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ISPs and entertainment industry kick off copyright enforcement center

ISPs and entertainment industry kick off copyright enforcement center

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The entertainment industry and the largest US internet service providers have been working together in an effort to create their own anti-piracy enforcement regime, and the group has just unveiled its Center for Copyright Information (CCI) by announcing its new chief and advisory board.

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Copyright Strikes
Copyright Strikes

The entertainment industry and the largest US internet service providers have been working together in an effort to create their own anti-piracy enforcement regime, and the group has just unveiled its Center for Copyright Information (CCI) by announcing its new chief and advisory board. The center is part of the group's controversial "graduated response" effort: a partnership between Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, the MPAA, RIAA, and others that will enforce copyright claims against customers by serving them with warnings and escalating penalties. Jill Lesser, director of lobbying and public policy firm The Glover Park Group, has been tapped to lead the CCI, and the center has hired the American Arbitration Association to manage the review process for graduated response.

Under the agreement, ISPs that receive a complaint from entertainment companies will send accused customers "educational notices" that will urge them to stop illegal sharing. Customers that ignore the warnings will receive additional alerts, until the ISP decides that it wants to take additional "mitigation measures" — which include throttling, suspension, or "other measures that the ISP may deem necessary to help resolve the matter." Customers that want an independent review of their network behavior will have to request one, and pay a $35 filing fee.

The group also announced the CCI's advisory board, which includes Jerry Berman, chairman of the Internet Education Foundation, and Gigi Sohn, president and CEO of Public Knowledge. While the advisory board holds no real power — CNET reports that CCI's board of directors only includes entertainment company or ISP representatives — it's certainly not a club filled with sycophants. Sohn says that "it was not an easy decision" to join the board, and that "I did so because I saw the need to be an advocate for the rights of internet users."