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Networking The Internet Your Rights Online

French ISP Throttles Direct Download Website 147

Posted by timothy from the naw-just-selectively-boosting-the-rest dept.
siliconbits contributes this snippet: "In what might be the first of many, French Internet Service Provider Orange has been caught throttling traffic to one of the world's biggest direct download websites, Megaupload. The site, which also operates Megavideo, states that Orange, which is owned by France Telecom, is preventing its users from accessing its downloading and video streaming service freely and says that it can prove it."
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French ISP Throttles Direct Download Website More

French ISP Throttles Direct Download Website

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  • I Suppose Caught is the Keyword (Score:5, Informative)

    by ConaxConax ( 1886430 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @10:11AM (#34889268)
    Others have probably been doing it already.

    • I'm fine with this (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      My son downloads so much stuff that I would hope more ISPs do this. Hopefully this will deter him from slowing things down at home for all the reset of us!

      • Re:I'm fine with this (Score:5, Insightful)

        by cyber-vandal ( 148830 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @10:58AM (#34889546) Homepage

        So it's not your job to supervise your child then.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by dfm3 ( 830843 )
          He said son, not child. He could be a 34-year old basement dweller for all we know.

          • Re:I'm fine with this (Score:5, Insightful)

            by gordguide ( 307383 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @11:34AM (#34889838)
            I don't see your point. If he's sharing the home connection, and it's a problem due to his use, then the father needs a backbone. I don't care how old the son is.

            • Re:I'm fine with this (Score:5, Funny)

              by TheLink ( 130905 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @12:59PM (#34890446) Journal
              Yeah the father needs a gigabit backbone.

            • If he's sharing the home connection, and it's a problem due to his use, then the father needs a backbone. I don't care how old the son is.

              Perhaps the son pays for the Internet connection?

              • Then it's his to do with as he pleases, and the ISP should again not be throttling.

                • Re: (Score:1)

                  by Anonymous Coward

                  No it isn't his, he made a contract that allows him to use the ISP's hardware and when he abuses it he is causing higher costs for the ISP and so the ISP simply stops that damage that is happening. Whats the problem with that? If you don't like it then go find another ISP or don't use the internet, but if you want to then don't be an asshole about it.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Perhaps you could try parenting.

      • Please, don't impose your will on the rest of the users on your ISP just because you are not competent enough to set up your own QoS. It could be technical based (ie: Fancy router, linux router, software on his pc), or it could be as simple as unplugging his ethernet cable/blocking his mac whenever the internet slows down for you. Do that a few times and he'll start running his downloads when no one else is on.

      • LOL WHAT A RETARD!

    • It's possible - sure. You can throttle it from a server admin end, an hosting provider end, an upstream provider end, a Tier 1 end...a damn shame. Almost makes me want to see the Internet partially regulated, so stuff like this doesn't happen.

      Of course, that opens a million questions. Who regulates it? The G8? One country, one vote? Companies? A "non partisian" governing body a la IETF or the IEEE? What if you or I or Mohammad or Jorge or Masahari doesn't like the way it is regulated in their country? Look
    • sed -i "s/have probably been/are/"

    • Working for a Tier-1 (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I work for a "Tier-1" ISP. FT (Opentransit) AS5511 is a legacy telco that has engaged in highly protective market practices. In order to interconnect within Paris (for example) they will ask that you pay them to interconnect. They also are surprised when interconnects grow full as their customers continue to seek the content that is not available on their network. I suspect they think the way about their network the way Sarkozy thinks about Renault. It's french, therefor it's offensive for content to r

  • Legality (Score:5, Interesting)

    by biryokumaru ( 822262 ) <biryokumaru@gmail.com> on Saturday January 15, 2011 @10:13AM (#34889284)
    Is that even illegal? I think that's the whole reason for the Net Neutrality debate here in the states, and I don't actually know if it's illegal here yet... although I may be ignorant of some more basic law there that covers this kind of thing. But have our more politically enlightened friends in France made it illegal yet?

    • Re:Legality (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @10:27AM (#34889360)

      It's France. Petit Napoleon probably already passed a law that butchers the internet freedom without anyone noticing.

