21st Century Learning and Teaching

A new voluntary system aimed at rooting out online copyright piracy using a controversial 'six strikes' system is set to be implemented by US Internet providers soon, with the impact unclear.

Bambauer said the effort appears to be "backdoor policymaking" by the US administration after it failed to implement any new policy. But the US system is not a government program and entities are participating voluntarily, Lesser said, adding that the effort sought to learn from other countries' programs

. In France, she said, merely announcing the program discouraged illegal file-sharing by "people who thought they were doing this anonymously," and drove an increase in legal services. "We hope there will be a similar psychological impact here," Lesser added.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-01-braces-online-piracy.html#jCp

Starting Monday, most U.S. Internet users will be subject to a new anti-piracy system that could slow their Internet speeds to a crawl.

The CAS, designed as an "educational" service to combat casual piracy in the U.S., has been criticized as designed purely for corporate interests, at the expense of the average Internet user. While it doesn't require ISPs to cut off Internet access to repeat pirates — as is the case in France and New Zealand — it will issue escalating punishments to suspected pirates, severely reducing their connection speeds after five or six offenses.