Verizon's Piracy Effort Includes Throttling Repeat Offenders
Verizon will throttle the internet connection of repeat offenders.
Although not unexpected, Verizon Wireless confirmed on Thursday that it plans to throttle the internet connection of customers who refuse to stop downloading pirated content. The move is part of the Copyright Alert System (CAS) that's set out to crack down on pirated content on an ISP level.
The Big Red made its throttling intents known during a panel discussion hosted by the New York Chapter of the Internet Society. Link Hoewing, Vice President of Internet and Technology Issues for Verizon, said the company will crack down on pirates in three steps.
The first step will consist of two emailed alerts warning the customer that the account has been flagged for copyright infringement. The second step will consist of up to six acknowledgment alerts which require the customer to read and confirm.
After all that, if the customer is still downloading illegal content, Verizon will throttle the Internet connection, resulting in an annoying slower download speed. Hoewling said that throttling will only be temporary, lasting two or three days.
"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," the CCI stated. "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."
Time Warner Cable also spoke during the panel discussion on Thursday, saying that it will take a different approach in clamping down on piracy. Vice President of External Affairs Fernando Laguarda said the notification and acknowledgment phases would be similar, but instead of throttling the connection, the broadband provider will redirect customers to a landing page.
According to TorrentFreak, Laguarda did not provide additional details such has how long the redirection would last, and if users will be restricted from other websites.
Jill Lesser, CCI’s Executive Director, also attended the panel and reaffirmed that these measures are only meant to educate the public about pirating copyrighted content. Lesser acknowledged that many users will simply switch to other peer-to-peer services not tracked under the CAS agreement, but these hard-core pirates "are not the target of the system."
So if the hard-core pirates aren't the focus, then who is?

Except the whole monitoring your actions online.... but that is fine I guess right take away civil liberties of everyone to guard a few bucks a company was never going to get anyway
- J
I honestly don't get the mindset of pirates, they know(or should know) what their doing is wrong, and that they have no legal right to download said file. I always see pirates say it won't hurt sales because it's not physical goods, but it's not different to entering an amusement park, you have no "RIGHT" to be there or to use said file.
Only thing I disagree on is the punishment for pirates being caught, some people are charged 1 million dollars? They should just pay 3-4x the cost of what they downloaded as punishment.
I am on the pirates side, I have bought to many games and music multiple times because the original copies were ruined by kids, car accidents or once when a massive blues music collection was lost when my car was stolen.
When I have full rights to my goods as a consumer and a distribution model I like then I will side with the corps, but until then they can sleep in the bed they made.
e.g......
http://www.securityweek.com/vpn-service-snitched-alleged-lulzsec-member
"How did the Feds track down the alleged LulzSec member? It turns out that a VPN service reportedly used to mask his online identify and location was the one who handed over data to the FBI."
- J
Really? If you had a computer stolen do you expect to get a brand new one? No. You committed a crime and just admitted to it. It's one thing to copy a friends disc or floppies/discs, but a totally different thing to seed and spread it out to thousands of people who have no "right" to it. Some things cannot be stopped obviously, like copying something for a friend or two.
You will never have full rights to anything you buy, digital or physical or digital, you're only granted the right to view or listen to said product. You have access to thousands of movies online for cheap, as well as music, and your complaining about distribution models?
Piracy is wrong, if you create a movie, I'm sure as hell you wouldn't want me to spread it around to everyone free so that you lost profits. And of course I've copied tapes and floppies, who hasn't, but times have changes where there are quick and cheap avenues to access media.
so your mad because your ISP would throttle your internet connection if you steal too much? go get a damn job and pay to enjoy other peoples hard work.
Except the whole monitoring your actions online.... but that is fine I guess right take away civil liberties of everyone to guard a few bucks a company was never going to get anyway
It's one big mess how everything is turning out because people want free stuff. Things will probably get worse here on out I am guessing. There is fault on both sides.
mad because it is an invasion of privacy..... if it is private information how can they simply access it.....
call to get a list of the websites and ip addreses that accessed your computer over the last week and see what answer you get.......that is private and confindential information protected by.......xxxxx wiered that it works in reverse totally on the legal tip
Exactly especially after some judges have ruled that an IP address is not a person.
and if I could just replace the cost of my music for whatever the corps distribution cost is that would be fine but $15-20 for another copy is ridiculous.
You keep giving and the corps will continue to take. I would not be surprised if they start charging for everytime you rewatch something on your DVR since you do not really have the rights to own it and watch your movie whenever you want
What was once an established system of moral certainty has become unbalanced. Good and evil are constantly negotiated by h u m a n b e i n g s .
Well, your statement made a lot of sense in a way, but this isn't a philosophical debate of any kind.
There is no debate if they are or not stealing, they are in one way or another, and that has to stop. Pirates have, people who download something without paying for it, have no legal "RIGHT" to use or view that content.
The illegal piracy of content, if it hurts sale or not is irrelevant too, even if 10% of pirates were forced to buy something, that is profit gain. In a sense, it is a moral issue too, but you have to be really cheap to pirate content, most things are not that expensive.
The first BitTorrent search engines debuted in 2004. Recorded music is down worldwide from $27B in 1999 (Napster) to $15B in 2011. Video Game revenue (consoles & PC) is down 13% from 2007. In the meantime broadband revenues grew from zero to $50B a year in the US with p2p as the killer app that drove broadband adoption. Those are real jobs lost that are not coming back until the public realizes that these are your friends and neighbors whose careers are being destroyed by lack of copyright enforcement. Who is destroying these industries? ISPs who ignore the law 17 USC 512 (i) and do not terminate repeat infringers. US Telecom makes >$400B a year, creative industries less than
(1) Accommodation of technology. The limitations on liability established by this section shall apply to a service provider only if the service provider;
(A) has adopted and reasonably implemented, and informs subscribers and account holders of the service provider's system or network of, a policy that provides for the TERMINATION in appropriate circumstances of subscribers and account holders of the service provider's system or network who are REPEAT INFRINGERS