NBC Declares 'Six Strikes' a Success, Offers No Evidence, Stats A little more than a year ago, most of the large ISPs joined a new anti-piracy initiative crafted by the entertainment industry dubbed the Copyright Alert System. In CAS, users are given warning letters for copyright infringement as has long been industry practice, but ISPs will also give users a slap on the wrist for the behavior, ranging from brief filtering of websites (until users agree to receipt of "educational" material) to temporary throttling. At the one year mark of the program the Center for Copyright Information, which operates the program, declared the CAS a rousing success -- despite offering no meaningful data or statistics. NBC Universal lawyer Rick Cotton, speaking this week at an event by the Copyright Clearance Center, stated the program only just got up to full speed, while again reiterating that CAS has been a great success at stopping piracy: quote: A U.S. Chamber of Commerce official stated on Wednesday that an anti-piracy program involving major internet service providers is now in full effect, more than a year after news of the so-called Copyright Alert System was first reported. “The last year has been a ramp-up � March is the first month those [notices] are going out to full capacities,” said Rick Cotton, speaking at a copyright event in New York....Cotton claimed the scheme has reduced piracy, but declined to provide specific details such as how many times the ISPs have taken action against their subscribers. How many people have been warned? What's the exact nature of the reduction in piracy? How many people have been falsely accused of piracy, shelled out the obligatory $35 to have the accusation reversed, and succeeded or failed? Again, there's absolutely zero transparency behind the program, so nobody gets to know. Consumers might be interested in these details since they're paying for it; ISPs pass on the cost of compliance to you.It's also worth reiterating that most BitTorrent aficionados have long since simply switched to using VPNs or proxies to hide themselves from the prying eyes of their ISPs, something that would appear to outside analysis to be a reduction in piracy rates. Most ISPs I spoke to privately pre-launch knew most users would skirt the system; ultimately the entertainment industry will inevitably try to expand the system further to address this. Having at least some actual data on the program before this happens might be a good idea. How many people have been warned? What's the exact nature of the reduction in piracy? How many people have been falsely accused of piracy, shelled out the obligatory $35 to have the accusation reversed, and succeeded or failed? Again, there's absolutely zero transparency behind the program, so nobody gets to know. Consumers might be interested in these details since they're paying for it; ISPs pass on the cost of compliance to you.It's also worth reiterating that most BitTorrent aficionados have long since simply switched to using VPNs or proxies to hide themselves from the prying eyes of their ISPs, something that would appear to outside analysis to be a reduction in piracy rates. Most ISPs I spoke to privately pre-launch knew most users would skirt the system; ultimately the entertainment industry will inevitably try to expand the system further to address this. Having at least some actual data on the program before this happens might be a good idea.







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Most recommended from 23 comments



Camelot One

MVM

join:2001-11-21

Greenwood, IN 3 recommendations Camelot One MVM NBC's claim is probably very true NBC's lineup hasn't been good enough to even waste the bandwidth, so I have no doubt a single warning letter is all it takes to convince most people to drop those downloads.



But I'm not sure you can call that a success.