After four years of discussions between media companies and internet service providers in the UK, an anti-piracy education program is about to begin. Called the Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme, this campaign is focused on alerting people to their activities that infringe copyright protected materials. Starting this next year, up to four warnings will be sent to households that are suspected of copyright infringement. But if those households continue to engage in illegal downloads, nothing else will be done.
This is a far cry from the original enforcement scheme that was outlined in the Digital Economy Act of 2010, which called for termination of internet access for persistent infringement. Media companies also wanted to send notices which outlined the possibility of prosecution for copyright violations. But both of these harsher reactions have been rejected by UK ISP's.
The British government has pledged £3.5 million in support of the V-CAP education campaign, and all of the major UK ISP's are backing it as well. The smaller ISP's are also expected to join in since there are no punitive actions associated with the infringement notices.
Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI said, "Vcap is not about denying access to the internet. It's about changing attitudes and raising awareness so people can make the right choice."
There can be unintended consequences to these warning systems however. In the US, one company that is suing an individual accused of downloading their pornography videos, has obtained records of that person's notifications issued by the Copyright Alert System. These records were obtained by a warrant issued by a federal court, but nonetheless, it is an aspect of the alert system that was not anticipated, and similar actions in the UK might come about because of this new program.
You can read more on the story at the BBC.
