The only difference with this ad is that it’s honest. It’s an ad for “Your Local High Speed Internet & Cable Provider,” and they tell it like it is. They’re going to suck you dry and provide passable service as best, and you’re going to like it.

[ExtremelyDecentFilms]

You can compare the ISP performance lists at ispspeedindex.netflix.com.

As of now, Google Fiber is the clear winner with an average speed of 3.35Mbps. Second to Google Fiber is Sweden’s Ownit, which streams at 2.99Mbps on average.

Finnish Netflix users enjoy to fastest speeds overall, and Mexican users the lowest. In the U.S., Cablevison, SuddenLink, Cox and Verizon – FiOS round out the top 5.

Of course, these are averages and Netflix notes that the peak performances for the ISPs are much higher:

The Netflix ISP Speed Index is based on data from the more than 33 million Netflix members who view over 1 billion hours of TV shows and movies streaming from Netflix per month. The listed speeds reflect the average performance of all Netflix streams on each ISP’s network and are an indicator of the performance typically experienced across all users on an ISP network.

Note: the average performance is below the peak performance due to many factors including the variety of encodes Netflix uses to deliver the TV shows and movies as well as the variety of devices members use and home network conditions. These factors cancel out when comparing across ISPs.

Netflix first started releasing monthly ISP rankings back in December of last year, but this is the first time that they’ve aggregated all of their data into a slick little site. Google Fiber has taken the top spot on each month’s list since last November’s rankings.

On Monday, the Copyright Alert System, or “Six Strikes”, went into affect across the five biggest ISPs in the U.S. The system hopes to catch those pirating content over P2P networks, and send them a notice detailing their infringement. The hope is that those who are caught will start using legal alternatives.

Do you think the Copyright Alert System will work? Will people truly stop pirating content after receiving an alert? Let us know in the comments.

To better understand the CAS, we have to look at what the Center for Copyright Information is doing with it. First, there are three tiers to the CAS that consumers should be aware of with each tier having two levels within it. The three tiers are as follows – educational alerts, acknowledgement alerts and mitigation measures.

The first two warnings – “educational alerts” – tell consumers they’ve been caught. The email will then direct them to legitimate sources of content with the hopes that the early warnings are enough to scare people into buying content.

The next two warnings step it up a notch with what’s called “acknowledgement alerts.” The first two alerts were simply emails, but these next two will actually hijack your browser. You will be hit with a message telling you that you’ve been caught yet again, and must acknowledge that you’ve been caught before you can start browsing.

The next two tiers, and presumably every alert afterwards, will be “mitigation measures.” In essence, the ISPs will begin throttling your bandwidth or blocking Web sites you frequently visit. The ISPs will not be able to cut off your Internet connection under the plan.

For a visual explanation, here’s the CCI’s soothing jazz version:

The actual specifics of these tiers will be different across the five ISPs participating in the CAS. We don’t know what every alert will look like, but Ars Technica did manage to get a hold of what Comcast’s alerts would look like.

As you would expect, the CAS hasn’t exactly garnered many fans. New Jersey Gubernatorial candidate Carl Bergmanson recently spoke out against it by saying ISPs have no right to monitor what you download:

“The internet has become an essential part of living in the 21st century, it uses public infrastructure and it is time we treat it as a public utility. The electric company has no say over what you power with their service, the ISPs have no right to decide what you can and can not download”.

The EFF has also come out swinging against CAS. The group says the system presents a number of troubling statements that don’t just hurt Internet users but the Internet for itself. For instance, the group points out that the CCI Web site tells people to lock down their Wi-Fi connections so others don’t pirate on your connection. The EFF sees this as an attack on the open Wi-Fi movement and it would be especially troublesome for those who do share their Internet connections with others, like small businesses.

Small businesses are where we run into the biggest problems. The CCI says that rights holders won’t target open Wi-Fi networks run by businesses. Your local Starbucks or Panera Bread are safe as they run off of a business network. The problem comes in the form of small businesses like a local coffee shop or bakery that runs free Wi-Fi off of a residential network. These businesses will be held liable for the actions of its consumers.

