While RapidShare has gone on the offensive, describing claims in anti-piracy-funded studies as ‘defamation’, MegaUpload has been more direct. A few days ago the company responded to accusations the RIAA and MPAA made about the facilitation of copyright infringement, calling them “grotesquely overblown allegations.”

While all of this was going on a separate conflict was brewing in France, between MegaUpload and France Telecom, specifically the Orange subsidiary.

MegaUpload has claimed that Orange has been substantially slowing down, or blocking access to its servers. Presumably these actions were taken in an attempt to discourage people from using the service, a claim Orange denies.

Accusations and claims have been flying back and forth for the past few days, including a banner run by Megaupload this week which suggested that Orange subscribers call up and cancel their subscriptions, in favour of ISPs with better peering.

The full text is (translated from French)

Slow Downloads? Video playback is hesitant?
It is likely that your Internet provider is intentionally restricting your access to significant portions of the Internet! Our claims statistics show that most users who have this problem are accessing the Internet via France Telecom, often under the Orange brand (also “Ya” in Spain).

If you are concerned, please call Orange customer service on 3900 and tell them that you can not connect to sites hosted on Cogent and TATA. Also tell them that you are considering moving to an Internet provider with an excellent global connectivity, such as Iliad or SFR (free.fr, Alice). If you’re impatient and you need a good service immediately, consider changing your supplier for one of them, and be sure to tell Orange the reason for your decision to terminate your line!

In a telephone press conference last Thursday, Orange hit back at MegaUpload. The ISP stated that it follows the Net Neutrality rules as laid down by the communications regulation body ARCEP. Instead, the ISP argued that MegaUpload’s users are the victims of ‘a low-cost business model,’ where the cyberlocker signs cheap peering contracts that lead to the slow downloads.

Orange further noted that it takes no responsibility for the situation, and that MegaUpload should improve their infrastructure as other French ISP’s have had the same kinds of problems with MegaVideo/MegaUpload at times. They also added that although difficult, MegaUpload needs to find a balance between quality and economic performance.

While some might suggest it’s a battle between peering companies, there may well be more to it, which will bring the focus on ARCEP’s 4 month old net neutrality guidelines for France. It’s clear however, that this battle of wills is just heating up. Especially when (or if) the likes of HADOPI get involved, the new anti-piracy law which ironically doesn’t affect users of cyberlockers.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Last week saw French ISP Orange take the opportunity to start providing a service which, at least on the surface, is designed to put the minds of subscribers at rest. For a 2 euro per month payment, Orange is offering a service which “allows you to control the activity of computers connected to your internet line, from downloading ‘illegally’ using peer-to-peer networks. You can protect up to three computers connected to the same internet line.”

The software, which is Windows-only, runs in the background and utilizes a blacklist maintained and updated by Orange. Precisely what is on that blacklist remains a secret.

“Our solution is intended primarily for parents who want to make sure their children do nothing illegal on P2P networks,” the company said in a statement to French media last week while adding that just because the software is running, it doesn’t mean that users are fully protected against legal action under Hadopi.

History tells us that whenever a company gets involved in anti-piracy action, they leave themselves open to being probed. Several anti-piracy companies and groups have seen their systems examined and even hacked over the years, and Orange is no different.

Bluetouff has documented his findings on the Orange system and they are pretty surprising.

Using WireShark to sniff the output of the software on his location network, Bluetouff was able to identify an IP address used by the software to obtain its updates.

“The software communicates with a remote server, a Java servlet actually located on the ip 195.146.235.67,” he explains.

Nothing too out of the ordinary there – except that all information is not only being transmitted in the clear but all information on that server is public (via
http://195.146.235.67/status), meaning that every user had their IP addresses exposed to the public. But it doesn’t stop there.

Whoever set up the security on the server admin panel didn’t do a very good job. The username was set to ‘admin’ and the password set to ‘admin’ too. This morning that gaping hole was still open.

