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Following the discovery that Comcast has been interferring with its customers’ ability to download torrents over its network, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has released the Switzerland packet testing tool to enable you to check to see if your ISP appears to be forging packets with the intent of interferring with your ability to share files.

I’ve been running Switzerland this afternoon (the client, not the country), and after exchanging many thousands of packets with other clients on the Switzerland network, the EFF server found no evidence of foul play (well, three malformed packets, but Switzerland reported that these were most likely re-written by my NAT router).

The major UK ISPs have only recently signed their memorandum of understanding with the BPI and the government, and it is not yet clear whether or not they will be attempting Comcast-style interferrence. BT has been contacting us like crazy recently trying to persuade us to move to a different broadband deal, something which will no doubt include a new contract and terms and conditions. It might be interesting to see how those T&Cs differ from our existing set, perhaps containing some kind of opt-out or loopholes to tacitly allow traffic monitoring and bandwidth restriction. Next time they phone, I’ll ask to see a copy before I’ll be prepared to discuss any change to our existing contract with their sales-people.

I will be running tests with Switzerland on a regular basis to keep a check on BT.

PS.

• In addition to core Python, you’ll need python-scapy and psycop, plus a running NTP daemon (all just a Synaptic away on Ubuntu) or Switzerland will moan.
• You’ll need to sudo mkdir /var/log/switzerland-pcaps
• You’ll need to ensure your firewall doesn’t interfere with the testing
• I had to re-start Switzerland several times before it was happy that my computer’s time settings were in accordance with those of my timeserver (but hey, this is version 0.0).

Additional links:

EFF “Switzerland” packet monitor tool looks for ISP meddling

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UPDATE: In the light of the following article the above is probably largely academic:- BT slams bandwidth brakes on all subscribers. BT don’t need to re-write packets, they simply block the packets they don’t like. This probably explains why my torrent download speeds were around eight to nine times slower than those of HTTP the other night. Zen Internet seems to be getting a good press. I’ve seen user reports claiming that it has no Phorm nonsense, doesn’t discriminate against non-HTTP and non-email traffic, and has good tech support. Sounds like a real Internet Service Provider to me. They do have monthly bandwidth caps, but they’re completely open about them and as far as I’m concerned, caps are a practical matter, not an ethical one. As things stand now, I’m looking to move to Zen, unless I can find an even better deal.

Arthur Charles in the Guardian:

“It’s a sort of capture of the internet industry by the content industry, mediated by government.”

This is surely one of the most ominous sentences imagineable for the free/Free software ecosystem (and for computer users in general)? I say this not because I support people ripping-off copyrighted work against its author’s wishes (I don’t), but because it’s very hard to accept that any such control wouldn’t be used to interfere with the public’s legitimate right to collaboratively create restriction-free software. (UPDATE: Here we go: French record labels sue, um, SourceForge)

Oh boy, this is such an important and involved topic. I really must get my thoughts in order and post a statement of my beliefs, lest I end up accused of unsupportable “freetard” sloganeering and posturing. Tonight maybe, if I have the time, I’ll post my thoughts on why most software should, and for the most part will, end up being made available without license restrictions.