Startup: Got Busted by Cox for Downloading HBO's In Treatment

Published by on February 22, 2008

So our Internet got cut off because someone was downloading HBO’s In Treatment off of our network, and seeing that we have an unsecured network, it could have really been anyone :)

in treatment

And this brings up to interesting questions:

1. Is Cox monitoring all bit torrent transactions or just this show?

They told us they shut off the connection because we were downloading an HBO show, and this definitely isn’t the only HBO show that’s been downloaded on our network (The Wire, for one), so maybe they have a lookout for this new show? This particularly torrent came from Pirate Bay, so many they’re on watch. Also, I wonder if they are taking the same precautions for movies, music, etc.

And is this filtering? I know it certainly makes me want to do things legally, since they know exactly what I’m doing…

2. What is the legal alternative to downloading off the torrents?

I’m looking on iTunes, and I can find the shows from a number of different networks, but nothing yet for HBO. Also, on Hulu, there is no mention of any HBO shows, and I heard HBO will be releasing a Hulu variant, but it certainly isn’t in my area yet. So where else can I go?

This is exactly the reason we are releasing Grooveshark — to give users a legal alternative to the illegal networks. On Grooveshark, there is a lot of content that you can’t find on a legal network.

Do you guys have any source for HBO shows on-demand? Besides the cable offering…