable high-speed Internet service noticed that their filesharing activity had slowed down dramatically, they didn’t know what to make of it. Calling the ISP didn’t help: Shaw’s tech support people swore that they were delivering all the packets they received from their customers, just as you’d expect. After all, who’d want an ISP that picked and chose which of your communications got through — imagine if the phone company or the post office just silently threw away some of your messages based on secret criteria!

So the Shaw customers went to DSL Reports, a community site for posting about DSL and other high-speed providers, and they found that they were not alone and not imagining things. Lots of Shaw customers were getting really crummy performance out of their Internet connections.

Then someone claiming to be a Shaw insider posted an explanation: Shaw had secretly installed a packet-filter on its network that was using hidden rules to silently discard some of its customers’ packets. And they’d instructed their tech people to lie about it when customers called in and asked.

It might have been a fake, but not long after, DSL Reports got a letter from Shaw’s lawyers telling them that this was confidential info from a Shaw employee and that they’d be sued if they didn’t take it offline, so it looks like its true (says DSL Reports, “Needless to say, we’ve never bent over for an ISP upset at bad publicity, or forked over anyones identity, and we’re not about to start.”)

Here’s the facts, then:
Shaw is indiscriminately censoring its customers’ Internet feeds. It’s not blocking infringing files (hell, Shaw can’t even know for certain what files are and aren’t infringing for each customer), it’s blocking protocols, applications used to transmit and receive tens, hundreds of millions of public-domain, copylefted and non-copyrightable works.
Shaw is lying about censoring its customers’ Internet feeds.
Shaw is threatening to sue people who tell the world about its lies.

Are you a Shaw customer? Do you still want to be, in light of the above?

Link

posted by
Cory Doctorow at
12:18:46 PM

I am with Telus, but not originally for those reasons. This ensures that I will not be switching to Shaw.

Just to show that yes, there are legal ways to use bittorrent (the protocol that Shaw is blocking) here is a link to Legal Torrents.

Happy Birthday: Fence-sitting will lead nowhere this year and will probably set you back. Make your move in a powerful and positive manner. You can instill confidence in those willing to support your actions. — Birthday Baby: You are charming and graceful and can win anyone’s acceptance with your sophisticated and well-spoken rhetoric. You are a born leader and you will always use a unique and creative demeanor when dealing with others.

or

This is going to be a very action-packed year for you, with lots of new projects to tackle. If you get started right now, you’ll receive accolades and honors in February and March. Challenges in late spring will yield a fun and exciting summer and fall. For the most part, you’re in for a passionate and very enjoyable love life this year. Your lucky numbers are: 1, 15, 34, 49 and 33.

I share my birthday with a variety of people: Mary of Peter Paul and Mary, a dude off of the british Who’s Line Is It Anyways?, The Hulk, a dude from 98�, a steroid freak, kick ass astronomers, the old man down the road, a vice president, “the most beautiful woman in films (also the inventor of spread spectrum), Pepa, a hot Austrian, a king, members of REO Speedwagon, Iron Maiden, Blue Oyster Cult and L7 and this fucker.

Other events:

1620: “Mayflower” sights land, at Cape Cod, Mass.

1799: Napoleon Bonaparte participates in a coup and declares himself dictator of France.

1872: Fire destroyed nearly a thousand buildings in Boston.

1888: Jack the Ripper’s fifth and last known victim, Mary Jane Kelly, was found in her room in London’s Whitechapel.

1938: Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as “Kristallnacht.”

1965: The great Northeast blackout occurred as several states and parts of Canada were hit by a series of power failures lasting up to 13 and a-half hours.

1967: The first issue of “Rolling Stone” was published. The magazine said it was not simply a music magazine but was also about “…the things and attitudes that music embraces.” John Lennon was on the cover of this first issue.

1970: Former French president Charles De Gaulle died at age 79.

1976: The U.N. General Assembly approved ten resolutions condemning apartheid in South Africa, including one characterizing the white-ruled government as “illegitimate.”

1985: Gary Kasparov, 22, became the youngest world chess champion, ending the 10-year reign of Anatoly Karpov in Moscow.

1985: MIAMI VICE THEME by Jan Hammer peaked at #1 on the pop singles chart.

1989: East Germans on foot and in cars began arriving in West Germany and West Berlin only hours after the East German government threw open its border to the West.

2004: Nearly half of Calgary burns to the ground as Mason’s birthday celebrations get out of hand. The ensuing riots spread to most of Western Canada and parts of Brazil.

I just got an email from Will:

405 Heatley Records
Enjoy!

the american deathfucker movie:
http://www.405heatley.com/deathfucker.mov
Darryl Balls:
http://www.405heatley.com/coveredinfilth.mp3
The gavin deathfucker solo guitar bits:
live @ vcc:
http://www.405heatley.com/liveatvcc.mp3
please circulate broadcast:
and if you want....darryl balls:
http://405heatley.com/pleasecirculatebroadcast

enjoy...