It has been said there are negotiations from multiple bandwidth providers such as ATT, Comcast and Verizon to strike a deal with entertainment and media companies that will impose stronger punishments on customers who refuse to stop using their networks for pirating all types of media. Although nothing is official as of yet but from what I have read it could be as early as next month.
Participating ISPs are given plenty of choices on how to respond to the toughest cases. They can select from a “menu” of responses outlined in the plan, such as throttling down an accused customer’s bandwidth speed or limit their access to the Web. For example, a suspected pirate may be allowed to visit only the top 200 Web sites until the illegal file sharing stops. The subscriber may also be required to participate in a program that educates them on copyright law and the rights of content creators. In the past, a graduated response was also supposed to lead to a complete termination of service for chronic file sharers. Kicking someone off a network is not required under the proposed agreement, from what I have read.
The proposal appears to have the potential to become one of the most potent antipiracy strategies ever implemented. The ISPs involved provide Internet access to a large percentage of the U.S. population and because they are among the Web’s most important gatekeepers, the network providers are in a unique position to act as copyright enforcers. Critics have argued that a graduated response doesn’t allow for due process. They reject the notion that an ISP should penalize a customer based solely on accusations made by copyright owners.