Comcast, one of America’s largest internet provider is working on a new anti-piracy measure for their internet
Before I continue explaining the new measure, a short introduction of the (Copyright Alert System) CAS is probably in order. CAS is a private measure which was put into place in mid 2011 by the major internet providers in the United States. Under the system, the consumer of the internet service will receive warnings for pirating material. There are six tiers of warnings, after the fifth or sixth warning (depending on the ISP’s discretion) the ISP will intervene and take mitigating measures to prevent further incidents of piracy. While these “mitigating measures” do include the temporary reduction of internet speeds, it is uncertain wether or not they may potentially also include the complete (albeit temporary) suspension of internet as well. The difference between reduction and complete suspension is an important one because access to internet connection may potential be considered as a Human Right. The United Nations’ Human Rights Council last July deemed access to the internet as a human right. Furthermore, earlier this year French Constitutional court ruled access to the internet a human right, thus rendering their version of CAS incompatible with their Constitution (although their version of CAS explicitely allowed the suspension of internet access)
Comcast’s new measure will be a pop-up system which will coincide CAS. Under the measure consumers will receive a popup warning in the middle of an illegal download which will assumably warn the downloader, but more interestingly will also point the downloader to alternative legal sources for the content.
I personally think this is a good idea. It’s by no means a revolutionary idea which will rapidly stop piracy, but still it will have some effect. More than anything, I’m glad to see another example of a civilised approach in reducing piracy.
Sources:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/diplomacy/120706/un-deems-internet-access-basic-human-right-0
http://mashable.com/2013/08/07/comcast-content-piracy/
