Anti-Piracy System Launch Date Bumped To Early 2013
We've talked over the past couple months about the impending anti-piracy system that was slated to go into effect across the US. The system is implemented by major Internet service providers, each of which will warn subscribers who engage in copyright infringing activities, ultimately punishing those who continue to do so after being warned. Thanks to Hurricane Sandy and some other unspecified factors, however, the Center for Copyright Information has been forced to extend the launch date to early 2013.
The Center for Copyright Information is a collective of five major Internet service providers, including Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast. Alongside the MPAA and RIAA, the service providers formed an agreement wherein copyright-infringing subscribers will receive some sort of alert, depending on which provider they use. Upon receiving a certain number of alerts, the subscriber will then receive a punishment, which also varies based on which provider the individual uses.
Each service provider has its own system. We first got a peek into what Internet users have in store thanks to a leaked AT&T memo, which detailed a large portion of the anti-piracy system the company will use, which includes several warnings when infringement is detected, followed by an "online education tutorial on copyright." Verizon users will be given two warnings before being forced to sign an acknowledgement of infringement, followed by severely throttled Internet speeds for a couple of days. Time Warner subscribers will be directed to a landing page rather than having their speeds reduced.
The system was slated for launch today, November 28. However, the Center for Copyright Information has announced that the launch date has been bumped due to Hurricane Sandy, and won't be implemented until early next year. "Due to unexpected factors largely stemming from Hurricane Sandy which have seriously affected our final testing schedules, CCI anticipates that the participating ISPs will begin sending alerts under the Copyright Alert System in the early part of 2013, rather than by the end of the year."
[via CCI]