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American ISPs reportedly rolling out 'six strikes' anti-piracy rules on Monday

American ISPs reportedly rolling out 'six strikes' anti-piracy rules on Monday

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Verizon FiOS router logo
Verizon FiOS router logo

A long-delayed set of anti-piracy rules could be put in place early next week. Sources have told both The Daily Dot nd TorrentFreak that five major US ISPs — AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and Cablevision — will roll out their Copyright Alert System on Monday in a partnership with the entertainment industry. Also referred to as the "six strikes" program, the CAS is a graduated alert system that starts with "educational notices;" if ISPs continue to find copyright infringement, they'll send further reminders and finally throttle or temporarily block internet browsing. It's distinct from more controversial "three strikes" proposals that would cut off users from the internet completely.

According to TorrentFreak, Verizon plans to slow the connections of users who have been found sharing illegal files, while AT&T will temporarily block access to popular sites and Time Warner Cable will direct browsers to a landing page. Of course, these plans were mostly reported months ago, back when the program was expected to launch in late 2012. In November, the Center for Copyright Information moved the date back to early 2013, ostensibly because of delays from Hurricane Sandy. It's possible we'll see another delay, but the extremely close date (and the relatively new promotional video below) suggest the CAS is indeed coming soon.