Earlier this year, a big hoopla was made about the Center for Copyright Information and its Copyright Alert System, otherwise known as “Six Strikes”. In short, those caught downloading pirated content on BitTorrent would be sent warnings that soon turned into punishments of increasing severity. Now the non-profit that caused a stir earlier this year has found itself in a spot of trouble.
TorrentFreak reports that the Center for Copyright Information had its company status revoked last year. The Columbia Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs revoked its status after finding that the non-profit founded by the MPAA and RIAA never filed the proper paperwork or paid its fees.
So, what does this mean for the CCI? It means that it won’t be able to do business in the United States until it gets all of this cleared up. Doing so won’t be that difficult though. In fact, a source close to the CCI told TorrentFreak that it’s already submitted the proper paperwork to have its status as a company reinstated. Even if its status is reinstated, the CCI may still face fines and other civil penalties.
Of course, all of this is rather interesting in the larger context of the “six strikes” system. There have been no widespread reports of warnings being sent out since the introduction of the system in February. It’s hard to say why that is the case, but the CCI’s troubles suggest that it may not be on top of everything just yet. It’s not exactly surprising either considering that the rollout of the Copyright Alert System was delayed for over a year.
Those hoping for the death of the Copyright Alert System will be disappointed though. It’s not dead, and it wont die anytime soon. Still, the Copyright Alert System may be all bark and no bite for a while as the CCI works to reinstate its company status.
