Comcast To Begin Sending Annoying Pop Up Notices To Internet Piracy Participants
Comcast might soon begin pushing out forced pop-up ads to customers who illegally download movies, TV shows, music, and other copyrighted material from the internet.
A source close to the program tells Mashable that content producers would monitor titles they control. When internet piracy is spotted, the content producer can choose to send a notification to the internet service provider (ISP) for the customer. The ISP would then launch a pop-up ad.
So what would the piracy triggered pop-up entail? Apparently just a message that tells illegal downloaders where they can obtain legal copies of their desired product.
It’s still not clear if Comcast would just choose major retailers for the notification system such as Amazon, iTunes, Netflix, and others. The company could make money off the platform by selling recommendation space to the highest advertising bidder.
The new program wouldn’t punish or penalize Comcast customers; instead, the purpose is simply to alert customers about better, legal choices.
The Comcast source says the decision to move forward with the plan was based on undisclosed research that has found customers are willing to use legal sources for material if confronted with the choice.
With nearly 20 million customers serviced by Comcast throughout the United States, that could mean a lot of pop-ups and a whole lot of advertising dollars.
The insider says the pop-up notification system would be to complement the Copyright Alert System (CAS). The CAS program allows customers to rack up six strikes which each come with a new punishment ranging from reduced internet speeds to being forces to watch a video before your full internet connection is restored.
Comcast will not confirm the internet piracy pop-ups at this timem but the Center for Copyright Information (CCI), which oversees the CAS, admits that something is in the works.
If you hate pop-upsm you might want to consider avoiding that illegally downloaded copy of Breaking Bad in the future.
