Month: October 2013

The crackdown on intellectual property pirates continues: Comcast, one of the United States’ largest Internet providers, recently has acted in the ongoing battle against those who repeatedly infringe on others’ copyrights, with TorrentFreak,  according to a tip it has received, reporting that the giant service provider is terminating accounts, and, in some instances, without a court order. Comcast confirmed to the online tech site that it will terminate users’ accounts after “repeated and egregious copyright infringement.” Comcast further asserts that, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a court order is not required to terminate accounts of those who repeatedly infringe others’ copyrights — for example by up- and down-loading music, videos and other pirated versions of films, podcasts, recordings and similar protected materials. There is some dispute as to whether Comcast can circumvent due process by terminating accounts without a court order. ISPs like Verizon and other service providers like YouTube have adopted policies similar to Comcast’s. AT&T, on the other hand, declared that it would never do such a thing without first acquiring a court order. The DMCA,  legislation that covers copyright protection, demands that ISPs “adopt and reasonably implement a policy that provides for the termination in appropriate circumstances of subscribers and account holders of the service provider’s system or network who are repeat infringers.” ISPs receiving DMCA notices are required to give them to the customer/copyright...