U.S. “Six Strikes” Anti-Piracy Program Revealed

As we mentioned in our last post, the U.S. Center for Copyright Information has developed a six-strikes program, which is due to begin before the end of the year. The goal is to make things harder for file-sharers through a series of warnings. I’ll let the CCI explain its measures:

Educational alerts will come first, followed by acknowledgement alerts that require the recipients to let their ISP know they have received the notices. For accounts where alleged infringing activity continues, enhanced alerts that contain “mitigation measures” will follow.  These mitigation measures will vary by ISP and range from requiring the subscriber to review educational materials, to a temporary slow-down of Internet access speed.   However, termination of a consumer’s Internet service is not a part of any ISP’s Copyright Alert System program. Contrary to many erroneous reports, this is not a “six-strikes-and-you’re-out” system that would result in termination.  There’s no “strikeout” in this program.

Unlike its French equivalent, there are no criminal penalties, just a gradual disruption in service. According to leaked documents obtained by TorrentFreak, an addition sanction would be the blocking of various “frequently visited” websites until an educational course is completed. According to those documents, AT&T is due to commence with this program on November 28th. The program has an educational focus, but it leaves the door open for copyright owners to go after serial downloaders.

But what about people who may find themselves falsely accused, people who, like the poor Frenchman, declare themselves “totally incapable of downloading anything“? In those instances, the accused can pay $35 to appeal, and if they are successful, they will be refunded that $35. So you won’t necessarily be punished for having an unprotected wireless network.

Overall, this scheme seems to be fairly harmless; hardcore pirates will doubtless find ways around it, but it may well educate low-level, infrequent downloaders. The potential punishments don’t sound too severe, though, so we will see the effectiveness of these measures.