ISPs to Impose Bandwidth & Internet Access Penalties for Copyright Infringement

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If you’re fond of downloading bootlegged content from the Internet, you might find your connection slow to a crawl. Deterrence by annoyance is content copyright holders’ latest weapon against piracy.

While ISPs and copyright groups used to have an antagonistic relationship with each other, Hollywood, the music industry, and ISP groups have arrived at a consensus on how to deal with copyright infringers: reduce quality of service or block access.

With the new system, ISPs in the US will send errant users warnings when they illegally access content, such as by sending emails or phone calls. If these warnings are ignored, the user’s access is progressively degraded through a series of actions, such as by slowing down of bandwidth and even blocking Internet access altogether. Customers, meanwhile, can contest these with their respective ISPs.

This move comes with the new trend that carriers are also starting to act as content publishers and distributors. Your ISP is no longer just a utility that carries data from source to client, but also as a conduit of content. Therefore, they want to ensure that users consume information more responsibly.

How this will pan out, we will have to see. This might help minimize expensive litigation costs for the RIAA, MPAA and ISPs. For users, meanwhile, this will be a good thing, since no one would be surprised with summonses or lawsuits for downloading illegal content, whether intentional or not.