    • Re:Legality (Score:4, Interesting)

      by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @10:42AM (#34889426)

      Is that even illegal?

      It is illegal. There are laws that protect users and allow them to access the sites they want.
      If Orange is not happy with a given site, they have to follow a legal procedure to close the site, not prevent the users from accessing it.

    • According to the US-FCC's new neutrality rules, ISPs are allowed to throttle websites as part of their "network management". The ISPs are required to be non-discriminatory when they throttle, but good luck enforcing that part of the regulation.

      As for France, I've no clue if throttling is allowed, but given their three-strike laws they don't seem a very internet-friendly country. I bet the ISP won't be punished.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        According to the US-FCC's new neutrality rules, ISPs are allowed to throttle websites as part of their "network management". The ISPs are required to be non-discriminatory when they throttle, but good luck enforcing that part of the regulation.

        That means they cannot throttle apple.com more than they do microsoft.com, and vice-versa.

        FFS, how difficult is this to understand???

        As for France, I've no clue if throttling is allowed....

        So why are you opening your yapper in the first place?? STFU if you have nothing informative to say.

        • That means they cannot throttle apple.com more than they do microsoft.com, and vice-versa. FFS, how difficult is this to understand???

          yes, now explain us, how will the criteria for 'nondiscrimination' and 'network management' will be defined. huh ? they are not defined ? so, they are solely left to the whim of the private party ?

    • Yes. It's called common carrier status, and it's what gives ISP's the ability to not be responsible for what their users do. As soon as they start filtering traffic, they are no longer common carrier, and should be legally responsible for ANY wrongdoing of their users. They're busy trying to have their cake and eat it too though.

  • Sounds like Orange is French for Comcast.

    Please Verizon get Fios in my area soon.

    • Orange is the French for orange.

    • Anyone begging for verizon hasnt dealt with their customer service.

      I often wonder if they genuinely loathe their non-mobile users.

  • all these download sites throttle the connection themselves (unless you are a premium user)

    Not to mention really hard to work captchas, and waiting 30 second or more to download.

    So I guess if it's really being throttled no one notices it

    • Re:Yeah but (Score:5, Informative)

      by Shikaku ( 1129753 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @10:25AM (#34889350)

      *Cough* [skipscreen.com]

      • I'll pass on the "skipscreen"..... for the same reason I don't use ad-blocking. Although I do use NoScript (to block viruses/spies).

        • Ads do not waste your time, and help pay for the site you are visiting, so not using adblocking makes perfect sense. I don't use it either (but noscript/flashblock is great for avoiding 'talkie' ads, which disrupt my workflow).

          But skip screen simply avoids the annoyances put in place by the download sites to get you to subscribe to their service. But if you have no intention of ever subscribing, not using skipscreen simply wastes your time. It's not like you are discovering some new product or service, o

          • Ads do not waste your time...

            Yes, they do, actually; ads are often one of the slowest things to load, and unless they're set up right (which they're often not), the browser will wait to finish loading them before properly rendering the rest of the page.

            • >>>the browser will wait to finish loading the ads before properly rendering the rest of the page.

              Switch to a real browser like Opera, which renders the webpage in real-time, even if not all image/ads are loaded.
              .

              Anon. Coward writes:
              >>>I'll choose what to load and not load on MY browser.

              If I were a webmaster, and detected my ads did not load, I would block that IP address forever. The last thing I need is visitors who drive-up my monthly bill but never contribute back to me (i.e. view the

              • If I were a webmaster, and detected my ads did not load, I would block that IP address forever.

                Then if one guy accesses your website using an ad-blocker behind a NAT, all the people behind the same NAT get blocked.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by hldn ( 1085833 )

            But skip screen simply avoids the annoyances put in place by the download sites to get you to subscribe to their service. But if you have no intention of ever subscribing, not using skipscreen simply wastes your time. It's not like you are discovering some new product or service, or helping fund the site by waiting 45 seconds.

            i often waste MORE than the wait time on these download sites. 30-60 second timer pops up, i get bored waiting, switch to a different tab, forget about my download, eventually come back to it, OH HEY YOUR DOWNLOAD TIMED OUT, TRY AGAIN. FFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.

