In the battle against illegal downloads, US internet service provider (ISP), Verizon, has declared war on pirates who steal copyrighted material through bit torrents, by issuing repeat offenders with an email and voicemail warning.
If pirates continue to offend, it then throttles their internet connection speeds. Time Warner Cable, another US ISP, is also in on the war by using pop-up warnings to deter repeat offenders. If the warnings go ignored, subscribers’ web browsing will be restricted and redirected to a landing page.
Pirating crack down
In a bid to reign in the millions of dollars lost to Internet piracy, the moves comes as part of concerted effort by five major US ISPs to restrict illegal downloading and sharing of copyrighted material. While little will deter the determined pirates who can circumvent the copyright alerts, it’s believed the “six strikes” campaign will help alert users who may not be aware they are doing something illegal.