Originally posted by From Arstechina

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Earlier this week, the Copyright Alert System (CAS)—better known as "six strikes"—finally debuted. Both Verizon and Comcast activated the service on Wednesday.

The new system is funded by a group known as the Center for Copyright Information (CCI), which is made up of five major American ISPs, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It's been in the works for years and may provide a significant change to the copyright infringement policing regime in the United States.

At the end of a series of six alerts, accused infringing customers could have their home Internet connection significantly slowed down. Those accused of infringing can file an appeal for $35. (Here's the CCI's new video explaining the process, as well as its new promo video.)

Both Verizon and Comcast updated their terms of service as of Wednesday, and each informed customers of their participation in six strikes on their websites. (But more than likely, most customers don’t spend much time checking out the corporate homepages of their ISPs.) Ars has reached out to all five of the participating ISPs—AT&T, Verizon, Cablevision, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast. Only the latter responded and agreed to provide copies of actual alerts. (Full disclosure: I am a Comcast customer.)

Charlie Douglas, a Comcast spokesperson, also told Ars that the company already sent out a “small number” of alerts despite this being the first day of Comcast's compliance. Douglas declined to disclose the actual number or the reason that number was being kept secret.

When Ars asked him to confirm that six strikes would not be able to see a potential violation if the user was using a VPN, he responded: “I think you’re right.”

Douglas did provide the language for alerts numbered one, two, four, and five. He has not yet responded concerning why Comcast is unable to provide the actual language for all six alerts or why he chose these particular ones to share with Ars. Comcast has also not shared any technical details of how it serves up an in-browser pop-up alert.

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