Comcast working on new anti-piracy scheme, moving beyond "Six Strikes"

Comcast is developing a new scheme to combat digital piracy in the United States, according to a new report from Variety. The country’s largest cable operator “has begun preliminary discussions with both film and TV studios and other leading Internet service providers about employing technology, according to sources, that would provide offending users with transactional opportunities to access legal versions of copyright-infringing videos as they’re being downloaded.”

Comcast declined Ars’ request for comment.

Variety also reported that in “the new system, a consumer illegally downloading a film or movie from a peer-to-peer system like BitTorrent would be quickly pushed a pop-up message with links to purchase or rent the same content, whether the title in question exists on the [video-on-demand] library of a participating distributor’s own broadband network or on a third-party seller like Amazon.”