Net Neutrality’s Death Begins July 12. Download That Fetish Porn STAT

You better stockpile the porn and download the esoteric bands you may enjoy. Starting on July 12 a whole cadre of ISPs are going to begin monitoring user-usage in an attempt to ferret out those they suspect are pirating content. Which means…roughly 99% of my generation.

Gizmodo:

ISPs are about to  start policing your downloads  on behalf of monolithic organizations like the RIAA and MPAA. Are you ready for the internet nanny state?

Last year, Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable agreed to take steps to combat piracy on their networks. Translation: the ISPs said they would monitor your internet traffic and make your life hell if they suspect you’re up to illegal file sharing.

Speaking at the Association of American Publishers’ annual meeting, RIAA CEO Cary Sherman says that the ISPs are all on track to kick off the “anti-piracy initiative” by July 12th. What exactly that means depends varies from ISP to ISP. CNET reports:

The program, commonly referred to as “graduated response,” requires that ISPs send out one or two educational notices to those customers who are accused of downloading copyrighted content illegally. If the customer doesn’t stop, the ISP is then asked to send out “confirmation notices” asking that they confirm that they have received notice.

They will also be informed of the risks they incur if they don’t stop pirating material. The ISP then can ratchet up the pressure. The ISPs can choose from a list of penalties or what the RIAA calls “mitigation measures” that include throttling down the customer’s connection speed to suspending Web access until the subscriber agrees to stop pirating. The ISPs can waive the mitigation measure if they choose.

Basically, if you like BitTorrent, get ready for some hate mail and snail’s pace download speeds courtesy of your ISP!

I need to get up to the minute on my Furries-Latex-Auto-Erotic-Milk-Games fetish before the Doom Clouds thunderclap.