Mediacom → Re: Three Strikes Policy

I clone my MAC and randomize it from time to time with the router just for the heck of it. I don't pirate much though anymore so meh. Getting older and more responsible.

Anyways I would hope mediacom would provide proof they sent notices such as certified mail. I tend to throw out anything that says mediacom on it since I pay with my credit card and look stuff up online.

Don't use torrents and when you do, use healthy seeded ones that will max out your bandwidth and don't seed, terminate the connection when you are finished downloading. Let college campuses do the seeding, that's what they are for.

Watch what your kids are doing too. Don't share songs you bought legally off itunes or amazon either, that's just asking for trouble unless you delete the ID data in the comments of the track using a metadata editor. I know it seems 'nice and friendly' to share but hey, these content providers want their money, for what it's worth. When in rome guys....

I guess I kind of think people are missing the point.

You're being told "We got a complaint, and though they have no proof, we're going to take it as gospel." That's what really bothers me.

As expected, Mediacom didn't take the time to respond.

Why would they need to respoond, this isn't an official forum?

As for proof, they have your IP address and your mac address. Since you can't change macs(only clone them) and your IP has a record to where and who it was used with, that's pretty good evidence.

No DCMA violation request sent to Mediacom can have your MAC address. MAC address are only visible on the local network.

Since these DCMA requests only have your IP address you are at the mercy of Mediacom's DHCP tables being time accurate. Many years ago in cable's earlier days I used to set my WAN IP address statically (like when the DHCP server was offline) and then not remember to set it back to DHCP for some time. So my IP traffic would have been reported on some one else's account.

Sorry, but I wouldn't trust any of them to not be wrong. I'm sure the people doing the DMCA notices never screw up and record the wrong IP addresses, right? Seriously, stop telling us all to buy into a ridiculous draconian policy that benefits absolutely no one. I certainly don't trust any company today well enough to say, sure, terminate me PERMANENTLY as a subscriber, you've never screwed up.

How many times have you found an error on your Mediacom bill? I've found plenty over the years. If they can screw that up, they can screw up the DMCA notices and terminations too. And let's not forget about the multiple times they screwed up laying cables in my backyard and kept cutting my phone lines when I wasn't an internet/phone customer with them yet because they didn't bother to check to make sure they were digging in the right spot.

That's well said but it won't do any good for those who work, or used to work, for Mediacom.

BTW, so Mediacom is why you had such bad DSL service with Qwest due to Mediacom splicing Qwest's line?? WOW

My former ISP is planning to participate in "Six Strikes". But I never pirated MPAA/RIAA stuff, so that wasn't a worry. But their 150GB cap, with $10 per 50GB overage was over the top; so I fired them.

My current ISP has no caps/overages, and will not be participating in "Six Strikes". In fact, the CEO has posted that their customer TCP/IP data retention policy is two weeks, max.

Alas, for those maybe interested, they only cover the S.F. Bay Area, and parts of Southern California; and only in the AT&T footprint.

Ultimately, Mediacom slicing my line so many times did play a big role. The last time it got sliced and Qwest came out and reconnected it, I started having serious degradation of my speed and stability. Qwest insisted they just couldn't handle servicing 1.5 mbit to my neighborhood anymore and decided they'd need to downgrade me to at least 640/256kbit. Before that final cut, my service had been top notch - rock solid, never disconnecting, etc. They refused to look at the line to see if something had been screwed up during the last reconnect at the box down the street. 1.5mbit was barely tolerable, 640 was absolutely unacceptable and I refused to downgrade, hoping that eventually the line would clear up. Hell, I considered cutting the line again myself just to get them to put a new line in again. But it never cleared up, and I never got over half my advertised speed, so I eventually jumped ship to Mediacom. In terms of the quality of service, it's generally good, but in terms of corporate policies like three strikes and starting to nickel and dime for every piece of equipment, and even billing twice for the same device, it stinks. Unfortunately, CenturyLink (formerly Qwest) isn't offering anything better speed-wise in my neighborhood even this many years later.

No, the have an alleged IP address, alleged time, and alleged infringing transmission.

That, is the problem.