download.jpgLos Angeles – Top Internet Service Providers like Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Verizon, and Cablevision have agreed to increase their efforts at patrolling the Internet against copyright infringers.

This new agreement with the ISPs will give the entertainment industry a much needed arsenal in the war on copyright theft.  Every year, the online piracy of films, music, and software costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars in lost revenue and jobs.  With the ISPs also policing the Internet, it will become much more difficult to illegally download copyrighted materials. 

“Leaders from the movie, television, music and Internet service provider communities today announced a landmark agreement on a common framework for ‘Copyright Alerts.’   Copyright Alerts will educate and notify Internet subscribers when their Internet service accounts possibly are being misused for online content theft.  This voluntary landmark collaboration will educate subscribers about content theft on their Internet accounts, benefiting consumers and copyright holders alike,” the parties involved in the agreement stated.

Much like the old protocol, under the new system, the Internet Service Providers will issue a series of notifications and warnings to users who are suspected of illegally downloading copyrighted content.  Unlike the old system, if the warnings are ignored, the users will now face penalties such as the ISPs slowing down the users’ Web-connection speed or blocking them from using the Internet altogether.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) along with major record companies and film studios have rallied for years to convince the ISPs to take a tougher stance against their customers who commit online piracy.  The ISP’s, reluctant to alienate their younger demographic, resisted the tougher measures until finally caving into pressure from the White House. 

The Obama Administration has vowed to better protect our country’s Intellectual Property rights by lobbying Congress to pass new pro-copyright legislation while telling federal law enforcement to make anti-piracy a priority.