RIP Copyright Alert System

When the movie and music industries, along with the White House, rolled out the Copyright Alert System four years ago, it was billed as an “educational” approach to cut down on online copyright infringement. The program sent millions of notices to consumers to let them know they were discovered accessing content illegally online. But the system, which lacked the teeth to truly curtail infringement, is now officially dead. “After four years of extensive education and engagement, the Copyright Alert System will conclude its work,” the center said in an official statement. “While this particular program is ending, the parties remain committed to voluntary and cooperative efforts to address these issues.” The CAS was “simply not set up to deal with the hard-core repeat infringer problem,” Steve Fabrizio, executive vice president and global general counsel of the Motion Picture Association of America, told Variety. “Ultimately, these persistent infringers must be addressed by ISPs under their ‘repeat infringer’ policies as provided in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.”