      • What happened to P2P?
        The job bittorrent was made for, seems to have been replaced by a bunch of rubbishy web-based services.

        Robust, distributed protocols -> Web based junk -> Web based junk: Sign in using facebook ID -> iPhone app -> ???

        • What happened to P2P? The job bittorrent was made for, seems to have been replaced by a bunch of rubbishy web-based services.

          Because P2P only works in a subset of the use-cases that megaupload satisfies. Perhaps I need to get a larger file to a client and don't want to set up an FTP site, etc. Megaupload already provides the exact service that I need.

          • You send your clients links that open obnoxious porn and gambling popups, even circumventing some popup blockers (Firefox without adblock at least)?

  • ISP's (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Proudly refusing to give you the bandwidth you paid for since 1998.

    • Proudly refusing to give you the bandwidth you paid for since 1998.

      What you paid for then - and what you pay for now - is 24/7 access and flat rate monthly billing at a mass market price. As oppossed to billing-by-the hour for dial-up sevices like Compuserve --- at a stiff $8 to $12 an hour, unadjusted for inflation.

  • Just plain incompetence (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 15, 2011 @11:14AM (#34889686)

    I am working for France Telecom/Orange in a service directly involved with this problem, and I can assure you that this throttling is not true.
    Actually, we had the same problem with Youtube, and at the same time other ISP had the same issue though they resolved it faster than us ... Which lead to just apologizes: yes FT/Orange is not the cutting-edge ISP and Telco it used to be; but No we are not doing it on purpose.

    • Re:Just plain incompetence (Score:4, Insightful)

      by GPLHost-Thomas ( 1330431 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @01:22PM (#34890618)
      Has it ever been cutting-edge? Come on! The market in France is only pushed thanks to the innovations of "Free". If they weren't around, every French would still use a stupid Sagem modem, no TV over IP, no IP phone and such.
      What made everyone laugh head-off was the "Ma ligne TV" thing, were you had to choose between ADSL or TV over IP. What a joke.
      Exactly what was the cutting-edge thing you were talking about?
    • My connection must be coming through your territory, then :-) Youtube started getting throttled in this country (CZ) in mid-November. My ISP is a three-man show and they swear they know nothing about it. I believe them. Therefore it must be upstream somewhere. I used to get 400, now youtube maxes at around 50.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nyder ( 754090 )

      I am working for France Telecom/Orange in a service directly involved with this problem, and I can assure you that this throttling is not true.
      Actually, we had the same problem with Youtube, and at the same time other ISP had the same issue though they resolved it faster than us ... Which lead to just apologizes: yes FT/Orange is not the cutting-edge ISP and Telco it used to be; but No we are not doing it on purpose.

      Sure you aren't.

  • Are people still paying for warez sites? It seems to me the music and video content producers are waving the white flag by offering their goods for reasonable prices.

    Music: I am not old, but when I was a kid, an audiocasette was $12-$14 at the store, and minimum wage was $3.35. You could work half a day (4 hours) to buy one album. Now I am getting mp3 albums from amazon for $5-$7 each, and minimum wage is $7.25 (1 hour). (My own viewpoint is probably skewed further because I actually was earning minim

    • Photoshop still costs hundreds and Gipm is... not a replacement. PS is the only pirated software I have.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Yes, but not everyone is in the US or another amazon-mp3-enabled country.

        A couple people pointed that out. I'm a little surprised, since it seems like cellphones and Internet access are a ripoff in the US compared to other places.

        Another difference is, I suspect the piracy police may be more potent here in the US since it's a big market and a lot of content is produced here.

    • Amazon makes B&M pricing for most things look like a joke, so the current price (which is often closer to $10) for an intangible product isn't amazing. I doubt you can find any movie you'd want streamed for $1 (netflix doesn't have porn!), but even if you could streaming sucks.

      • I doubt you can find any movie you'd want streamed for $1 (netflix doesn't have porn!), but even if you could streaming sucks.

        True, new recent movies are often $3-$4, and $4 is too much IMHO.

