AfterDawn: News

Time Warner will not turn in info of alleged pirates

In April we reported that the U.S. Copyright Group had filed lawsuits against 50,000 pirates, each alleged of downloading a number of films including "Steam Experiment," "Far Cry," "Uncross the Stars," "Gray Man" and "Call of the Wild 3D."

The Group has now demanded that Time Warner Cable, one of the largest ISPs in the U.S., hand over the identity of 2000 alleged pirates, and Time Warner has declined, saying it is too expensive, and "exceeds their current staffing capabilities."



The ISP says it would cost them about $45 USD each to send out the info on all the requests.

"Time Warner Cable does not have enough employees to respond to these requests. In a typical month, the company receives an average of 567 IP lookup requests, nearly all of them coming from law enforcement. These lookup requests involve everything from suicide threats to child abduction to terrorist activity," each of which takes "immediate priority" over copyright infringement cases.

The ISP's Subpoena Compliance team is currently only a five-man team and in addition to the "priority" requests, they can handle 28 non-critical subpoenas per month. The U.S. Copyright Group has so far asked for 809, just this month.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 May 2010 17:55

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• 22 comments

• Tristan_2

  I must say Time Warner did show some balls here even despite well the money excuse, I am surprised they said no. Again Kudos to Time Warner
  

  15.5.2010 18:48 #1

• biglo30

  Originally posted by Tristan_2: I must say Time Warner did show some balls here even despite well the money excuse, I am surprised they said no. Again Kudos to Time Warner Yup big respect for Time Warner, if that was comcast they would have gave that information up in a heart beat.

  15.5.2010 19:01 #2

• SProdigy

  Hah, TWC's customer service even gives the feds the bird! Gotta love it. So bad even the government can't get through to them!

  15.5.2010 19:28 #3

• ftdn2006

  Originally posted by SProdigy: Hah, TWC's customer service even gives the feds the bird! Gotta love it. So bad even the government can't get through to them!
  priceless

  15.5.2010 22:50 #4

• ivymike

  At least TWC has it's priorities in order. We should be going after REAL criminals like terrorists and not wasting time and tax dollars on persecuting, I mean prosecuting kids, teenagers and young adults with a computer and an internet connection.

  15.5.2010 23:12 #5

• toked

  Quote:each of which takes "immediate priority" over copyright infringement cases
  Time Warner for the win! At least for now.
  

  16.5.2010 00:34 #6

• Pop_Smith

  Quote:These lookup requests involve everything from suicide threats to child abduction to terrorist activity," each of which takes "immediate priority" over copyright infringement cases. This is probably the best thing I've read concerning ISPs and the greedy MPAA/RIAA.
  

  http://www.megavideo.com/?v=V1VZAD0O <-- Brian Regan "Take Luck" video.
  
  "The only people who should buy Monster cable are people who light cigars with Benjamins." - Gizmodo

  16.5.2010 02:32 #7

• KillerBug

  This might be the first time that a shortage of employees has been given as the reason for better service.

  16.5.2010 09:58 #8

• ZippyDSM

  How about all ISPs charge 50$ per IP when they turn over data? This way only real crimes will be dealt and they can't spam lawsuits.
  

  Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy!
  Ah modern gaming its like modern film only the watering down of fiction and characters is replaced with shallow and watered down mechanics, gimmicks and shiny-er "people".
  http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/

  16.5.2010 10:14 #9

• rtm27

  All I can say is....Thank You Time Warner!!
  

  http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd_to_avi_autogk.cfm
  
  http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/673257
  
  http://www.letmegooglethatforyou.com/

  16.5.2010 12:02 #10

• bomber991

  Originally posted by ZippyDSM: How about all ISPs charge 50$ per IP when they turn over data? This way only real crimes will be dealt and they can't spam lawsuits. No, they should charge $100-$200 for all lookups except for the ones made by law enforcement. They're a business and they gotta make money.
  
  Anyways, at $100-$200 per lookup, those record companies would have to dish out $80,000 to $160,000 for these 800 names they want. Of course if all 800 of those people settle for $2k a piece then the record companies would get their money back.

  16.5.2010 14:52 #11

• jam_k

  Quote:These lookup requests involve everything from suicide threats to child abduction to terrorist activity," each of which takes "immediate priority" over copyright infringement cases. Help... This makes sense for some reason... Always regarded TimeWarner as evil... Mind Changing... Argg... the world no longer makes sense...
  
  : )
  
  -JamK

  16.5.2010 16:09 #12

• KillerBug

  The only reason Time Warner looks those up is because they have to; they could get a serious lawsuit against them if they refused to help, and someone got hurt/killed. Rest assured, they do not do it out of charity.

  17.5.2010 00:30 #13

• dEwMe

  Originally posted by KillerBug: The only reason Time Warner looks those up is because they have to; they could get a serious lawsuit against them if they refused to help, and someone got hurt/killed. Rest assured, they do not do it out of charity. Yeah I spose you're right but I wonder if there is any merit to the arguement they should be able to recoup the costs?
  
  Also I wonder what all is involved in the process? How does it cost them $45? Wouldn't it just be a matter of hitting a few buttons on a kbd?
  
