A recent announcement has made the avid users of The Pirate Bay, ExtraTorrent, Rarbg, Torrentz2, 1337x, Kickass Torrents, and several other torrent (peer to peer) file sharing sites excited. Now these users will not receive any statutorily backed warning or notices for copyright infringement. They are also no longer in danger of facing corrective actions from their Internet Service Providers (ISP) even after repetitive warnings. How did this happen?

In 2011, there was a group (coalition) formed between the U.S. government, U.S. ISPs including AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, and Cablevision System, Motion Picture Association of America, and Recording Industry Association of America. This group was named Center For Copyright Information and formulated a program named "Copyright Alter System". It was an educational system of fighting online piracy of data and copyright infringement. They targeted peer-to-peer file sharing sites such as KAT, TBP, 1337x, and ExtraTorrent. This group was also referred to as the "Six Strikes" system.

Every time an activity amounting to copyright infringement occurred on the accounts of the users, it was reported as a "strike" in their respective account. The first two strikes only led to a notice telling the users about the nature of their activity. It did not require them to do anything at all. The third and fourth of such strikes required the users to acknowledge the receipt of the notice from the service providers. The fifth and sixth strikes led to some action being taken by the ISPs whether they would reduce the internet speed of the users by a huge margin for a limited period of time. Users back then feared that crossing the sixth strike would result in the disconnection of their internet service but the same did not happen. However, as of now, the Six Strikes program has officially come to an end.

"After four years of extensive consumer education and engagement, the Copyright Alert System will conclude its work," reads a statement on the CCI website. "The program demonstrated that real progress is possible when content creators, Internet innovators and consumer advocates come together in a collaborative and consensus-driven process. CAS succeeded in educating many people about the availability of legal content, as well as about issues associated with online infringement."

What does the end of the program mean for the users? They don't need to fear the results that were a part of this punitive program. However, the users are still continuously breaking the rules mentioned under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). ISPs can take actions against repeated offenders but this term has not yet been defined and hence, ISPs are reluctant to take a concrete action. However, ISPs in U.K. including Virgin Networks have started giving notices to their users and prohibiting them to use such sites. The initiative is a part of a program called "Get It Right" that currently has government support.