ADSL and Piracy & Abuse Warnings

“Doing so is a criminal offence. In other words, collecting this kind of evidence is a criminal offence subject to a R1-million fine. An ISP should not be using illegal, unconstitutional and invalid evidence in order to intimidate users,” Buys concluded.

Tell 'em Buysie!
 
I don't like the sound of this. Has anyone received more than a warning yet?
 
I guess you'd better read your AUP and the contract you sign very carefully in case in there it states they can monitor your downloads.
Alternatively, get access to a WUG and pillage to your hearts content, not once crossing public space :)
 
Natural reaction is cancel contract with such ISP and look for one who doesn't spy on you.
 
Does anyone else see the pattern here, this has been going on now for years!! Every so many months the ISP's will send some people the so called warning email, and everyone gets scared and makes a big story of this... couple of weeks later, everything is back to normal and people move on with there life's.

Has anyone ever been convicted and found guilty on these grounds in South Africa... NOOOOO...
 
These warnings have been going on for years and is nothing new from IS.

I just feel that some Torrent users are also dumbass who don't check their torrents that they use and get warnings. This is not unique to IS but is worldwide. Companies are putting torrents out there to nail your ass and thats what you have to check first. Read comments on torrents.

Some mates of mine had their server overseas cut because of torrents. I don't think you have to worry locally. Just tell IS you have deleted the file and be more careful next time.
 
“These kinds of notices are illegal and invalid in SA. In terms of the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act an Internet download may not be intercepted or monitored in this way without the prior written consent of the user,” said Buys.

“Doing so is a criminal offence. In other words, collecting this kind of evidence is a criminal offence subject to a R1-million fine. An ISP should not be using illegal, unconstitutional and invalid evidence in order to intimidate users,” Buys concluded.

Interesting. Good to know.
 
I'll happily keep paying my Rapidshare subscription, thank you. :)
 
So this is just a scare tactic? These guys got over going after the torrent websites so now they targeting the end user? I dunno why they don't rework their distribution methods and try to profit from this!
 
I wish RPM would make a useful article on how to use peerguardian instead of this rubbish again which will naturally get 20 pages of propiracy/antipiracy comment.

sigh
 
IS (Internet Solutions) has informed us that you are downloading illegal software.

Just for interest sake, how would they know this, unless they are breaking the law by spying? If you shared illegal content, ie. "upload", that would be understandable as it's in the public domain. How do they know what you're downloading? Perhaps someone should set the precedent by finding the complainant and charging them with hacking and illegal information gathering. That should put an end to this whole debacle.
 
Reinhardt Buys, Senior Manager of Technology Law at Deloitte & Touche, said that the warnings sent out by IS may well be invalid and even illegal in South Africa.

“These kinds of notices are illegal and invalid in SA. In terms of the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act an Internet download may not be intercepted or monitored in this way without the prior written consent of the user,” said Buys.

“Doing so is a criminal offence. In other words, collecting this kind of evidence is a criminal offence subject to a R1-million fine. An ISP should not be using illegal, unconstitutional and invalid evidence in order to intimidate users,” Buys concluded.

Seems like there is a misquoting here, or Reinhardt is acting dof.

I don't believe that the NOTICES themselves are illegal. The actions leading up to the notices may be illegal, IF performed IN South Africa. If the monitoring is being performed in a jurisdiction where it is legal to do so, no consent would be required from the user.

Put it this way, you can't go after IS for simply forwarding a warning from a third party, where that party is obtaining evidence in a legal fashion.

That said, I agree that this is mostly sabre-rattling on the part of the *AA. But watch out that it doesn't become more than that, at your expense. (I guess it is effective sabre-rattling, then :rolleyes:)
 
I just want to state the following:

If the legislation would change and these activities made unlawful they could then use all that information to possibly fine or prosecute the individuals that engage in these acts.

The fact that they are tracing these back to your IP is already worrying. I would suggest stopping these activities but if you are short sighted and continue, just accept the future consequences of your actions.

I also received one of these notifications a while back and thought it was a mistake as I have strict moral principles towards any kind of piracy, yet when I looked at the warnings, time stamp and date, I realised that it happened when I had a contractor in the office during a leave break I took. I took the matter up with him and he confirmed that he did torrent movies during that time.

Considering that this was done from a reputable firms network it could of caused serious damage to their name as an ethical company. I will not use that contractor again unfortunately, due to that unethical activity.

Make the right choice and earn your way!
 
The fact that they are tracing these back to your IP is already worrying.

not really - it is fairly simple. the ip is recorded by the "honeypot", and your isp knows who connected at that time and was given that ip.
it would be worrying if they could trace it to your DSLAM.

go and buy prepaid adsl (as in, a physical voucher with a number on it) and see if they can track you.
 
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