Just after we published our Year-End Fest last December, including a fine piece of work on copyright by Yours Truly, the RIAA decided to be Santa last year: The organization announced that it would cease new lawsuits against suspected file-sharing pirates (though they would continue current ongoing lawsuits). And there was much cautious rejoicing.
Alas, the organization needed a new tactic to maintain an ardent stand against piracy and to keep the Big 4's shareholders content to a certain degree. And announce one it did: have internet service providers (ISPs) warn users and implement sanctions against them if discovered pirating material. This process, called the "graduated response" program, would include blocking and terminating (i.e. banning) access to users after repeated warnings. A reasonable plan when you think about it. [Glares from the TMT staff] What? The RIAA goes back into the background, nobody is sued for ridiculous amounts of money, everybody wins. Right? [Groans]
Actually, this was all reported at the same announcement. We were going to report on this when we came back from our holiday break, but then the Thnikkaman came by and... well, I'd like to see you stay on task when you're starin' down the barrel of a loaded Thnikkaman. Anyway, the reason why we are reporting on this now is that there have been developments on this front. You see, the problem with the new strategy was that it required cooperation from America's ISPs. At the time of the announcement, neither the RIAA nor any major ISPs commented on who was involved. As it stood, the ISPs had reason to fear the new announcement: Coming off a year of massive flak concerning bandwidth-throttling and net neutrality, the last thing the ISPs needed was to have the burden of blame concerning anti-piracy shifted to them at such a time.
Now, as of the past two days, the picture is clearer: During the Leadership Digital Music Summit in Nashville this week, three of the largest ISPs in the nation, DSL provider AT&T (Ars Technica) and cable providers Comcast and Cox (CNet), have made statements saying they are cooperating with the RIAA on this system. Sounds like a good idea to switch, right?
Not exactly. According to reports, of the three, only Cox has fully implemented the graduated response program. Comcast has implemented the program through letter-sending, but press statements have indicated that they have no interest in terminating service. Finally, AT&T is only doing limited geographical trials at this time and, furthermore, is refusing to sanction users. The problem with the latter point is that it renders the whole program moot, null, and void. AT&T argues that the psychological effect of just sending emails or warnings to users does its intended effect. But there's the problem: All bark, no bite.
On the other hand, one major ISP stands out from the rest in all this: DSL/Fiber provider Verizon, as also reported by Ars Technica, has been the only major ISP so far to proclaim that they will not cooperate with the RIAA. While amazing, this is not unusual: Verizon was also one of the few ISPs to announce in the wake of the Comcast bandwidth-throttling scandal that they will never throttle their bandwidth under any circumstance.
So, what.cd and waffles.fm users, heed this advice if you haven't already: If you use cable, you might want to switch. If you use DSL, keep your head low. If you use Verizon, well, then, you're just awesome.
