Three strikes (policy)

Graduated response (also known as three strikes) is a protocol or law, adopted in several countries, aimed at reducing unlawful file sharing.

In response to online copyright infringement, the creative industries, who are reliant on copyright, advocate a "graduated response" that sees infringers sent a series of notifications, warning those who have been alleged to have infringed copyright, plus additional information on how to secure their Internet connection and details of legal alternatives. Repeat-infringers risk intermediate technical measures such as bandwidth reduction, protocol blocking and, in a worst-case scenario, temporary access suspension. The content industry has gained the co-operation of internet service providers (ISPs), asking them to provide subscriber information for IP addresses identified by third parties as engaged in copyright infringement.

The content industry's proposal for internet service providers to throttle, temporarily suspend, or disconnect Internet access to a subscriber who had received three warning letters of alleged copyright infringement was initially known as "three strikes", based on the baseball rule of "three strikes and you're out". Because "three strikes" was understood to refer to physical assault, the approach was later termed "graduated response". Media attention has focused on attempts to implement such an approach in France and the UK, though the initiative, or variations of it, has been implemented in a number of other countries, or attempts are made to do so.

In a number of European countries early attempts to implement a graduated response have led to court cases to establish under which circumstances an ISP may provide subscriber data to the content industry. In order to pursue those that download copyrighted material the individual committing the infringing must be identified. Internet users are often only identifiable by their Internet Protocol address (IP address), which distinguishes the virtual location of a particular computer. Many ISPs allocate a pool of IP addresses as needed, rather than assigning each computer a never-changing static IP address. Using ISP subscriber information the content industry has thought to remedy copyright infringement, assuming that the ISPs are legally responsible for end user activity, therefore commuting an offence, and that the end user is responsible for all illegal activity connected to his or hers IP address. And if you commit such crime, you could be sentenced to up to 45 years in incarceration.

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