First Report Of The US Industry Copyright Alert System

The groundbreaking Copyright Alert System set up a year ago by internet service providers and copyright holders to stop unauthorised music and film downloads, saw 1.3 million alerts sent out in it its first 10 months, according to a new report. And it expects to double in size this year.

The Center for Copyright Information (CCI), the coalition of rights holders and internet service providers operating the alert system, released a report on 28 May. It showed that of the 1.3 million alerts, most were in the “initial educational phases,” and only 265 challenges were filed, with “no findings of false positives.”

The press release and report are available here.

CCI said system is “expected to double in size in the second year of operation and CCI will begin an online awareness campaign to increase public awareness of the system.”

The alert system is the “first voluntary, successful collaboration” between entertainment and technology companies in the US aimed at reducing copyright infringement over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, CCI said. It is “a tiered notice and response system that works in a fair and consumer-friendly manner while encouraging consumers to embrace the growing number of affordable authorized sources of films, music, and television programming content available online and from a variety of different services and formats.”

CCI members include “artists and content creators like the members of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) as well as independent filmmakers and record producers represented by the Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA) and the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), and 5 major Internet service providers – AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon,” the organisation said.

At its launch last year, the alert system was hailed as a softer, more consumer-friendly approach to changing behaviours related to unauthorised content (IPW, Copyright Policy, 14 March 2013).