The CCI argues that it won’t hurt small businesses running residential networks because the CAS will never terminate an Internet connection. That’s entirely true, and it’s good that copyright owners didn’t go as far to request that ISPs terminate connections. The problem, however, lies in the fact that the fifth warning and afterwards will either block popular Web sites or throttle connections. For a small business that has multiple customers all on the same network, that’s just as good as shutting off the connection. People who want to use the Internet at these places will find it too much of a pain and take their business elsewhere.

Do you think the CAS will hurt small businesses? Or do you think the EFF and other groups are just exaggerating? Let us know in the comments.

This all brings us to the question of whether or not the CAS will even stop piracy. That’s obviously the goal, but it doesn’t look like an attainable one at the moment. In fact, the CAS is its own biggest enemy in the war on piracy.

The alerts obtained from Comcast all have one troubling thing in common. They don’t list any of the alternative, legal sources for content. The main point of the program is to educate consumers on legal alternatives, and it can’t even do that. Consumers receiving the alert with no prior knowledge of the system will most likely see it as a scam email and won’t act upon it. Later tiers require consumers to watch an educational video on copyright, but it doesn’t say whether these videos will present legal alternatives.

Fortunately, legal alternatives are doing a good enough job stopping piracy themselves. A recent report from the NPD found that legal alternatives like Spotify were driving music piracy down. It proves once again that easy access at a fair price can beat out piracy any day. Heck, the proliferation of streaming services even gave the music industry its first raise in revenue since 1999.

So why do copyright owners think the CAS will work? Do they really expect piracy rates to magically drop once the alerts start flying out? Past examples would suggest that no such thing would happen. In fact, previous efforts on the part of copyright owners to curtail piracy have had the opposite effect. Just look at the shutdown of Megaupload or the blocking of The Pirate Bay in the UK. Both cases actually saw an increase in piracy.

At this point, it’s still too early to tell how much the CAS will actually accomplish. At best, copyright owners will be able to proclaim that piracy rates are down as more people either use VPNs or move off of P2P and onto Usenet or Mega. At worst, consumers revolt and ISPs drop it after seeing that it’s costing them customers. Either way, piracy isn’t going anywhere.

Do you think piracy will ever stop being a problem? Or is it just a fact of life in the Internet age? Let us know in the comments.

Of course, the concerned Internet user may want to know what these alerts actually look like. Ars Technica was able to get their hands on a few of the alerts from Comcast, and they’re pretty much what everybody was expecting.

Comcast provided Ars with only a limited number of alerts – one, two, four and five to be exact. The ISP wouldn’t say why it couldn’t provide all of the alerts, but it’s safe to assume that all the alerts will look similar to what was provided.

Interestingly enough, it looks like the Copyright Alert System isn’t even doing its supposed job. As pointed out by Ars, the alerts don’t even tell consumers what they downloaded to receive the alert. The email also doesn’t point consumers to legal alternatives. You would think Comcast, which owns NBC, would want to point consumers to Hulu or other legal alternatives where its properties are hosted.

Granted, this is just the start and Comcast may refine the system in the coming months. We also don’t know what the alerts from other ISPs will look like. Those may point to legal alternatives and actually provide more information to the suspected infringer.

For those worried about the CAS, it seems that a VPN may be the way to go. Ars confirmed with a spokesperson from Time Warner that the ISP will probably not be able to catch those downloading media through a proxy.

I’m sure we’ll start seeing what the other alerts look like as people with other ISPs start to receive them. We’ll then be able to tell whether or not this is truly an “educational” program, or just another pro-copyright campaign that will only piss off consumers.

“Our goal is to have all of our members served by Open Connect as soon as possible,” said CEO Reed Hastings.

Netflix says Super HD gives customers “superior video quality” for the same price, and looks “amazing” on 1080p HDTVs. It will be available on PS3, WiiU, Windows 8, Roku, Apple TVs with 1080p and select smart TVs and Blu-Ray players. It also requires an internet connection with at least 5Mb/s download.

