Rogers (Internet, Cable, Home Phone, Mobile, Music Store, and, I think, fascist regime in a small part of South Asia) are pioneers when it comes to fucking their customers. They were one of the first ISPs to block (well, packet shape) BitTorrent Traffic, claiming it used up to much bandwidth.

Creative as pirates are, however, there was soon an easy way to encrypt your traffic and avoid the package shaping. Rogers, frustrated by the rights of their customers to use the service they’re paying for, decided the best way to solve this problem was to block all encrypted traffic. All encrypted traffic. Me, a paying Roger’s customer (with the most expensive plan), then get’s frustrated when my shit doesn’t work. Because of course, it’s not like they sent me an email about it when they fucked me over, no, I was left to be frustrated until I read about it on the internet.

Ok, rant over. Those fuckers make me angry though. I was going to wait till I moved to switch ISPs, but I don’t think I will now.

• TorrentFreak Article

Further Reading:

• List of bad ISPs
• SaveTheInternet.com
• SaveTheInternet.com’s video explaining Network Neutrality.
• Google on Network Neutrality

This article written by Courtney Love, is about the recording industry and her frustration with it from an insider perspective. She starts by addressing the industry itself, and then talks about the great potential of the file sharing movement. The article is a couple years old, but it really hits hard. Even if you don’t want to read the whole thing (it’s very long), at least read the first couple sections about the RIAA. It’s a very enlightening read.

From Slashdot:
“Copyfighting law professor Michael Geist, who previously uncovered financial links between recording industry lobbyists and Canada’s Minister of Canadian Heritage Bev Oda (who is responsible for copyright policy), has now identified what big cash donations will get you. He reports that Oda met with the President of the Canadian Recording Industry Association on a monthly basis last year just as the government was preparing copyright reform legislation and Canadian artists were calling for an end to P2P lawsuits. Is it any wonder that Canadians seem likely to lose their fair use rights?”

• More:
• The Star
• Micheal Geist’s tech law blog
• CBC on Canada’s potential loss of fair-use rights