  
  

  Just my $0.02,
  
  dEwMe
  

  17.5.2010 13:27 #14

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by bomber991: Originally posted by ZippyDSM: How about all ISPs charge 50$ per IP when they turn over data? This way only real crimes will be dealt and they can't spam lawsuits. No, they should charge $100-$200 for all lookups except for the ones made by law enforcement. They're a business and they gotta make money.
  
  Anyways, at $100-$200 per lookup, those record companies would have to dish out $80,000 to $160,000 for these 800 names they want. Of course if all 800 of those people settle for $2k a piece then the record companies would get their money back.
  I can agree with that!
  

  Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy!
  Ah modern gaming its like modern film only the watering down of fiction and characters is replaced with shallow and watered down mechanics, gimmicks and shiny-er "people".
  http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/

  17.5.2010 13:42 #15

• Xplorer4

  "The ISP says it would cost them about $45 USD each to send out the info on all the requests."
  Where do they get $45 from? Surely the employee would be getting minimum wadge, so around $6 an hour, and surely they could process several in an hour. There's the cost of paper, which is less then $1 a paper I would guess. Figure electricity and network costs, and that still doesn't add up to $45 per request. We're talking a few dollars a day give or take for network costs assuming they would need internet access to pull up a customers info. Electricity would be a few dollars a day as well. So all things considered I ca;t see where $45 comes from. Not that I am disappointed by Time Warner fighting this, but I fail to see where they can get a figure like this.
  

  Thermaltake Mozart TX Case - Core i7 860 - MSI P55-GD65 - 2x2 GB DDR3 G.Skill Ripjaws - Sapphire 4890 1 GB Vapor X - 2 Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M080G2R5 in RAID 0 - 1x1TB WD Caviar Black - 1x1TB WD Caviar Green - 1x750 GB Seagate Barracuda - 1x320 GB Hitachi Deskstar - Corsair HX520

  17.5.2010 23:04 #16

• Pop_Smith

  Originally posted by Xplorer4: Where do they get $45 from? I don't know where that amount came from as it wasn't me that said it. However, where does the RIAA get their $2000 "settlement" cost from? If the RIAA can get away with charging $2000 to "settle" a lawsuit Time Warner should get away with charging $45 for an IP Lookup of a non-violent, non-threatening person.
  

  http://www.megavideo.com/?v=V1VZAD0O <-- Brian Regan "Take Luck" video.
  
  "The only people who should buy Monster cable are people who light cigars with Benjamins." - Gizmodo

  19.5.2010 18:33 #17

• DVDBack23

  Originally posted by Xplorer4: "The ISP says it would cost them about $45 USD each to send out the info on all the requests."
  Where do they get $45 from? Surely the employee would be getting minimum wadge, so around $6 an hour, and surely they could process several in an hour. There's the cost of paper, which is less then $1 a paper I would guess. Figure electricity and network costs, and that still doesn't add up to $45 per request. We're talking a few dollars a day give or take for network costs assuming they would need internet access to pull up a customers info. Electricity would be a few dollars a day as well. So all things considered I ca;t see where $45 comes from. Not that I am disappointed by Time Warner fighting this, but I fail to see where they can get a figure like this. Remember, there are only 4 of them, and no way are they getting paid minimum wage (which is over $7, btw). Likely they are paid $10-15 an hour, and include in Internet, paper costs, etc, as you noted.
  

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  19.5.2010 21:11 #18

• xboxdvl2

  im sure time warner will hand over the information for the right amount of money.
  

  PS2 with 12 games.
  pc-windows 7,intel core quad Q8400,4 Gb ddr2,WD 500 GB hdd,ATI Radeon HD 4550 graphics,AOC 22inch LCD moniter.

  20.5.2010 01:22 #19

• SProdigy

  Originally posted by DVDBack23: Originally posted by Xplorer4: "The ISP says it would cost them about $45 USD each to send out the info on all the requests."
  Where do they get $45 from? Surely the employee would be getting minimum wadge, so around $6 an hour, and surely they could process several in an hour. There's the cost of paper, which is less then $1 a paper I would guess. Figure electricity and network costs, and that still doesn't add up to $45 per request. We're talking a few dollars a day give or take for network costs assuming they would need internet access to pull up a customers info. Electricity would be a few dollars a day as well. So all things considered I ca;t see where $45 comes from. Not that I am disappointed by Time Warner fighting this, but I fail to see where they can get a figure like this. Remember, there are only 4 of them, and no way are they getting paid minimum wage (which is over $7, btw). Likely they are paid $10-15 an hour, and include in Internet, paper costs, etc, as you noted. Nah, they are a call center in India more than likely. If they make $10-15 outsourced, Time Warner should be hung out to dry!

  20.5.2010 10:16 #20

• Mez

  It is the loss of business. They are probably getting over $100 per customer per month TV and cable. Comcast also refused, after first agreeing to send letters out then refusing to saying whoever was not going to pay them enough to do it. I don't have TM but I hear they do their own policing. Warning you and/or suspending you if you torrent too much. Losing 2K of customers would be a killer for them. Of course the slime balls don't want to fork over even $45! so that they can lose over $1000 per customer per year.

  21.5.2010 16:29 #21

• kfir1

  The COST is POINT "dumbasses" its the principle. TW just don't wanna do it. That's all.
  
  Kudos to TimeWarner for standing to the "EVIL EMPIRE and the terrorist group RIAA".

  31.5.2010 17:17 #22