ISPs say Sony's win over Cox would force them to do "mass Internet evictions."

Four more large Internet service providers told the US Supreme Court this week that ISPs shouldn’t be forced to aggressively police copyright infringement on broadband networks.

While the ISPs worry about financial liability from lawsuits filed by major record labels and other copyright holders, they also argue that mass terminations of Internet users accused of piracy “would harm innocent people by depriving households, schools, hospitals, and businesses of Internet access.” The legal question presented by the case “is exceptionally important to the future of the Internet,” they wrote in a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Monday.

  • nutsack@lemmy.worldEnglish
    45·
    10 hours ago

    imagine getting banned from the one monopoly ISP available to you in your entire city. what do you do after that? sell your house?

    • x00za@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      4·
      3 hours ago

      Even though I hate Starlink, it would be an option.

      What I would do however is try and ask my neighbors. If neighbors don’t work, I’d just hack their Wifi.

      Another option would be to contact other ISPs and tell them your neighborhood/village/city is ready for an alternative. It’ll depend on many factors whether or not this would be successful, but I have seen it happen in the past. Just takes a few different households to contact them and they’ll start doing market research.

      Getting somebody with a different last name to try and get a new contract would be possible too. But it could be considered fraud.

    • john89@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      3 hours ago

      I actually just use my phone for internet and haven’t had a landline ISP for 2 years now.

      Visible, $25/month has saved me so much money and they even sent me a free phone.

    • EmpricornEnglish
      35·
      7 hours ago

      It’s insane that people (okay, mostly corporations) try to argue internet access is not a utility. What happens then? Does your home value decrease? Or does the next purchaser have to petition the ISP to convince them they are a different, non-infringing customer and hope they reverse the ban??

      • ivanafterall@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        4 hours ago

        This happened in the apartment I just moved into. I had to call to verify my identity and they had to unblock something on their side due to the previous tenant ostensibly not paying.

      • nutsack@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        5 hours ago

        I’m guessing it would be tied to your name. the new tenants would have service, but you might have to move to a different state or something.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2·
          2 hours ago

          Yup, but in our case, I think it’s my phone number (at least that’s what they use for my account number). So I could probably sign up again if I change my number.