United States ISPs have now apparently launched their much ballyhooed "Six Strikes" copyright "education/punishment" program.

This is a singular event in the history of the Internet. I know not of any close parallels to this situation in contemporary history, where primary communications carriers will be acting in an extrajudicial (that is, without court actions) context to divert, throttle, block, or otherwise tamper with personal communication channels, at the bequest of private third parties.

Because these actions are taking place outside the specific realm of any existing regulatory regime, it is important to understand exactly how ISPs deploy, manage, and presumably escalate this program over time.

So today I'm announcing the "USA Six Strikes ISP Watch" to gather information about "six strikes" activities here in the United States.

If you receive such a "six strikes" notification while online or in any other manner, I would appreciate your forwarding to ispwatch@vortex.com as much of the following information as you feel comfortable providing (this data will only be used for aggregate analysis/reporting):

- A screenshot of any Web-based strike notice and/or a copy of any associated email (the latter with full headers if possible)

- If it's not obvious from the screenshot or email, what strike number is this for you?

- A statement as to whether or not you feel that the strike (or any previous strikes) is/are in error

- What do you plan to do about the strike? (Nothing? Appeal? Something else?)

- What impact, if any, has the strike had on your Internet connectivity? (Browser diversions? Rate throttling? Connectivity blocks to some or all sites? Impacts on non-Web traffic such as VoIP services or anything else?)

- Any other thoughts or comments that you'd like to add

Again, I will only use or report this data in the aggregate. Any examples published will be redacted and anonymized.

Thank you very much!

--Lauren--