Six Strikes Officially Begins On Monday

from the warm-up-your-vpns dept

Kevin Collier over at the DailyDot claims he's got it on good authority that the "six strikes" system, officially known as the Copyright Alert System, officially kicks off on Monday, many months later than scheduled. For whatever reason, the organization behind the program, the Center for Copyright Information, has been insisting for some time that there was no official rollout date, and the various ISPs would be individually choosing when to turn on the random assortment of punishment mechanisms made available to copyright holders based entirely on accusations, not conviction or other proof. Apparently, what they meant was that everyone would roll it out in a single week, but on different days. Because that makes so much sense.

The ISPs—industry giants AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon—will launch their versions of the CAS on different days throughout the week. Comcast is expected to be the first, on Monday.

So, now we get to watch people get falsely accused, those with open WiFi suddenly have to fear bogus slow downs to their networks and other assorted collateral damage. Oh, and does anyone actually expect to see a sudden spike in "sales"?

Oh, and the Center for Copyright Information has put up a snazzy new website and video over some non-descript smooth jazz that I'm sure they licensed, and which practically screams the following basic message (note: message paraphrased): "Hey, we're just your friendly neighborhood copyright maximalists, out here trying to make friends and, oh, oops, we just wanted to let you know, in the friendliest way possible, that we think you're lying, thieving pirates, and we'd really like it if you stopped, or we might have to make your internet connection completely useless. But we don't want to have to do that, because we're all friends here, enjoying the internet. Isn't the internet great?" The video makes a few blatantly ridiculous claims, including suggesting that they have some foolproof technology for seeing whenever you infringe. They claim that the system is designed to "support the creative work that we all love and enjoy." Which is kind of amusing, since nothing in the system is about giving people a reason to buy. Just a reason to get pissed off at ISPs and copyright holders for making accusations. I'm sure that's going to convince so many people to buy.

Filed Under: copyright, copyright alert system, isps, jill lesser, six strikes
Companies: at&t, cablevision, center for copyright information, comcast, time warner, verizon

Six Strikes Administrator: Loss Of Open WiFi Access At Cafes Is Acceptable Collateral Damage

from the really-now? dept

We recently covered some of the details of various "six strikes" policies being implemented by most of the large broadband providers in the US, noting that with Verizon's, it appeared that small businesses that offered free and open WiFi could get in trouble for doing so. TorrentFreak has followed up with Jill Lesser, the executive director of the Center for Copyright Information (CCI), the organization coordinating these plans, and discovered that this impact on small businesses is not an error, and Lesser does not seem to see a problem with it, arguing that offering such open and free WiFi is a violation of the terms of service for most small businesses.

“In addition, the terms of service on such accounts do not allow them to be used to provide free WiFi or ‘hotspots’ so the hypothetical cafe owner offering public WiFi will not be subject to the CAS if they are following their terms of service.”

Similarly, she says that if it impacts small businesses or home-based businesses that use residential accounts, she doesn't see it as a problem, since those businesses shouldn't "allow" their employees to "engage in copyright theft." Of course, it's not theft, but infringement -- and it's frustrating that someone like Lesser would misrepresent these things.

That said, her cavalier attitude towards these very common scenarios, which will have real impacts on a variety of small businesses, is unfortunate and dangerous. The importance of a fully working broadband connection to small businesses todays cannot be overstated. To suggest that all of this is okay because they're not following an almost universally ignored term in the terms of service on such accounts seems to be dismissing things way too simply.

The end result of this is likely to be a lot less public and open WiFi at a time when we actually need much more open access. That may not matter to the RIAA and MPAA -- who still don't understand the importance and value of internet access -- but it matters an awful lot to the pubilc and a variety of small businesses.

Filed Under: jill lesser, open wifi, six strikes, small businesses
Companies: cci, verizon

Organization Overseeing Six Strikes Agreement Between Labels And ISPs Includes Advisory Board To Try To Keep Tech Folks Happy

from the better-than-nothing dept

As we get closer to the RIAA/MPAA and the major ISPs rolling out their "voluntary" six strikes agreement, turning those ISPs into Hollywood's private police force, details are finally coming out about the Center for Copyright Information (CCI), the organization that the RIAA/MPAA were setting up to manage the six strikes effort. In a move that's at least slightly surprising, and shows that they realized they couldn't completely one-side this entire thing, CCI will be run by Jill Lesser. Lesser was a managing director at The Glover Park Group (a lobbying firm), but also on the board of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a group that is often on the correct side of these issues. That said, Glover Park was also one of the key lobbying firms that the MPAA used to promote SOPA.

However, lots of folks are pointing to the fact that CCI has also set up an advisory board with some familiar names of folks who have fought for consumer rights repeatedly. As Greg Sandoval reports at News.com:

CCI's advisory board will include a large number of privacy and technology advocates, including Jerry Berman, chairman of the Internet Education Foundation and founder of the Center for Democracy and Technology; Marsali Hancock, president of iKeepSafe.org; Jules Polenetsky, director of the Future of Privacy Forum; and Gigi Sohn, president and CEO of Public Knowledge.

This is, at the very least, a nod to the fact that the entertainment industry can't just completely control how this system works. Of course, it's an open question how much power this advisory board will actually have, and how much of this is really window dressing. In fact, the actual power to run CCI is in the hands of a separate "board of directors" which is entirely made up of entertainment industry and ISP representatives.

The "good news" is that many of the folks on the advisory board are certainly not at all shy about making their voices heard if they feel they're being ignored, and Public Knowledge's Gigi Sohn is not one to go away quietly on these issues. As she told Sandoval:

"It was not an easy decision for me to join this Advisory Board," Sohn said in a statement. "I did so because I saw the need to be an advocate for the rights of Internet users and to provide transparency."

Sohn said that one of the first things she wants to see once CCI is up and running is to abolish any kind of service suspension.

"I will ask at the appropriate time," Sohn said, "for the ISPs to promise not to interpret the agreement's 'temporary restriction' provision as allowing for suspension of user Internet accounts."

This whole thing will be worth watching closely, and I'm glad that at least a few good people are on the advisory board, but we'll see what happens when the actual "strikes" start issuing.

Filed Under: gigi sohn, jill lesser, six strikes
Companies: cci, center for copyright information