Verizon NOT a corporate copyright cop
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- A short while ago, “Verizon is cooperating with the entertainment cartels in what amounts to a virtual US (insert number here) Strikes and you’re Off The Net copyright enforcement action,” said p2pnet, quoting CNet News.
“We’ve cut some people off,” it has Verizon Online spokeswoman Bobbi Henson admitting.
“We do reserve the right to discontinue service. But we don’t throttle bandwidth like Comcast was doing. Verizon does not have bandwidth caps.”
However, “Verizon confirm they are NOT booting users who engage in P2P piracy,” dslreports’ Karl Bode tells p2pnet.
And in a dslreports post, “in subsequent conversations with Verizon, Broadband Reports has learned that Verizon is neither booting people from the network for excessive use (common among carriers like Comcast or Qwest), nor have they booted any users who receive one too many DMCA letters,” he says, going on >>>
In fact, Verizon spokesperson Bobbi Henson tells us she was misquoted by CNET, and that while the company reserves the right to boot heavy users or P2P pirates from the network, they haven’t actually done so yet. “I’m not aware that we’ve ever terminated anyone’s account for excessive consumption, although we reserve the right to do so,” says Henson about the quote, reiterating that Verizon has no bandwidth caps. “That part of the CNET story is wrong,” she says. “I did not say ‘we’ve cut people off’; I said we reserve the right to do so.”
So Verizon isn’t booting heavy users off of the network like Qwest, but are they booting customers off of the network for trading in copyrighted P2P files, like Cox? Nope.
“This is not an automatic ‘three strikes’ graduated response program,” insists Henson of the company’s ramped up DMCA letter forwarding campaign. “This program has been effective in reducing instances of repeat notices and has not resulted in the termination of any Verizon customer’s service,” she says. “Our goal is to protect our customers’ privacy and due process rights while recognizing the importance of copyright protection and acquiring content legally,” she says. “We believe our program strikes a reasonable approach and is working very well.”
The letters sent to users inform them that “should we receive additional notifications alleging that you have engaged in online copyright infringement, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate your Verizon Online account.” Verizon’s revamped copyright website doesn’t even go that far, making no reference to account suspension.
The question then becomes is this essentially just a big bluff on Verizon’s part? You’ll recall there’s been rumors over the last few months that the RIAA’s proposed shift from “suing the hell out of everyone” (TM) to getting ISPs to ramp up DMCA letter notifications was little more than a scarecrow. If so, it’s a bluff that lets Verizon have their cake and eat it too, by allowing them to retain paying customers, reduce strain on their network but still please the MPAA and RIAA.
It’s not clear Verizon’s willing to take the next step and boot paying customers, given the legal repercussions of terminating accounts based on little more than an IP address and a wink from the entertainment industry. Taking a hardline stance against P2P piracy could have marketing and financial repercussions, with users migrating to more piracy-friendly ISPs, and existing users downgrading from faster speed packages that were used primarily for P2P transfers.
Most carriers aren’t thrilled about the prospect of being content nannies, and are eager to show the MPAA and RIAA that they can reduce piracy with simple warnings. Should these warnings not work, you can be fairly certain the next step would involve entertainment lobbyists pushing harder for the kind of “three strikes” laws we’re seeing in places like France and the UK. Carriers don’t want these new regulations, so it’s in their best interest to play along with the entertainment industry.
“In a follow up this morning, we asked Henson whether Verizon would eventually migrate to a real ‘graduated response’ system, but the carrier wouldn’t offer additional comment,” Bode adds.
Stay tuned.
(Cheers and thanks, Karl)
..… and identi.ca
p2pnet music downloads – and stuff
p2pnet – Verizon – corporate copyright cop, January 21, 2010
dslreports – Verizon Is NOT Booting P2P Users Off Of Network, January 21, 2009
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“We’ve cut some people off,” it has Verizon Online spokeswoman Bobbi Henson admitting.
“We do reserve the right to discontinue service. But we don’t throttle bandwidth like Comcast was doing. Verizon does not have bandwidth caps.”
January 21st, 2010 at 4:08 pm
“so it’s in their best interest to play along with the entertainment industry.”
No. Their best interest is to help us eliminate these parasites from our society by blocking all their contents permanently and once and for all. Blocking their web sites, blocking their “”"”"”Artists”"”"”" (heu heu!) web sites, blocking their on line point of sale and blocking their contents movies and crappy songs included.