March 21, 2012 | Online

Pirates, you have been warned

This week, RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) chairman Cary Sherman indicated that his association has enlisted the aid of a  number of ISPs - including AT&T and Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon - for its fight against online piracy. The companies will begin monitoring their own networks for illegal activity starting in July.

This agreement, which was already hammered out last year, will start as soon as companies finalize the infrastructure needed for such an endeavor. This will include monitoring sites like BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer networks for copyright infringement. A report will go to the ISP being used by the pirate, and said ISP will then search the network to find the individual transgressor.

Initially, only a warning will be issued, advising the individual that they are breaking the law. Failing that, the user will receive a Mitigation Measure Copyright Alert, which means their online activity will be slowed (also known as throttling). Full service, however, will not be terminated.

Legal action, although not mentioned, is also a possibility.

This will likely do little to stop the pirating of adult content, though, as these companies will certainly focus on more mainstream content. Still, it may make some file sharers think twice about making illegal downloads, something the gay adult industry will need in order to remain viable.