The new “six strikes” anti-piracy policy soon to be implemented by a number of major Internet service providers in the United States will reportedly stumble out of the gate. The policy, which is set to be adopted by Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and other ISPs, will see action taken against users caught downloading pirated files in six steps, ultimately resulting in bandwidth throttling or even service suspensions. The system responsible for managing the new policy may not be ready on schedule, however, and the targeted launch date of July 12th may slip back as a result.
According to a recent report from TorrentFreak, the newly formed Center for Copyright Information and major U.S. ISPs will not implement the new system on schedule this July. The go-live date for the new policy, which is the result of an agreement struck between major ISPs, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, will be pushed back for the second time as the companies involved finalize a number of details.
“The dates mentioned in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) are not hard deadlines but were intended to keep us on track to have the Copyright Alert System up and running as quickly as possible and in the most consumer friendly manner possible,” a CCI spokesperson told TorrentFreak. “We do not intend to launch until we are confident that the program is consumer friendly and able to be implemented in a manner consistent with all of the goals of the MOU. We expect our implementation to begin later this year.”
The group also clarified that while repeated offenses may result in bandwidth throttling and service suspensions for those caught downloading pirated material, no permanent service disconnections will result from this new policy.