AT&T is alerting would-be pirates that their illegal activity could result in termination of their Internet access, according to a letter obtained by TorrentFreak. The alert comes under the application of the new six-strikes policy, which is meant to warn customers about their potentially illegal activity but does not require that ISPs threaten to terminate business.

According to TorrentFreak, AT&T stated several years ago that it would only terminate accounts accused of copyright infringement under a court order. The DMCA is not explicitly clear on whether service providers are expected to terminate an infringing account with or without a court order, but it appears AT&T has decided to take matters into its own hands. The Copyright Alert that AT&T distributes includes the following text:

“Using your Internet service to infringe copyrights is illegal and a violation of the AT&T Internet Terms of Service (TOS) and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), which apply to all users of your account, and could result in mitigation measures including limitation of Internet access or even suspension or termination.”

Copyright alert phrasing differs from provider to provider, but letters Ars obtained from Comcast that are sent to its customers do not include threats of account limitation or termination. AT&T does not clarify at what stage in the process a customer would encounter an account limitation or disconnection, and the company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.