TorrentFreak is informed that people have accessed the server and have discovered that it’s possible to send malware to anyone using the software which makes a bit of a joke out of Orange when it claims: “The software runs in the background to ensure your safety without disrupting the important tasks that you perform”

“People don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Astrid Girardeau from TheInternets.fr told TorrentFreak. “Because it is a new Hadopi fail. And because, Christine Albanel, the ex-Minister of Culture, is now the executive of communication, for… Orange.”

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Reports coming in from France told the same story – no Pirate Bay and no helpful explanation from Orange, despite many complaints. Many believed that Orange had taken the decision to block the Swedish tracker and they began voicing displeasure.

TorrentFreak picked up the story on Monday, contacting Orange PR for an explanation. After a reminder on Tuesday, we published the response from Orange who said: “Our understanding is that Orange doesn’t block access to any sites other than those identified by the Internet Watch Foundation, that relate to illegal child abuse imagery. However, we’re looking into this and will update you again as soon as we can.”

File-sharers live in uncertain times and when organizations such as the IFPI actively take steps to force ISPs to censor the Internet, it’s little wonder that people come to the conclusions they do. So we asked Orange customers to tell us directly if they could access The Pirate Bay or not. An overwhelming majority said they couldn’t, but a few explained that they could, which cast some doubt on the ISP-wide block theory. However, with nothing official coming back from Orange, lingering suspicions remained.

Finally today, an Orange spokesperson responded officially, thanking TorrentFreak for bringing the matter to their attention and offering the following message:

We can confirm that we have not actively stopped customers accessing the web sites reportedly affected. However, following investigation by our network partners, a small section of our Internet traffic was rerouted by one of them which has now restored access to the sites concerned.

As has always been the case, it is Orange UK’s policy to not block customer access to websites, other than to those containing images of child abuse as identified by the IWF.

So there it is in black and white – Orange customers can officially access The Pirate Bay again. As the proof of the pudding is in the eating, we encourage feedback in the comments – are you an Orange customer and has the site returned for you?

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

No stranger to criticism, in March 2007 UK consumer protection TV show ‘Watchdog’ held a survey which deemed Orange to be the worst ISP in the UK, with the most unreliable broadband service. The survey revealed that the company also had the greatest number of dissatisfied customers and, if recent reports prove correct, Orange are about to start accumulating a few more.

Last Friday, reports started coming in from UK Orange Broadband users, all of them complaining that they can no longer access The Pirate Bay. Initially it seemed that the difficulties could be related to technical issues but as the days have passed, the situation hasn’t changed. Worryingly, the situation is mirrored by Orange customers in France who are also complaining the ‘bay is off-limits.

Some Orange customers with this problem remembered that when The Pirate Bay was blocked in Italy, a new domain was setup (labaia.org) to sidestep the restrictions, but unfortunately this domain is inaccessible to them too. However, many are finding that if they use a proxy site, such as BlockedSiteAccess.com or Megaproxy, The Pirate Bay reappears.

Customers have been complaining to Orange themselves, who haven’t given any indication of how to successfully solve the problem, while neither confirming nor denying claims of a block. Yesterday, TorrentFreak contacted Orange’s PR company for comment and, after a reminder today, received this response:

Our understanding is that Orange doesn’t block access to any sites other than those identified by the Internet Watch Foundation, that relate to illegal child abuse imagery. However, we’re looking into this and will update you again as soon as we can.

Peter Sunde of The Pirate Bay told TorrentFreak that they are aware of the problem and are looking into it.

We will update this post as soon as Orange respond definitively, but in the meantime, if you are an Orange customer we would like to hear of your experiences in the comment section.

Update 26/11/08: It’s now 48 hours since we first asked Orange about this problem (and 6 days since it started receiving complaints direct from its subscribers) and we have heard nothing from them, other than the quote above. Sorry folks, but whatever the reason for the problem (block/DNS/other technical issue) it seems Orange doesn’t want to respond to customer complaints.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.