Spokeswoman says she was misquoted, that she didn’t say it had “cut some people off,” but had instead said it “could” cut people off.
Verizon is denying a recent story that it’s apparently enacted a “three-strikes” program on its own by disconnecting users repeatedly warned of illegal file-sharing.
“We’ve cut some people off,” is what
said Bobbi Henson, a spokeswoman for Verizon Online, initially said. “We do reserve the right to discontinue service.”
Now Henson is backpedaling on that statement, insisting the reporter’s “notes are wrong,” that she had been misquoted, that she said Verizon “could” disconnect people not that it actually had.
“I’m not aware that we’ve ever terminated anyone’s account for excessive consumption, although we reserve the right to do so,” Henson told DSL Reports. “That part of the cNet story is wrong. I did not say ‘we’ve cut people off’; I said we reserve the right to do so.”
cNet is defending its story by quoting an email between its reporter and Henson. In it she’s asked for “any numbers you can give” about how many people have been disconnected for illegal file-sharing.
“David, we don’t give out these numbers, but I can tell you that they are small,” was her reply.
So then the amount of people who’ve been disconnected is not zero as she insists, but a “small” number.
Verizon would then have us believe that it’s ramped up DMCA letter campaign is simply a big bluff and not part of an voluntary “three-strikes” plan that the RIAA insisted it would begin asking ISPs to implement after ending its controversial strategy of suing music fans.
“This is not an automatic ‘three strikes’ graduated response program,” adds Henson. “This program has been effective in reducing instances of repeat notices and has not resulted in the termination of any Verizon customer’s service. Our goal is to protect our customers’ privacy and due process rights while recognizing the importance of copyright protection and acquiring content legally.”
So then: (1) Verizon will forward a movie studio or record label’s complaint of copyright infringement to one of its users; (2) it will threaten the user with disconnection in a form letter; (3) it apparently won’t carry out that threat. As long as nobody figures out that third part then it’s plan should work perfectly.
“We believe our program strikes a reasonable approach and is working very well,” says Henson.
With Cox already having said that it will terminate the accounts of customers who receive 4 DMCA letters in a 12 month period it’s not too far fetched to think that Verizon has followed their lead, especially when its spokeswoman says it has!
Stay tuned.
This has a lot of similarities to when US ISPs began throttling people’s connections. They said they don’t, reports came that they are, they denied those reports, more reports came, they argued that it was basic network management, ISP gets sued, this prompts rule changes and now ISPs openly throttle people’s connections.
Correct me if I’m wrong of course.
of course they are going to say they dont (typical damage control and cover up).