The State of Three Strikes

It’s spring training season, and that’s as far as I really feel like taking this metaphor at the moment.  Recently, a number of nations have considered implementing a “three strikes and you’re out” rule for illegal downloaders, wherein ISPs would disconnect the infringing user after they were caught pirating copyrighted material a third time.  France introduced the law in September 2009 and while it has yet to go into effect, early studies question its potency. New Zeland put a similar system in place, but had to retinker the law and soften the blow, completely removing the disconnect provision after significant protest. Dynamo agent Ari Emmanuel, inspiration for the Ari Gold character on HBO’s “Entourage” and little brother of White House chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel, has been using his juice to push the President for a simliar system in the United States.

The Obama Administration has remained relatively tight-lipped about its plans for their overall plans, but has insisted that they plan to aggressively protect the nation’s intellectual property.  One of the weapons in their arsenal is the soon-to-be-released Anti-Counterfeiting  Trade Agreement (“ACTA”).    The drafters of the agreement are notoriously silent, but have recently come under fire due to leaked rumors that there will be a “three strikes” provision in the trade agreement.  In response, the European Union has demanded that the US release a draft version of the ACTA in order to show that it does not, in fact, contain the provision.  The EU has taken a hardline stance that it will refuse to accept any sort of provision.  There’s a lot of he-said she-said going on here, and this will be tricky to implement across multiple nations.  With sentiment growing that internet access may be a basic human right, along with a vastly varying stance on piracy by country, agreement to a full disconnect for users seems somewhat unlikely.  Look for the ACTA to address this issue but in a somewhat lighter manner once the bill is released.