“These new Super HD and 3D formats are more challenging to deliver than our other video streams, which is why we will deliver them through Open Connect,” said Ken Florance, vice president of content delivery at Netflix. “Any ISP that wants to be able to deliver our new formats can do so easily and for free.”

In the U.S., Netflix is offering a handful of titles in 3D. These include Immortals, The Art of Flight, African Wild, Scary Tales, and Live Fire. The company says it will consider adding additional 3D titles depending on member demand and expanding availability in international markets.

If you go here, Netflix will tell you whether or not your ISP is configured for Super HD (which, again, requires it to be an Open Connect partner).

Taking into account Netflix streams in November across multiple devices, Google Fiber bests the second-place ISP, Verison FiOS by a significant margin. Google Fiber’s average speed was 2.55 MBPS while Verizon FiOS streamed at an average of 2.19 MBPS.

Comcast, Charter, and Cablevision rounded out the top 5.

“Broadly, cable shows better than DSL. AT&T U-verse, which is a hybrid fiber-DSL service, shows quite poorly compared to Verizon Fios, which is pure fiber. Charter moved down two positions since October. Verizon mobile has 40% higher performance than AT&T mobile,” says Netflix’s Ken Florance.

Here’s the full list:

“The average performance is well below the peak performance due to a variety of factors including home Wi-Fi, a variety of devices, and a variety of encodes. The relative ranking, however, should be an accurate indicator of relative bandwidth typically experienced across all users, homes, and applications,” said Florence.

Netflix also says that we can expect them to publish their ISP rankings list once a month.

In a statement on the CCI’s Web site, CCI Executive Director Jill Lesser, blamed the delay on Hurricane Sandy. Here’s the full statement:

Due to unexpected factors largely stemming from Hurricane Sandy which have seriously affected our final testing schedules, CCI anticipates that the participating ISPs will begin sending alerts under the Copyright Alert System in the early part of 2013, rather than by the end of the year.

Our goal has always been to implement the program in a manner that educates consumers about copyright and peer-to-peer networks, encourages the use of legal alternatives, safeguards customer privacy, and provides an easy-to-use independent review program for consumers to challenge alerts they believe they’ve received in error.

We need to be sure that all of our “I”s are dotted and “T”s crossed before any company begins sending alerts, and we know that those who are following our progress will agree.

The delay was unexpected, but it shouldn’t change anything in the long run. ISPs will start sending warnings in early 2013, and casual file sharers will be encouraged to use legal alternatives. Repeat offenders will be targeted with more drastic measures such as throttled speeds and blocked Web sites, but the CCI has already said that they’re not going after “serial pirates” who will get around the alert system by using VPNs and related technologies.

For now, however, we wait. The CCI is only saying early 2013 without providing a firm date. There’s a possibility that it could be delayed again if any of the ISPs get cold feet. More ISPs could also join in the fun between now and launch.

[h/t: BBC]

Thanks to documents obtained by TorrentFreak, we now know when at least one of the ISPs will be implementing its own six-strikes program. They found that AT&T will start sending out copyright infringement notices on November 28. The other ISPs will also likely launch on this date as the CCI is pushing for a simultaneous launch.

So, how will the six-strike program work? According to the documents, AT&T will send “alert emails” to customers who are downloading pirate materials. How will AT&T know who’s downloading pirated materials? Content owners will send AT&T infringing IP addresses and AT&T will send an email to the customer associated with that IP address.

Such a set up could threaten customer privacy, but it seems that will not be the case. The documents state that AT&T will not share identifying information with content owners unless it’s “authorized by the customer or required to do so by law.”

The only major concern so far is that content owners still think that IP addresses equate to people. Courts around the world, even in the US, have questioned this line of thinking with some even flat out rejecting a plaintiff’s argument that the people behind IP addresses can be held accountable for other people pirating content through their connection. It seems like content owners and ISPs are ignoring these rulings.

Another concern is that some people fear that ISPs will begin to cut off access to repeat offenders. Instead, AT&T will block access to a user’s most visited Web sites until they complete an “online education tutorial on copyright.” It’s not yet known what this tutorial will entail.

