More File Sharing Controversey

Read this on FiringSquad, concirns KaZaA (with it\'s other clones) iMesh, and FastTrack.

An anonymous reader submits: "You should know that RoadRunner is quietly blocking the use of Kazaa in certain markets. Particularly in Texas, they have some sort of port scanner in place which scans for Kazaa activity and then disables use of that port, rendering the program completely useless. Grokster, iMesh, and all other FastTrack programs are similarly affected. Yet RoadRunner is not disclosing the practice in any way. Not only that, I\'m troubled by the possibility of them arbitrarily choosing to block other programs in the future. If this becomes more widespread, they will have many angry (and former) customers."

What this means? Well, file sharing is not gonna be as mainstream as it once was. No more going to downloads.com and searching "file sharing" and expect on getting results. Your gonna have to search wide and hard for a decent program.

As it\'s stated before, it\'s like building a wall around an ocean, but now the ISP\'s are taking action. I think my ISP (Optinum Online, probally the best ISP in the country) is starting to show signs of blockage, because I\'m being broken up a lot of times downloading what not.

:rolleyes:

The best ISPs are local ISPs that don\'t buy into corporate B.S.

I don\'t know about KaZaa but some of the other programs allow you to choose your port.  That may not help with whatever Roadrunner is doing though.

I doubt this will stop file-sharing though.  Unless they plan on blocking IRC and FTP traffic.  There will be other programs.

Optimum Online only serves people in like a 200 mile radius I think. They are centered 10 minutes where I live.

Cablevision is a monopoly on Long Island.

I use Road Runner, and I\'ve had no problems like that yet.  Infact, downloads have seemed to go faster in the last week.