Time Warner just recently issued a new clarification on how it handles copyright infringement notifications. Time Warner, as an internet service provider (ISP), now will ban and cancel service of persistent torrent users found “pirating.” This is in direct response to an increase in torrenting, and a continuation of the Copyright Alert System still in place (the CAS is implemented by ISPs to remind/educate users on what is illegal through torrenting or other means).
Repeat pirates could face issues with the law–meaning expensive settlements or fines directed through IP address tracking–but up until now, there hasn’t been a clear stance from Time Warner on how it handles repeat illegal downloads. Time Warner has updated its copyright alert system to emphasize that those who repeatedly infringe copyright can have their internet subscription, email address, and other included features canceled.
Here is the updated paragraph to the copyright alert notification program : “in addition, in accordance with our acceptable use policy, your internet service may be subject to termination at our sole discretion if we continue to receive credible allegations that your internet connection has been used to share copyrighted content without permission of the copyright owner.”
One reason this might be happening is pressure from the MPAA–Motion Picture Association of America, that is pressuring ISPs to enforce copyright law. According to the MPAA, ISPs “must terminate users who repeatedly and blatantly infringe copyright, regardless of whether there has been a judicial determination that the user is liable for copyright infringement.”
So this is a bit scary–but if you use our guide, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Whether you just want to make your torrenting your own (anonymous) or if you’re not sure what you’re doing could get your internet taken away, you can rest assured that your IP address will be hidden so ISPs cannot see what you are downloading/torrenting.
How to Torrent with Time Warner ( Using a VPN with Time Warner)
The key to staying protected while using Time Warner as an ISP is hiding your IP address from them while you torrent. This means that you need to either use a VPN which is the most secure method, or a more convenient but still secure method called a proxy.
What’s the difference between the two? A VPN is more like a program you have to launch and use that gives ALL of your information coming out of your computer encryption (this makes it ideal for internet cafes or instances where you have sensitive data) but a proxy is different in that it just gets embedded into a program like qBittorrent to give you a different IP so ISPs or copyright trolls can’t see what computer you are using to download whatever you are downloading through qBittorrent, uTorrent, or whatever.
Using a proxy can be cheaper, but most VPN providers include a proxy within their VPN subscription. So I would recommend just getting a VPN since it can be useful for other things as well. We wrote a huge guide on everything you can do with a VPN here.
Which VPN should you use? To keep things simple, you just should check out TorGuard–since it’s our top-rated VPN for torrenting and pretty much for anything that you’d need a VPN for.
We wrote a guide on how to torrent with TorGuard here–and this is a perfect way to start torrenting safely if you have TimeWarner. Feel free to check out our extensive look at TorGuard here, or some of our other top-rated VPNs since most of them work well with torrent programs and most ISPs.