AT&T also warns that customers can be targeted by lawsuits after the fifth infringement. It’s not a promise, but AT&T says they will hand over identifying information to the courts in the case of a lawsuit. TorrentFreak points out that this particular clause means that content owners may be seriously considering starting up its lawsuit campaign against copyright infringers.

In related news, TorrentFreak also reports that more people in the U.S. are signing up for VPN services. It looks like everybody is getting ready for the six-strike regime by driving around it via proxies. It only proves that those who are going to pirate are still going to pirate without any consequences thanks to VPN and related technologies.

In short, the six-strike program is only going to affect the casual BitTorrent user that doesn’t know any better. As people begin to receive these warnings, more will turn to VPNs or proxies instead of dropping piracy altogether. The program will probably end up as another failed plan that only serves to annoy customers instead of providing a legitimate alternative that beats piracy at its own game.

TorrentFreak reports that a source close to the CCI that the six-strike system is up and ready. The only thing standing in its way is a reluctance on the part of ISPs to start warning subscribers. The fist one out of the gate will be seen as betraying the privacy of their subscribers, and they could start to lose said subscribers.

Regardless, the CCI is pushing for a launch by the end of this year. The current plan is to simultaneously launch the effort across the five largest ISPs in America – Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision. These ISPs will begin testing the warning system in November.

TorrentFreak also reports that the CCI has contracted MarkMonitor to find the identity of alleged pirates. They point out that MarkMonitor is owned by the same company that currently identifies pirates under Ireland’s ridiculous three-strikes system.

The concern right now is that the CCI is being rather secretive about the six-strike system. All we know is that ISPs will punish repeat offenders, but it was never made clear what the punishments would entail. ISPs claimed that they would not terminate a user’s service, but there was never any guarantee made.

In slightly good news, TorrentFreak’s source reports that MarkMonitor had its evidence technique reviewed by an independent third party. The report will apparently be released in the next few weeks to provide transparency on their methods. At that time, we’ll hopefully be able to fully understand what exactly is going into this new method of pirate surveillance.

For now, we can at least rest easy that the six-strike system is nowhere near as bad as Mediacom’s self-instituted three-strike system. The ISP recently said that they would ban a subscriber for life if they were found to be downloading copyrighted content three times in a row.

Regardless of the system, any kind of elevated response system just shows that the copyright lobby still doesn’t understand the proper methods of combatting piracy. Services like Netflix and Spotify have done more to reduce piracy than harebrained schemes implemented by dinosaurs. Of course, we wouldn’t expect them to make things easy on consumers.

Mediacom is a very large ISP. They mostly serve small towns and cities throughout the U.S., however, so they don’t get as much media play as Time Warner Cable or Comcast. They’re going to start getting a lot of media coverage today after revealing their new three-strikes policy in dealing with file sharers.

According to TorrentFreak, Mediacom is going to start cracking down on those accused of file sharing. Considering that many right owners send out DMCA notices without even thinking, this could prove to be very bad for Mediacom subscribers.

Here’s how it all go down: The first strike will result in Mediacom sending the subscriber a warning and flagging their account. The second strike will result in an account suspension. The dirty pirate will then have to fill out some paperwork to get their service reinstated. The third strike will result in their service being cancelled and the subscriber will be banned from Mediacom services for life.

The U.S. is working with major ISPs on a similar six-strike program. It’s nowhere near as bad as the plan that Mediacom will be putting into action. Under the six-strike program, the worst any ISP can do is throttle your Internet.

Regardless, Mediacom’s actions prove that ISPs can, and will, take matters into their own hands. It’s absolutely ridiculous that they would threaten to ban Internet users for life, but it’s wholly within their power to do so at this point in time. It would take somebody from within government telling them the practice is anti-consumer for them to change course.

Of course, users could leave Mediacom for another ISP (if they can) to show their disapproval of the new plan. Piracy is an issue, but punishing users isn’t going to stop the practice. If ISPs and rights owners actually cared about consumers, they would realize that offering competitive and more convenient services would curtail piracy in a major way. Until pigs fly, we’ll just have to deal with more hackneyed plans to stop piracy.