Sources familiar with the matter claim all five ISPs commence this week

According to reports, the much-delayed "six strikes" copyright enforcement monitoring system will go live over the next week, with Internet provider Comcast launching on Monday. The Copyright Alert System (CAS), run by the Center for Copyright Information (CCI) has no official launch date, and has been held up by implementation issues, and the damaging effects of Superstorm Sandy. ISPs AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon are all signed up for the system.

The CCI's role is to educate the public about copyright laws and inform of the consequences of any potential violations. Staff will gauge the effectiveness of these actions, the ability of companies identifying violators, and attempting to bring new ISPs into the fold. File sharers will be told how and where they can get music and movies online legally.

Copyright owners still retain the right to sue the more egregious offenders. The Motion Picture Association of America's vice president of legal affairs Ben Sheffner said that "we have no plans to sue anybody. We don't. Suing somebody is not part of the system and we have no plans to sue."

Executive director of the CCI Jill Lesser wants the public to keep an open mind about the program. Lesser believes that people should "hold judgement in abeyance until the program is up and running which will be very, very soon."

The software performing the monitoring of BitTorrent traffic has seen some problems. MarkMonitor, has flagged HBO.com as in violation of the DMCA for violations of its own content in an obvious failure of the system. The report sent to Google stated that HBO.com was using HBO's own cable content without permission. Additionally, the same automated report to the search engine named websites that were writing about HBO content, and thus clearly not violating "fair use" provisions of the law.

The Center for Copyright Information claims that it has independent oversight over the Copyright Alert System. Former paid lobbyist Stroz Friedberg for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was hired to monitor the system. After the news broke of the hire and his previous affiliation, the CCI promised to hire a second consultant to supervise the alerts, but no news on a hire has surfaced.

By Electronista Staff

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