There's No Helping Some People

There aren't many things in the world that infuriate me - OK, you might think otherwise reading this blog and me bitching - but I like to think that when I offer people help or advice, that they might, just maybe, listen and think "Oooh good idea".

Not so is the case all the time. For instance, without naming names, I've had a week of trying to convince someone they might be in trouble. Blueyonder (My, and this persons ISP) have announced in the last few weeks that they are "cracking down" on the hard-core File Sharing persons on their network. That is to say, the people that download lots, all day, every day, are going to get in a fair bit of trouble, be it a stupidly high fine, their equipment confiscated, or a jail term.

So, I point this out to afore-mentioned person. Granted, me and Jo will occasionally download something - a few songs here, a TV episode there - but that's about it, and of late, almost nothing. This person, however, will download the crappiest quality pirate movies, entire seasons of entire TV shows, and whole albums, all day, every day. Literally, you go to this house, and the "spare computer" is running overtime with a crap-load of downloads running.

So far, this person has tried to tell me that Blueyonder are in the wrong, that what he doesn't isn't illegal, and they can't trace it. I used to work at Blueyonder in Basildon, I KNOW exactly what they can and can't do. Some of the excuses we've had just made me laugh. For instance "It's illegal to record things off the TV but people still do it". Well, maybe - but there aren't explicit laws stating "don't record TV shows on the video/TiVo". "They can't trace what I am doing" Oh, yes they can, they can see why you are using every drop of your Incoming and Outgoing bandwidth, and who you are connecting to". "It's not like I am selling them on at boot sales" No, but then, people that buy drugs don't need to sell them to get in trouble.

And on and on. But you know what - I don't care any more. Jo's said it's not worth me getting stressed out about, and she's right. I offered this person the information to help them out - I've even told their family members, and they've tried to tell this person, but no, Dan's wrong. I hate when people try to justify their actions with stupid comparisons. You might as well say "But I'm not a person, I'm a grapefruit" - it makes that much sense.

Part of me is considering contacting someone at Blueyonder and pointing them in this persons direction, if at least they send a Cease and Desist order, just to put the willys up them...