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Updated with Verizon comments at bottom. Like most every ISP, Verizon forwarded copyright notices to customers who are tagged by the entertainment industry's intelligence-gathering organizations as having uploaded copyrighted files. However, they haven't disclosed the customer who was actually using the IP address at the time the infringement occurred, and Verizon in fact has a long history of being one of only a few ISPs that has fought the RIAA vehemently in in the courts (and won).

But something started changing last year, when Verizon said they were cooperating with both the RIAA and MPAA on a new letter writing campaign that would target P2P users. At the time it wasn't clear what was going to be different, given that Verizon had been forwarding DMCA warnings for years -- and customers had been ignoring them with no repercussions for just as long. CNET now claims that Verizon has started kicking users off of the network who repeatedly engage in copyright infringement (at least according to the entertainment industry):

But is Henson talking about simply kicking excessive users off the network (quite common) or kicking DMCA violators off the network? We're checking to see if she misspoke. Such "graduated response" practices aren't new, but they are rare. To our knowledge, among the major ISPs only Cox Communications will actually boot you from the network for repeat DMCA warnings, but the company told us they give the user every opportunity to scale back. Verizon similarly tells CNET that the number of users they actually kick off the network is "small," but that they're seeing a lot of users stop P2P use after getting a single warning.

We do reserve the right to discontinue service. But we don't throttle bandwidth like Comcast was doing. -Verizon

The problem, as we've often discussed, is that there's no real course of action for customers who are falsely targeted by the entertainment industry's accusation mechanism, which has neither a good record for accuracy, nor any independent oversight of the accusation process. If Verizon's terminating the broadband service of paying customers with little evidence outside of a wink and an IP address, it will raise all kinds of legal questions moving forward.

There is irony here, given Verizon used to be such a stalwart protector of P2P user privacy. While analysts, ISPs and executives deny or ignore it -- ISPs built their broadband empires on the shoulders of piracy and the allure of free content (remember a little thing called Napster?). Now that there's very few dial-up users to convert, and carriers are busy trying to become content giants, piracy has lost its usefulness and ISPs may be more interested in protecting copyrights.

Or has it? Verizon closing the door on P2P users would mean that other ISPs can quietly gain a marketing edge and lure P2P users by not participating in the MPAA and RIAA's graduated response push. Independent ISPs may be given an opportunity to lure users in by assuring them the ISP is not interested in being a content nanny. You also have to wonder if the decision would reduce adoption of the carrier's faster and pricier tiers, which, if we're honest, are most useful to those engaging in large P2P transfers.

Of course Verizon's lawyers likely weighed all the risks. If they're moving toward graduated response, they must figure that with the company building a TV and content empire, that all the potential pitfalls were worth cozying up to the entertainment industry and protecting copyrights. Of course the move won't stop piracy. Users can still utilize proxy services to mask their IP address, or simply flock to other alternatives that aren't tracked by the entertainment industry, like UseNet or direct HTTP download links.

Meanwhile, we're interested in hearing from any Verizon user that actually has pushed this process to the point where Verizon wants to disconnect them.

Update: In conversations Broadband Reports has subsequently had with Verizon's Bobbi Henson, she seems to be debating the position that she appeared to take in the CNET piece:We're still pushing to see whether the carrier actually has cut anyone off for DMCA violations, or if they're simply inferring that they will to reduce network strain and get the RIAA/MPAA off of their back.

Update 2: Ok, we're still working for you to get at the truth. We asked Verizon whether anybody had actually been terminated from Verizon's network and got this response. It takes a paragraph, but Verizon informs us that the answer to that question is NO.:
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