Cablevision Disconnects Persistent Pirates for 24 Hours

Cablevision / Optimum Online has revealed how it will respond to serial copyright infringers under the six strikes system. The Internet provider says it will temporarily disconnect customers from the Internet after they have received multiple copyright alerts. The disconnection will last for 24 hours but will be lifted when the customer calls a Cablevision hotline.

optimumEarlier this week the six strikes anti-piracy system kicked off in the United States.

Interestingly, the participating Internet providers didn’t seem too eager to talk about their plans, and the RIAA and MPAA also remained silent.

While it’s not a surprise that the ISPs initially chose to keep a low profile, they should have at least informed their customers about what to expect. However, after a short delay Verizon and Comcast released some details on their six-strikes schemes, and now Cablevision have followed in their footsteps.

Interestingly, Cablevision / Optimum Online is the only provider to opt for a temporary suspension of all Internet access. This suspension will be administered if subscriber copyright infringements persist after several educational alerts.

“If instances of alleged copyright infringement continue, Optimum may temporarily suspend your Internet access for a set period of time, or until you contact Optimum,” the ISP writes.

The “set period of time” is later specified as a full day and night.

“Your Internet access will be temporarily suspended for 24 hours unless you call in to the Cablevision number provided on the notice,” we read in the help section.

The provider gives no details on what will be discussed during that call, or whether there will be any further repercussions. There is also little detail about how the customers will receive the alerts and what the educational message looks like.

We encourage everyone who sees a copyright alert in the wild to let us know.

As reported earlier not all U.S. providers are participating in the six-strikes system. Centurylink, Charter and Cox all have millions of subscribers, but are not taking part. The same is true for the 100+ smaller providers across the United States who weren’t even asked to join.

A Cox spokesperson informed TorrentFreak last year that they “have decided not to participate for internal reasons.”

TorrentFreak also asked the RIAA and MPAA to share their expectations of the copyright alert system, but both groups chose not to respond.

It’s expected that more details on the copyright alerts will come in during the weeks ahead. The ISPs and copyright holders agreed to share statistics on the number of warnings internally, but whether this information will also be made public has yet to be seen.