‘Cox Communications’ Ban Pirate Subscriber for Six Months

• American ISP ‘Cox Communications’ is not taking any chances with repeat infringers anymore.
• One of their subscribers has received a six-month internet ban, without a previous warning.
• The ISP previously had to pay one billion USD to music companies after a court found them liable for copyright infringement violations.

A repeat infringer who is a ‘Cox Communications’ subscriber has just received a six-month internet ban from the American ISP, as there were multiple infringement complaints that pointed to the same IP address. The internet service provider isn’t willing to play games with this matter anymore, as they have gone through a long legal battle against a group of large music labels and lost one billion USD in the process. The particular verdict sent waves across the entire internet ecosystem, as ISPs were suddenly considered liable for infringements that were carried out by their customers.

The case that the music labels made was that ISP should not be allowed to ignore notices that concern the same pirate. Repeat infringers should have their internet line terminated, especially when it is proven that they are profiting from this activity. To this day, no internet service providers in the United States have provided details about how they are planning to deal with repeat infringers, so this is the first time that we see someone stepping forward with a six-month ban. Of course, seeing this coming from Cox is natural, as the ISP doesn’t want to take any more chances.

Until now, Cox was simply calling its naughty customers and informed them that their infringements were being logged, and after a verbal warning, their internet service was turned back on. The person who received the ban told TorrentFreak that his infringement counter in the panel that Cox offers for this purpose has been zeroed, and the message mentioned a six-month ban. The person was using BitTorrent regularly, so this was the reason why he got the ban. As for notices, head ups, or any detailed explanations from Cox’s side, there weren’t any.

As there is no central banning system in place, the person who got banned by Cox could just change to another ISP, but he doesn’t have that option where he lives. As he stated, he will have to limit his browsing to mobile internet, and he’ll save $800 which would otherwise cover the costs for the residential high-speed connection by Cox.

A few days ago, we covered a story about a letter sent by the U.S. Copyright Office, calling the Senate to consider internet service bans unconstitutional, proposing bandwidth limitations instead. Surely, it would help a lot if the legislators introduced a relevant law for all ISPs to abide by, instead of having court rulings dictate ISP market dynamics.

Read More:

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• Intellectual Property Attorney Kerry Culpepper Shares His View on Fighting Piracy
• RIAA Obtains DMCA Subpoena to Uncover Identities of iTunes Pirates