We may have beaten SOPA over a year ago, but the war against piracy and copyright infringement never ceases.  As we speak, The Pirate Bay finds itself displaced from its native Sweden.  Kim Dotcom has launched his new Mega digital storage locker amidst controversies of its security and protection of copyright material.  Here in the states, the ISPs have taken up a new technique in the war.  Colloquially it is known as the “Six-strikes System”, but they call it the Copyright Alert System.

CAS was developed back in 2011.  Originally conceived as a more harsh three strike system, it was reformed and delay into its more current form.  At its core, the CAS is meant to empower ISPs with the ability to stop infringing customers.  First with simple notices and progressively more aggressive warnings and eventually service disruption.  While I have some serious issues with the implementation of copyright-driven policy mandating internet service, there are some interesting factors to the CAS system that should be looked at.

As of now, the five largest ISPs have started using CAS: Comcast, Cablevision, Time Warner, Verizon, and AT&T.  Comcast and Cablevision have outlined their implementations.  While more or less the same, there are some legal shades of gray between the two.  At the most basic level, copyright holders now have access to ISP traffic through a company called MarkMonitor that looks for copyright material being improperly accessed (they’ve got algorithms and stuff but don’t ask me how they sort the good from the bad).  When copyright holders suspect a consumer of illegally obtaining some of their IP, they contact the service providers.

The ISP will then send alerts to the account holder via the ISP-provided email and in the browser.  The first two alerts are simply warnings letting the customer know that someone has complained (basically a “chill the fuck out man” alert that is meant to save your ass from further inconvenience).  The third and fourth warnings (at least from Comcast) have more “urgent” language and will require the account holder to log into their account profile and acknowledge the alert has been seen.  Again, nothing ridiculous.

By the time you hit the fifth and penultimate sixth alert, you’re in the danger zone.  The in-browser alert will stay perpetually and the ISP can start throttling or cut you off entirely for a specific period.  This depends on the terms of service of each ISP to determine how severe the punishment is.  Customers will be allowed to appeal the complaints to the American Arbitration Association, which then will look over the case and determine the severity (or actual existence of copyright infringement).  In the case of Comcast, you can also contact the Comcast Security Assurance agency, which will lecture you on copyright infringement before removing the alert and stop throttling.  Only God knows what happens after the sixth strike….

So while CAS seems pretty fair, and indeed it is far better than SOPA, there is a lot to dislike conceptually.  As I said, I take issue with ISP service being dictated by the whims of copyright holders.  I understand that piracy is a real issue, but the internet is a lot more than piracy and for one’s access to be choked because the RIAA seems dangerous.  Much like SOPA, there are questions of what entails infringement.  Some have called CAS fundamentally flawed.  I wouldn’t say fundamentally so, but I would say that the burden of proof lies somewhere between the word of a copyright holder and a consumer trying to save his or her ass.  In that game, it’s so subjective that I wonder if this system can ever be effectively used.

Until we know, watch yourself out there torrent-ers, projectfreetv-ers, and recorders.