[A2k] AT&T, Comcast Onboard With RIAA Anti-Piracy Program

[Anne-Catherine Lorrain]

--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10203799-93.html

*Update: Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. PDT*: *To include quotes from AT&T and
information about Comcast and Cox.*

AT&T, one of the nation's largest Internet service providers, confirmed on
Tuesday the company is working with the recording industry to combat illegal
file sharing.

At a digital music conference in Nashville, Tenn., Jim Cicconi, a senior
executive for AT&T, told the audience that the ISP has begun issuing warning
notices to people accused of pirating music by the Recording Industry
Association of America, according to one music industry insider who was
present.

Early Wednesday morning, an AT&T spokeswoman confirmed that Cicconi made the
statements.

In December, the RIAA, the lobbying group of the four largest recording
companies, announced the group would no longer pursue an antipiracy strategy
that focused on suing
individuals<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10126914-93.html>,
but rather would seek the help of broadband providers to stem the flow of
pirated content. The RIAA said an undisclosed number of ISPs had agreed to
cooperate but declined to name them. In January, CNET News
reported<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10151389-93.html>that AT&T
and Comcast were among the group.

Sources told CNET on Wednesday that a Comcast executive confirmed that the
nation's second largest ISP is working with the RIAA. At the same Nashville
conference where Cicconi spoke, the Comcast exec said the ISP has sent 2
million warning notices to customers accused of infringement by
entertainment companies. The sources have also confirmed Cox is also a
member. (You can read more about that
here<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10204047-93.html>.)


Representatives of the RIAA could not be reached for comment.

Cicconi told attendees of the Leadership Music Digital Summit that the
notices are part of a "trial." AT&T wants to test customer reaction, he
said. It was unclear Tuesday evening if AT&T had included any threats to
suspend or shut off service.

The RIAA had said that under its "graduated response" plan, repeat offenders
faced the possibility of their ISP suspending or terminating
service<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10127313-93.html>--at
least temporarily.

Reached Wednesday morning, Claudio Jones, an AT&T spokeswoman, said the
company's letters would most definitely not include any mention of a loss of
service. She wanted to make it clear that AT&T never shares customers' name
or any other personal information. What the company does do is send a "cover
letter" to the accused customer along with the letter the ISP received from
the RIAA stating that the person's IP address was flagged. AT&T goes on to
tell the accused customer that the problem may be one of their children is
illegally downloading or that they might have an insecure Internet
connection and that someone might be using it to steal content.

The ISP also informs the customer that downloading unauthorized copies is
illegal and should be prevented. As for chronic offenders, Jones was less
specific but said: "We can't assume that people are stealing. All we know is
that they are using a lot of bandwidth. We can't be the police or the
copyright enforcer...that's up to the content owner."

All the activity going on with AT&T, Comcast, and Cox is likely the first
stage in what promises to be a long and drawn out process of using ISPs to
help protect copyright material.

ISPs have traditionally tried to stay out of the fray between the big
entertainment companies and those who download music illegally. They remain
squeamish about the possibility of alienating customers, according to music
industry sources. The ISPs also don't like plans that call for them to cut
off access and chase
away<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10127841-93.html>a source of
income.


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http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ic48b7a3a3eb3111d88fee45b0bf0558c
*

AT&T, Comcast Onboard With RIAA Anti-Piracy Program*
March 25, 2009 - Digital and
Mobile<http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/digital_mobile.jsp>

By Antony Bruno, Denver

Internet service providers AT&T and Comcast have confirmed their
participation in an RIAA program designed to send account deactivation
warning notices to subscribers suspected of uploading music to unauthorized
P2P networks.

AT&T senior executive VP of external and legislative affairs Jim Cicconi and
Comcast senior VP of external affairs and public policy Joe Waz discussed
their involvement in the "graduated response" strategy during their
appearance at the Leadership Music Digital Summit in Nashville. They defined
the partnership as a "trial" designed to test reaction from customers, but
offered no timeline for its completion.

The RIAA late last year said it would end its litigation campaign against
individual file-sharing users in favor of a new strategy that enlists ISPs
to police their networks. Under the plan, the RIAA would provide the ISPs
with the IP addresses of users suspected of uploading music to unauthorized
P2P networks, and the ISP would then send those users a notice informing
them their account could be deactivated unless they stop.

At the time the RIAA said it was working with several ISPs on the plan, but
declined to name them. AT&T and Comcast are not the first to detail their
involvement. Last October, Cox Communications began sending similar
notifications, warning users it may "temporarily disable" the accounts of
users found to have shared copyrighted files.

-------

Anne-Catherine Lorrain

Intellectual Property Policy Expert

The* **TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue* (TACD)

80, rue d'Arlon, 1040 Bruxelles, Belgium

aclorrain@consint.org

Mob (Belgium): +32 473 99 97 92

Tel: +32 2 740 28 17, Fax: +32 2 740 28 02
www.tacd.org

www.tacd-ip.org/blog