“Six Strikes” Anti-Piracy Scheme Starts Monday

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https://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-starts-monday-130223/

The much-discussed U.S. six strikes anti-piracy scheme is expected to go live on Monday. The start date hasn’t been announced officially by the CCI but a source close to the scheme confirmed the plans. During the coming months millions of BitTorrent users will be actively monitored by copyright holders. After repeated warnings, Internet subscribers risk a heavy reduction in download speeds and temporary browsing restrictions.

pirateDuring the summer of 2011 the MPAA and RIAA teamed up with five major Internet providers in the United States, announcing their a plan to warn and “punish” BitTorrent pirates.

The parties launched the Center for Copyright Information (CCI) and agreed on a system through which Internet account holders will be warned if their connections are used to commit copyright infringement. After five or six warnings ISPs may then take a variety of repressive measures.

Initially the first ISPs were expected to send out the first “copyright alerts” by the end of 2011, but for reasons unknown this deadline silently passed, as did the revised July 2012 and the December 2012 start dates.

But it appears that the wait is over now.

AT&T will block users’ access to some of the most frequently visited websites on the Internet, until they complete a copyright course. Verizon will slow down the connection speeds of repeated pirates, and Time Warner Cable will temporarily interrupt people’s ability to browse the Internet.

It’s expected that the two remaining providers, Cablevison and Comcast, will take similar measures. None of the ISPs will permanently disconnect repeat infringers as part of the plan.

Of course, there are plenty of ways for people to prevent being monitored by copyright holders. BitTorrent proxies and VPN services are the most likely option here. These services replace a user’s home IP-address with one provided by the proxy service, making it impossible for tracking companies to identify who is doing the file-sharing.

Also, those who download through Usenet, cyberlockers or other non-P2P services can not be monitored by the copyright alert system at all.