Internet slowdowns at home aren't just annoying anymore. They can be hazardous to your health or dangerous if you're in an area that freezes.
Internet service provider Armstrong Zoom has roughly a million subscribers in the Northeastern part of the U.S. and is keen to punish those it believes are using file-sharing services.
The ISP's response to allegedly naughty customers is bandwidth throttling -- which is when an ISP intentionally slows down your internet service based on what you're doing online. In this case, when said ISP believes you're doing something illegal.
As part of its throttling routine, Armstrong Zoom's warning letter openly threatens its suspected file-sharing customers about its ability to use or control their webcams and connected thermostats.
The East Coast company stated: "Please be advised that this may affect other services which you may have connected to your internet service, such as the ability to control your thermostat remotely or video monitoring services."
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/05/pirates-risk-being-left-in-the-cold/
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Monday January 08 2018, @09:25PM (2 children)
I always laugh at the thought of trying to explain the Internet and Piracy to a real pirate from a couple hundred years ago. We are basically telling them that people that copy a book, or a play, are considered pirates in the future, and only do so on communications mediums more associated with witchcraft than science. That, and all your base belong to us.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by legont on Tuesday January 09 2018, @01:02AM
Perhaps he would understand consequences of creating and enslaving Frankenstein's children without proper authority?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @03:46PM
I don't know that a pirate would necessarily be familiar with it, but publishers were already abusing the term "pirate" more than two hundred years ago, for example using it in reference to Scottish publishers legally printing copies of books protected by copyright in England.