ISPs and Content Owners to collaborate on anti-piracy plan

A group of media companies and ISPs (Internet Service Providers) have announced the establishment of a framework for a new organization, the Center for Copyright Information (CCI), as part of their strategy for combating content piracy.  The new Executive Director of the Center, Jill Lesser, said that the CCI  will focus on "education and deterrence, not punishment."
  According to the chairman of CCI's executive board,

"CCI's mission is to implement the most thoughtful and consumer friendly system to-date for promoting the lawful enjoyment of copyrighted material. Jill's ability to find solutions that work for content creators, ISPs and their customers will be critical to this task."

A large part of this effort involves the implementation of the Copyright Alert System - under which content owners will monitor Internet traffic, and alert ISPs as to possible violations, and ISPs agree to forward those notices to their customers (without revealing customer information).  Positive additions to this process include an incremental process with repeat offenders facing stricter potential penalties and the inclusion of an appeals process where users receiving notices can request an independent review of the accusation. In addition, according to an post on Ars Technica,

ISPs have agreed to institute "mitigation measures" (or, as you and I know them, punishments) based on the collected say-so of copyright holders. These measures begin with the fifth or six alert, and they may include "temporary reductions of Internet speeds, redirection to a landing page until the subscriber contacts the ISP to discuss the matter or reviews and responds to some educational information about copyright, or other measures that the ISP may deem necessary to help resolve the matter."

The new CCI executive board includes several representatives from public interest groups that have been hostile to the more egregious efforts of content owners seeking draconian penalties through the courts, so there is some hope that this may bring about a "kinder, gentler" anti-piracy approach.

Source - ISPs, content owners move closer to launching anti-piracy plan - Fierce Online Video
Major ISPs agree to "six strikes" copyright enforcement plan,  Ars Technica