AT&T has denied reports that it will suspend or terminate accounts of customers accused of copyright infringement. It joins other firms which are sending out warning letters but say that’s the extent of their actions.

The reports follow the Recording Industry Association of America’s decision to put less emphasis on pursuing individual offenders and more on persuading Internet service providers to take action. That caused controversy with claims this created an unfair financial burden on ISPs who were expected to link an IP address supplied by the RIAA with individual users.

It’s known for certain that Cox, Comcast and AT&T are all working with the RIAA in some capacity, but the extent of this cooperation is disputed.

AT&T flatly denies reports that it has begun cutting access to users as a result of RIAA accusations of illegal filesharing. The firm told USA TODAY, “Any suggestion that there is a deal between us and RIAA is just bogus”, adding that “We will never suspend, terminate or sanction any customer without some sort of legal process, like a court order.”

Some of the confusion may have come from AT&T testing a new system for forwarding warning letters to those accused of copyright violation. The firm insists it is simply acting as a messenger and has no responsibility for the content of those warnings. It specifically denies any suggestions of a ‘three strikes’ policy for offenders.

Comcast says it’s sent out 2 million such letters, but this is simply continuing a longstanding policy, and that it has no plans to cut off services. Cox says it does terminate access in extreme cases but that this happens to fewer than one in a thousand people who receive a warning letter, and that this has been company policy for a decade.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, March 26th, 2009 at 12:44 pm under Legal, Piracy.

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