Legal Niches

U.S. ISP Disconnects User after Three-Strikes

By pete_gallagher

While it sounds like something that might emerge from France's Hadopi law, a suspected copyright infringer had his account suspended for six months by his Internet service provider in the United States.

According to TorrentFreak, a customer of the ISP Suddenlink had his account deactivated after a trio of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices of copyright violations. In a chat log posted on the site the affected customer is arguing with a Suddenlink representative, who implied that the DMCA forces such a disconnection, though that comment was quickly amended to, 'It may be the DMCA policy or it may be the way we go about following the DMCA guidelines.'

As TorrentFreak notes, 'The DMCA does not and never has required ISPs to disconnect users.' A phrase used in Suddenlink's Terms of Service agreement does not mention a three-strike policy per se, but alludes to what might happen if copyright laws were broached: Read More

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Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on September 27, 2010 (boomark / email).