Hull-based tel co Kingston Communications announced on Friday afternoon it was changing its copyright infringement policies in response to widespread media coverage of its practice of disconnecting file-sharers without warning, coverage kicked off by a report on BBC Radio Humberside.
As previously reported, customers of Kingston's Karoo broadband service who did that naughty file-sharing thing sometimes found their internet just stopped working. They then had to sign an agreement drafted by the internet service provider confirming they would never access or share unlicensed content again. The company could get away with such a draconian system because in Hull there is only one telephone company and therefore only one ISP - that being Kingston - not even BT operate in the city. Therefore any file-sharer unwilling to sign the Karoo document would have to rely on the less reliable mobile internet.Kingston claimed that they were simply fulfilling their responsibilities under copyright law, and protecting their customers from the risk of infringement litigation from content owners. But while it's true that record companies, movie studios and TV firms do want ISPs to take more responsibility for policing piracy, and maybe ultimately cut off the net access of persistent file-sharers, there isn't currently any obligation under the law for net firms to do so. And while, in theory, Karoo's customers could be sued for copyright infringement directly, such lawsuits are unlikely as all content owners have now admitted that such legal action is counter-productive.
Said content owners would have mixed feelings about Kingston's file-sharing policies. Far removed from pretty much ever other ISP, who continue to resist taking on any role in policing piracy, in some ways Karoo's system for stopping file-sharing would be music to the content industries' ears. Though even the major record companies and movie studios recognise that there is such a thing as too draconian approach to the piracy problem - labels and studios don't want to be portrayed as the bad guys going around randomly cutting off people's internet connections. Which is why execs at those companies frequently talk about ISPs operating a 'graduated response' to file-sharing.
Presumably suddenly realising that their file-sharing policies were way stricter than even the more extreme content owners were demanding, and presumably also keen to avert any story in which their telecoms monopoly in Hull comes under the spotlight, Kingston announced on Friday afternoon, just hours after BBC Radio Humberside ran their original story, that they were changing their file-sharing policy. They would be introducing one of these 'graduated response' systems of which the labels talk.
The ISP's Director Of Consumer & Publishing Services Nick Thompson told reporters: "It is evident that we have been exceeding the expectations of copyright owners, the media and internet users. So, we have changed our policy to move more in line with the industry standard approach, whilst still taking the issues of copyright infringement and illegal internet activity seriously. Going forward, we will provide customers with three written notifications before their service is temporarily suspended. We encourage our customers to legally access copyrighted material through sites such as Spotify, Play.com and Amazon.co.uk via karoo.co.uk. Our technical support team is also available to provide advice to customers on how to ensure their broadband connection is secure and not open to abuse by others".
In some ways this makes the Karoo story even more interesting because, rather than adopting a rather OTT shoot now ask later approach to piracy, the ISP is now operating the system advocated by the major record companies but so far shunned by every other net provider, and, for the most part, the UK government.
Various consumer rights groups have already criticised the three-strike system, questioning whether anyone but a court of law should have the right to deprive a paying customer of internet access, and questioning whether such a system would really have an impact on piracy, given the availability of technology to hide file-sharing, and the growth of email-to-email and offline device-to-device piracy which is much harder to track.
Nevertheless, if a three-strike system was to result in even a 10% cut in file-sharing, that would be a result for the content owners. Karoo is now providing a very interesting case study for the content industries, because if three-strikes can work in Hull, why not across the whole UK?