        However, streaming does not suck. I think the standard quality on amazon or netflix is right on par with a DVD, and the HD stream is better than that. (Granted, neither is as good as digital broadcast TV, and Blu-Ray must take the cake, but I've never watched one). With downloads the quality is uneven; usually it

    • Music: I am not old, but when I was a kid, an audiocasette was $12-$14 at the store, and minimum wage was $3.35.

      yes ur old

  • Peering issue... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mariushm ( 1022195 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @12:24PM (#34890142)

    For me it looks more like Orange not wishing to do peering with Cogent and Tata, both used by Megaupload. As bandwidth through the other links costs Orange money, they probably throttle bandwidth with megaupload or something like that.

  • As said a thousand times ... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by McTickles ( 1812316 ) on Saturday January 15, 2011 @12:26PM (#34890158)

    It is a peering issue, France Telecom is trying to push OpenTransit on the market by making Level3, Cogent look bad.

    Orange users can, as I told them many times before, contact the OpenTransit NOC to complain.

  • If you want to download a shit load of stuff then what is the problem with paying for it? I pay for a limited daytime usage (60GB/month) which is more than enough for the time being. My ISP has a list of sites that will be capped throughput wise of which Megaupload is one of them and I am fine with that. People really need to get real with the concept that bits and bytes actually do cost something.

    • They cost nothing, unless of course you count electrons... In which case you have major mental problems with greed...

      • So these electrons that make up these bits and bytes happen to transport themselves without the influence of external energy then? You seem privy to some sort of perpetual data machine then. This could be very usfeul so perhaps you could share it with the rest of us. I am content with paying less for a restricted service so how does that make me greedy?

        • Electrons ARE energy... Oh dear you fail hard at physics.

          Well if you want to split hair. You could say that each packet "uses" (lets remember here that one can only transform energy) a definite amount of electrons, the ISP, the backbone and so on
          each buy electrons from (and to, but that is another matter) the electricity company. Yourself probably buy some electricity to have electrons to send to your ISP. The ISP exchanges electrons with the other
          network peers as well, in the end it seems all pretty zero-s

          • You obviously fail at basic comprehension. I may fail at physics as you put it but I didn't fail my degree in Electronics. Power is going to be used somewhere and someone has to pay for it.

            Someone has to upgrade the infrastructure to cope with the increased bandwidth required - oh but maybe the sweat coming off the men and women digging the holes and climbing the poles to support this is neutral as well because the water came from the sea or whatever and that doesn't cost anything.

            You may argue that they sh

            • I happen to live in a country where the men and women digging the holes are actually paid with my tax money anyway to do just that ...

              And again I am going to argue that power going to A -> B and B - A as data is transfered. I send a packet, I get one back... Zero-sum.

              Also in the country I live in the ISP provides the modem/router, should I charge them for the power used by their contraption ?

              I don't know where you live however, perhaps you live in the UK where BT is despotic and their network infrastruct

              • I am sure that the prison population, assuming the tax money you refer to is them and not the utilities companies as that would be a subsidy, are glad that their efforts are rewarding people with a better internet connection.

                Do you watch streaming content? Do you think for every packet you receive you send one back and that it is the same size? Yin and yang is not applicable to digital communication.

                The modem you receive is subsidised by you with increased prices from the ISP.

                My ISP bill has decreased by ov

                • My bill is steady at 30 euros for unlimited monthly and unlimited telephone within europe.

                  I rarely watch streaming content as I actually use my connection as part of a P2P-topology type network, so on average i do end up with similar up/down traffic.

                  --
                  www.twilightcampaign.net

            • Sorry forgot also to ask...

              How do you define legitimate content in this context? It is not a very scientific definition. "Legitimate" or not the same bandwidth is used.

              "Legitimate" bytes aren't smaller than illegitimate bytes.

              I am starting to think that you sir are a "legitimate" troll...

              --
              www.twilightcampaign.net

              • Legimate content to me is content that I have paid for or which is distributed free by the publisher. Why should I subsidise the distribution of software/movie theft?

                • Good news you dont need to subsidize software/content theft. It is free. Except of course if you are part of the direct download crowd. Then I agree they are pathetic worms. Sharing is sharing, no money comes into it.

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