With 3.5 million Internet subscribers Cox is one of the few large Internet providers in the U.S. that doesn’t participate in the Copyright Alert System.
However, that doesn’t mean that the ISP is a safe haven for pirates, far from it. The provider has decided to stay on course and stick with its own program that is said to be quite effective in dealing with repeat copyright infringers.
“Cox Communications has a longstanding notice program that we enacted more than 10 years ago. The processes we have in place work to address this important issue and provide a balanced approach for our customers and the copyright holders,” Cox spokesman Todd Smith tells TorrentFreak.
Much like the Copyright Alert System, Cox also works with various “strikes”, keeping track of the number of DMCA notices received for a particular subscriber.
“The name of our program is ‘Cox Graduated Response’ and is not affiliated with the Copyright Alert System (CAS) announced by the RIAA/MPAA,” Smith explains.
The process works as follows: when a second DMCA notice is received for an account the subscriber gets a warning via email or a browser notification. Through these notifications the customers are informed about the allegedly infringing activity and are given the opportunity to call Cox to discuss the issue.
Should the infringements continue, subscribers have their Internet connections interrupted and are unable to browse the Internet until they take action.
“If we receive between two to four more complaints, the customer is placed in a ‘walled garden’. We ask them to call our Customer Safety Department to discuss and to regain access to the Internet,” Smith explains.
The notification that informs users about the temporary Internet restriction looks as follows.
