US copyright holders and internet providers agree voluntary website blocking agreement

Leaders of five US ISPs have signed up to the new framework, the companies said an announcement made jointly with film, TV and music industry bosses.

The Copyright Alert System details the stages of action ISPs will take when users of their service are suspected of infringing copyright.

In their statement the parties said that suspected infringers could be issued with up to six early electronic alerts notifying them that their account had been used to breach copyright laws. Repeat offenders will face "mitigation measures" restricting their behaviour, the statement said.

Those measures could include slowing down a repeat offender's internet service or blocking website browsing, a report by the New York Times said.

The Copyright Alert System does not outline measures for disconnecting persistent offenders from the internet, the parties' statement said. Under the agreement ISPs will not pass over details of their customers to copyright owners, it said.

AT&T, Cablevision Systems Corp, Comcast Corp, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon are the ISPs that have signed up to the voluntary agreement.

The agreement is a "fresh approach" to tackling online copyright theft, a representative of the US music industry said.

“This groundbreaking agreement ushers in a new day and a fresh approach to addressing the digital theft of copyrighted works,” Cary Sherman, President of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), said in the joint statement.

“We hope that it signals a new era in which all of us in the technology and entertainment value chain work collaboratively to make the internet a more safe and legal experience for users," Sherman said.

The agreement was also backed by film industry representatives.

“Many people don’t realize that content theft puts jobs – and future productions of films, TV shows, music, and other content – at risk,” Michael O’Leary, Executive Vice President for Government Relations at the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) said in the statement.

“This agreement will help direct consumers to legal platforms rather than illicit sites, which often funnel profits to criminals rather than the artists and technicians whose hard work makes movies, television, and music possible,” O'Leary said.

The agreement will ensure innocent internet account holders are identified, the statement said.

"The Copyright Alert System is based on a consumer’s 'right to know' when his or her Internet account may have been used improperly to download copyrighted content," the statement said.

"Often, subscribers – particularly parents or caregivers – are not aware that their Internet accounts are being used for online content theft," the statement said.

"Other subscribers may be unaware that downloading copyrighted content from illicit sources is illegal and violates their ISP’s Terms of Service or other published policies. Data suggest that, once informed about the alleged content theft and its possible consequences, most internet subscribers will quickly take steps to ensure that the theft doesn’t happen again," the statement said.

Under the news system internet users can contest whether their online activity is lawful or if their account was wrongly identified as part of an independent review, the statement said.

“Consumers have a right to know if their broadband account is being used for illegal online content theft, or if their own online activity infringes on copyright rules – inadvertently or otherwise – so that they can correct that activity,” James Assey, Executive Vice President of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), said in the statement.

 “We are confident that, once informed that content theft is taking place on their accounts, the great majority of broadband subscribers will take steps to stop it," Assey said.

The agreement was backed by the US Government.
 
In the UK a group representing copyright owners has recommended that a voluntary code should be introduced to tackle online copyright infringement.

In leaked documents the Rightsholder Group said that the code should include plans for an "expert body" to decide if websites that host copyright-infringing material should be blocked.

Under the plans copyright owners would identify websites they believe are infringing their copyright and an "expert body" would then decide whether to recommend that a court issues an injunction banning the site from hosting infringing material, according to the documents.

Internet service providers (ISPs) that sign-up to the code will then block access to the sites, the documents said.

BT, the UK's largest ISP, was said not to be keen on the proposals, according to news reports.

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