The 6 Strike System Anti-Piracy System Goes Into Effect

A new strategy aimed at combating Interent piracy went into effect on Monday that could have violators having their broadband speed slowed to a crawl or lost altogether. The new Copyright Altert System, which is sometimes known as the "6 Strikes System," is a partnership between the entertainment industry and Internet service providers aimed at decreasing online theft of copywrited material.

The way it works is if one of an ISP's subscribers is accused of violating a copyright, he or she will be sent a series of warnings. On the sixth violation, the ISP is free to extend punishment.

This sounds pretty good on the surface until you find that each ISP has a different idea of exactly what that punishment should be. For instance, Verizon intends to slow the Internet connection for a few days while an arbitrator determines if a violation actually occurred, while TimeWarner will temporarily suspend the connection until the violator contacts a company rep and promises not to do it again (I'm sure that will work - not).

The fact of the matter is that this is too little too late. The music industry already is acknowledging that piracy is slowing thanks to streaming, and we've not even reached it's tipping point yet. In fact, music sales were even up slightly last year. And with the slap-on-the-hand punishment that the ISP's are suggesting, the only people who are going to get caught are a few kids who aren't smart enough to find their way around it, or haven't bought into streaming yet.

It is a great PR move however, as it makes both industries look like they're actually doing something to reign in the problem while slapping a mere bandaid on it.

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