He Connects… He Shares… Strike!

The Copyright Alert System (CAS) is here! Brainchild of such industries as the RIAA and MPAA, this new method to curtail illegal content sharing went live last week. An outline for the system began in July 2011, as the recording and movie businesses realized individual lawsuits weren’t accomplishing their goal of reducing or eliminating piracy. The Center for Copyright Information (CCI) manages the CAS, providing notice to consumers if their internet service provider suspects illegal file sharing over their connection.

CAS consists of six strikes issued by a suspected offender’s ISP, one for each time they’re believed to violate copyright law with shared content. While many ISPs already issue warnings to suspected violators, the CAS hopes to standardize the process. Apparently, the standardization only goes so far though, as the five major providers implementing the system have unique definitions of what the penalties involve for each strike.

AT&T plans on issuing warnings for each strike and a suspected violator must view educational material online after a fourth strike before being allowed to use the internet as usual again on its system.

Cablevision’s process involves simply issuing a warning the first five times a copyright holder complains to them about a user’s content sharing. Upon a sixth complaint, Cablevision suspends the user’s internet access for 24 hours. Alternately, the user has the option to file a challenge with the American Arbitration Association. Unfortunately, such a challenge costs money, though Cablevision claims it will issue a refund if the consumer wins the challenge.

Verizon claims it will issue email and voicemail alerts, plus a browser pop-up window after the second strike, which users must read and acknowledge. After five complaints, users must challenge the complaints or suffer a reduction in broadband speeds to 256K for a 48-hour period. A sixth strike results in a speed reduction for three days.

Comcast’s mplementation includes warnings of an educational nature, with a requirement of signing in with a Comcast user account to remove warnings issued after the first one. At strike five, users receive a persistent alert in the web browser that can only be removed with a call to Comcast customer support. (Alternately, a successful American Arbitration Association challenge will remove the alert.)

Lastly, a Time Warner Cable spokesperson informed informed PC Magazine that it plans on enabling a system this week where violators receive email for the first two offenses. These messages outline methods for downloading content legally and how to contact them if the emails were received in error. Continued complaints eventually result in web browsers redirected to a landing page where users must agree not to engage in more illegal activity before being allowed to surf the web again. If that fails, users receive a pop-up message giving them a phone number that they must call before regular access is restored. Six months of internet usage without further complaints results in a user’s strikes reset to zero again.

It’s worth noting that none of this indicates legal action goes away as an option. Leaked documents from AT&T state, “After the fifth alert, the content owner may pursue legal action against the customer, and may seek a court order requiring AT&T to turn over personal information to assist the litigation.”

Nonetheless, this process will likely do little to quell illegal file sharing. Small roadblocks that ISPs implement with the new policy may scare the casual file sharer into compliance, but the vast majority of willful violators will simply be motivated to implement technologies that make it more difficult to track them down, such as VPN tunnels to proxy servers. With digital music sales up for the first time since 1999, the recording industry is especially hard pressed to get sympathy from the general public.