Hi everybody, this is Art Neil from New Media Rights and we want to check in with you today about the brand new Copyright Alert System, the sixth strike policy that everybody's talking about as you go through the steps of this system and as you gain copyright strikes it could result ultimately in you having your internet slowed down, sites being blocked for you or even termination of your account on certain internet service providers. So let's go through really quick what the Copyright Alert System is and how it affects you as an internet user. So the first question is what is the Copyright Alert System? Well the system is an anti-piracy approach where your ISP basically gives copyright holders, that is large media companies, the right to come in and sniff your internet traffic and if they find something that they believe is allegedly copyright infringement well they send that IP address onto the ISP and then the ISP goes ahead and notifies you. The whole intent is to discourage digital piracy but of course at New Media Rights we're concerned about fair uses and uses that may be legal being caught up in that process. So the second important question is does your ISP even have to participate in this system? And the answer is no, there's no federal law, there's no state law that requires your ISP to actually let copyright holder sniff internet traffic on their network. However, ISPs these days think Comcast, Time Warner, they also produce a lot of content so they have a direct interest in reducing digital piracy. Also, ISPs have an interest in avoiding lawsuits and really this is intended as just another level of protection for them from lawsuits. However, ISPs are really shielded, they're already shielded by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Section 512 and that really shields them from liability so this is really going above and beyond what ISPs are required to do and letting copyright holders have an extra ability to monitor internet traffic. So how does the copyright alert system actually work? Well the policy may vary a bit from ISP to ISPs so keep an eye out on your email for the exact policy that your ISP is going to implement. But we have a pretty good idea of how things are going to work. First of all, on the first defense, when ISP or when a copyright holder finds allegedly infringing material passing through your account, you're going to receive a notification. It's going to say you're doing something illegal and it's going to provide some basic education about copyright law. The second time that you're identified as having infringing material passing through your account, there's going to be a similar email notification and this time it's going to require that you actually acknowledge receipt of that email notification and some ISPs may even require that you have a phone call with a representative from the company on that second offense. The third and fourth times that there's infringing material allegedly found on your account, you're going to have to watch a video most likely that's going to again educate you about copyright law and you're going to have to confirm that you've actually viewed that educational video. Once you get to the fifth and sixth strike, ISPs are probably going to range pretty significantly in their approaches. Approaches are going to range from throttling your bandwidth to temporarily suspending your internet service, to blocking access to certain websites, to a personal instructional phone call with an ISP representative. So that's what the copyright alert system does. Now what doesn't the copyright alert system do? Well, the main thing that it doesn't do is right now, it doesn't appear to allow copyright holders to easily get your personal information through the back door from the ISP. It still seems to be required that a copyright holder who wants to come after you for copyright infringement is going to have to get a spina, is going to have to get a court order to get your personal information. Are there any problems with the copyright alert system? First of all, the system highlights an uncomfortably close relationship that internet service providers have with large media companies and copyright holders. Often these two types of companies are one and the same. And as time goes by, the more control that contact companies and large media companies can exert over ISPs, the less control that we have over what we're able to see and what we're able to access over the internet. ISPs really don't have any responsibility to do copyright owners policing for them, but ISPs have chosen anyway to get into that business in this case. And that's troublesome. In addition, as with any anti-piracy system, there are bound to be a lot of legal and fair uses of content that are going to be misidentified as infringement. So, new media rights is going to be keeping a close eye on how this system is implemented by various ISPs around the country and we'll be looking for input from you to help us make sure that the new system respects legal fair uses of content. If you have questions about any notice that you've received through the copyright alert system from your ISP, feel free to contact new media rights and we'll help you understand that notice and we can even help you get that strike removed.