ISP: Internet Service Provider or Internet Secret Police?

The movie and recording industries have long had a rocky relationship with the Internet in general and Internet service providers (ISP) in particular but a new alliance with major ISPs may change that – at the expense of consumers.

The industry coalition says it is enlisting the ISPs in its effort to “curb online theft” but critics say the ISPs are invading their customers' privacy and turning themselves into the Internet Secret Police.

The ISPs – including AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon – have cobbled together what they're calling the Copyright Alert System that will spy on their customers and identify anyone suspected of viewing pirated movies or listening to copyrighted music they haven't paid for.

The president of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Cary Sherman, says the goal isn't to stop all online piracy but to intimidate consumers into playing by the rules.

“If we can convert a lot of these casual infringers to become legitimate purchasers, that can make a huge difference,” Sherman said.

Copyright alerts

The ISPs say they will send customers a series of up to six “copyright alerts” that will direct them to “education” resources intended to reprogram them into obedient purchasers of copyrighted material.

If that doesn't work, the ISPs say they will take “mitigation measures,” possibly including throttling down the user's speed and even cutting off Web access.

So what does this mean for the consumer who's accused of misdeeds?

Materials supplied by the coalition state that users can pay $35 for an “independent review” before a “mitigation measure” is put in place. The independent review might find that the “infringement” was the result of unauthorized use of the subscriber's account – perhaps via an unsecured wireless router, an excuse that can only be used once, by the way.

In short, it's a trial without jury, in which big corporations – content producers and ISPs – act as the prosecutor and judge, leaving consumers to fend for themselves.

DMCA requirement?

One argument being used by the movie studios and record companies is that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires ISPs to terminate subscribers who repeatedly generate alerts claiming that they have infringed others' intellectual property.

“ There are plenty of arguments for why that position is wrong; given that an alert represents nothing more than an allegation untried by a court, we think loss of Internet access would be a draconian measure that Congress did not intend,” said Abigal Phillips of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a blog posting.

“Nonetheless, it may take an ISP willing to litigate the issue to make the argument,” she said.