AT&T Prepares to Disconnect Over a Dozen Pirates

[Nomen Nescio]

How much piracy does it take to have your internet connection
terminated in the US? The answer to that question will surely
depend on your ISP's policies, the countermeasures used to hide
that piracy, and how you respond to repeated warnings from your
ISP that they know you are infringing copyright. For over a
dozen AT&T customers, the tolerance limit has been reached and
their service is about to be terminated.

As Axios reports, for the very first time implementing its own
piracy policies, AT&T is preparing to disconnect "more than a
dozen" customers because of repeated copyright infringement.

AT&T says it initially responded to evidence provided by content
owners, which could be any of the major content producers
including TV, movie, or music rights groups. The policy is then
to identify the customers and contact them regarding the
copyright infringement. Education and assistance was also
provided to help them understand and ultimately stop infringing.

From that group, a small number continued to infringe. As The
Verge confirms, AT&T's policies state that at least nine
warnings are sent to each customer informing them they risk
having their service canceled. Clearly those warnings have been
repeatedly ignored by this small group and they are about to get
a rude awakening.

AT&T completed its acquisition of Time Warner back in June,
although that may not be the end of the matter. Is it just
coincidence that these account terminations are happening now
that AT&T owns a major content network? That seems likely if at
least nine warnings have been issued to each customer. However,
it does show that the ISP and content owner being the same
entity could streamline the identify-warn-terminate process in
the future.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/364835/at-t-prepares-to-disconnect-
over-a-dozen-pirates