Time Warner Cable has added an interesting clarification to its copyright infringement notifications. In addition to warning pirates of the standard "mitigation measures" that are part of the Copyright Alert System, the ISP now adds that persistent pirates also risk losing their Internet connection, and more.

It hasn’t made the news much over the past year, but the U.S. Copyright Alert System is still in full swing.

First implemented more than three years ago, the main goal of the “six strikes” program is to educate the public. That is, informing people whose connections are being used to pirate, and pointing them to legal alternatives.

While repeat infringers face so-called mitigation measures, the copyright holders and ISPs have made it very clear that no one will permanently lose their Internet access. At least, not under the alerts program itself.

However, Time Warner Cable has decided to update its standard copyright alerts to emphasize that people who continue to infringe may risk losing their Internet subscription, email account, and more.

In recent months the following paragraph has been added to the copyright alert notification, underlining the point.

“In addition, in accordance with our acceptable use policy, your internet service may be subject to termination at our sole discretion if we continue to receive credible allegations that your internet connection has been used to share copyrighted content without permission of the copyright owner.”

Time Warner Cable adds that an account termination may also result in the loss of the email account at the ISP, as well as many other third-party services that rely on the Internet, such as Netflix.

The text that was added



The rest of the copyright alert messaging remains intact and has remained pretty much the same since 2013. Overall it’s well-balanced, informing subscribers how the system works and what their rights are.

The big question is, why did Time Warner Cable add the termination language? After all, the acceptable use policy itself isn’t new in any way.

Without an official statement we can only speculate, but there have been some recent developments that may have played a role.

There’s the lawsuit between BMG and Cox Communications, where the latter lost its safe harbor protection because it failed to implement a repeat infringer policy. As a result, Cox must pay $25 million in damages, a ruling that’s currently under appeal.

This may have prompted Time Warner Cable to make its stance on repeat infringers more visible.

At the same time, various copyright holder groups have been turning up the pressure. The MPAA, for example, told the U.S. Copyright Office that terminating the accounts of persistent pirates is “critical”.

In the U.S. it is currently rare for ISPs to disconnect infringing subscribers, with many arguing that only a court can decide if someone can be stripped of an essential service such as Internet access.

However, the MPAA stressed that Internet providers “must terminate users who repeatedly and blatantly infringe copyright, regardless of whether there has been a judicial determination that the user is liable for copyright infringement.”

At the same time, ISPs and copyright holders are currently negotiating over the Copyright Alert System, including whether it should continue or if changes are needed to improve the current procedure.

Undoubtedly, the repeat infringer requirement will be part of these discussions. Since the MPAA is one of the founding groups of the program, they are likely to ask all ISPs to include this language in their notifications.

Despite the added account termination warning, TorrentFreak hasn’t received any reports that Time Warner Cable is disconnecting subscribers on a large scale. Perhaps this means that the threats are doing their job, or…?

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Below is an example of Time Warner Cable’s full alert, in the educational stage (emphasis is original).