subject: Digital Piracy Warnings Coming To An Isp Near You [print this page] Much has been written about the joint venture of big media companies and large internet service providers (ISPs) and their quest to crackdown on illegal file sharing and downloads. The projects strategy has been touted by some as a six strikes and youre out system (though the ISPs themselves say six is more of a guideline, not a rule) and the basic concept is to send out a series of warnings to customers they believe are infringing upon a copyright that could ultimately culminate in either throttled or terminated internet service for the customer.
The new system has been agreed upon by the media companies and the ISPs for some time now, however, they have been slow to actually implement the policies at the customer level. That is all about to change though and customers of ISPs such as AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon need to be aware that the warnings are coming even if you do not download or share content illegally.
If you download content via a BitTorrent service, then youll likely be targeted by the media industry and your ISP within this new system even if you are only sharing and downloading content within the constraints of their copyright. The reason that the warnings may go out to customers without due cause is because companies are using a mix of human and computer efforts to spot possible infringers and no claims have to be substantiated before a warning notice goes out to the infringing customer.
Once the first notice goes out to the customer, they will have the chance to either stop the behavior that got them flagged in the first place, or risk getting a second notice. The ISPs have said that the number of notices they send before it affects the customers service is completely up to the individual ISPs and will depend on the severity of the infringement and the frequency of what the ISP deems as illegal activity.
The main issue with this approach is that even when humans are used to determine if a customer is violating copyright policies, its still a vastly subjective process. The human monitors and computers have very little information to go on and will rely heavily on ISP addresses and sites visited such as BitTorrent sites. Whether or not these will prove to be an accurate indicator of illegal digital piracy has yet to be seen.
Overall, customers simply need to be aware of their online habits and be cautious of the sites they visit and the content they download. If a user feels theyve been targeted unfairly by their ISP, then they can take the case to arbitration, which will cost $35 unless the claim is won, in which case theyll be refunded and their internet service will be restored. One thing to note though, is that by law, an ISP can only shut off a customers internet service even if they have other services such as telephone or cable with the company.
