For years now, the battle against piracy has gone a little something like this: based on sometimes accurate evidence, intelligence firms working for the entertainment industry send the IP address information of users who've shared a copyrighted file to ISPs, who then forward a DMCA warning letter to the end user without identifying that user to the entertainment industry. The end user then completely ignores the letter and -- absolutely nothing else happens. Obviously this doesn't do much to deter piracy, which is why the entertainment industry has been pushing for ISPs to take tougher measures.

Internationally, there's growing pressure on lawmakers to pass bills that force ISPs to patrol their networks and terminate the connections of repeat offenders. Given these users are paying customers, and acting as content nanny is expensive, ISPs instead are ramping up the notification efforts -- in the hopes that this keeps the entertainment industry (and the politicians who love them) off of their back. While data supporting whether this accomplishes anything is mixed, it's why Verizon recently started increasing MPAA & RIAA letters, and it's why Time Warner Cable is trying a new notification system as well.

According to Gizmodo, Roadrunner customers who engage in P2P transfers of copyrighted materials (and forget to use forced encryption) are now getting full window browser notifications that inform them they've been very naughty customers. The warnings, which they've actually been using for a little while now, insist that Roadrunner is stepping in to protect the user from P2P:It is, after all, important to "protect you" from that first season of Mad Men and the entire Led Zeppelin discography that you just downloaded.

We've discussed how a significant number of states passed new state level video franchise laws at the behest of phone company lobbyists, but didn't really realize what they were signing up for. Bills that consumers were told would result in lower TV prices by making it easier for phone companies to jump into the TV business, in many cases were little more than phone company wish lists -- aimed at legalizing the cherry picking of next-gen broadband deployment, eliminating local authority (even eminent domain rights) and in some cases eliminating tough consumer protection laws.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) on Tuesday condemned the practice of redirecting Internet users to a third-party portal when they mistype, or enter a nonexistent URL. You'll recall that the practice gained international attention when Verisign implemented their heavily-loathed Sitefinder initiative in 2003.

It's fairly common practice for cable carriers to blame their often bi-annual TV rate increases on the high costs their incur from broadcasters. Time Warner Cable appears poised to take this traditional tactic to a new level.

TiVo's deals with cable operators and their recent DVR patent wins haven't done much to keep TiVo customers around. The company just suffered their worst quarter ever, losing 314,000 customers in three months. TiVo's market share (2.76 million) is now less than 8% of the estimated total 38 million US DVR households. TiVo would probably be helped greatly if Comcast would ever get around to their national TiVo deployment, but three years after the deal's announcement, TiVo for most Comcast customers is a nowhere to be found.

Founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom of Skype and Kazaa fame, broadband video service Joost hoped to revolutionize the broadband video industry, but struggled with slow broadband speeds, internal turmoil and a contractually-limited catalog. Last winter, Joost ditched their P2P approach for a more Hulu-esque flash-based website approach, though it didn't help. The company has since shuttered their consumer service entirely -- hoping to develop video services for existing ISPs. The company had been shopping itself to ISPs but nobody was interested -- and today announced they'd be selling what's left of the company to online advertising outfit Adconion Media Group for an undisclosed amount.

Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have written a letter to US Trade Rep Ron Kirk asking for Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) documents to be made public. The secret negotiations with no outside input have been troublesome, given that leaked glimpses of the proposal indicate it involves everything from significant shift in copyright law to potential erosion of ISP safe harbor provisions and mandatory implementation of "three strikes" ISP requirements. Senators Sanders and Brown aren't buying the "state secret" excuse given by Uncle Sam:

AOL continues an interesting trip that took them from one of the largest and most powerful ISPs on the Internet, to a fractured and financially-troubled company with dreams of becoming an advertising giant. Of course most of their problems were caused by their inability to adapt to (or really in some cases even recognize) the broadband market -- something that was at least in part caused by former executive Lisa Hook, who went on to do amazing things with VoIP carrier SunRocket as well. With its spin off from Time Warner, the company this fall has undergone its latest in an endless line of evolution efforts, but has announced those changes will come with pink slips for about one third of AOL's employees, or about 2,300 workers.

The Pirate Bay crew had already essentially been disbanded, the site dissected, and its remnants sold to a somewhat dubious company that simply wants to turn the site's visitors into little P2P cash cows. So an announcement today over at the official Pirate Bay blog that they're officially shutting down the site's tracker probably surprises nobody.

Last week we noted how Verizon had started working with the RIAA to send letters to Verizon users who traded copyrighted files, though the company still doesn't plan to divulge user identities to the entertainment industry. Verizon also doesn't appear willing to engage in the industry's dream scenario of booting repeat offenders off of their network. In a follow up piece, CNET notes that Verizon has also struck a new letter notification agreement with the major film studios and the MPAA. Contrary to what CNET seems to believe, Verizon has sent DMCA infringement notifications to their users on behalf of Fox and other companies in the past, so it's not clear just how expanded this new effort will be (Verizon isn't commenting).

GigaOM directs our attention to an interesting video interview with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who dissects Netflix's role as the premier application for broadband. Hastings discusses how the future for Netflix is bright, given the tendency to embed every consumer device with a $10 Wi-Fi chipset, and the fact that bandwidth prices continue to drop. He doesn't get into specific bandwidth costs for the Netflix streaming service, but he cites the fact that "Moore's law is an amazing thing" in a world where Amazon now charges 5 cents a gigabyte for bandwidth and you can transfer a movie for about a nickel. "What's fueling the whole system is the end users, who are paying $40-$60 to their ISP, and that's funding the whole system," says Hastings.

Over the years we've seen no limit of specialized hardware, software or other gadgetry promising to defeat the laws of physics and speed up your Internet connection above and beyond its basic capabilities. From the "Juice Boosted" scam to Earthlink's latest absurd acceleration ploy, by and large these are all snake oil.

Remember the ACTA? The international anti-piracy agreement being hashed out in private between governments and the entertainment industry? The one the EFF sued to try and get information about but the Obama Administration classified as a state secret? Canadian Law Professor Michael Geist says bits and pieces are leaking out, and the law does indeed revolve around forcing ISPs into the role of Internet copyright nannies -- an expensive and likely futile endeavor. According to the EFF, the ACTA is everything they feared it would be: story continues..

According to Media Memo, Apple is pitching the idea of a new, "over the top" $30 a month subscription broadband TV service. The service, which would not be tied to Apple's Apple TV device, would simply be an extension of the iTunes video store. According to the report, Disney is one likely possible partner -- an interesting mention given they're supposedly having some trouble agreeing with cable companies over payment for their "TV Everywhere" online video initiative. Of course cable operators will fight like hell given this would be a direct competitor to both regular cable and TV Everywhere, and broadcasters may not sign up out of fear of threatening their relationships with cable companies.

We've frequently explored how a growing number of VoIP companies were blocking FreeConferencecall.com, because the service relies on a practice known as "traffic pumping," a regulatory loophole that allows small, rural telcos to sock bigger carriers with huge connectivity fees. A few years back, AT&T tried to block access to such services but were yelled at by the FCC because it breaks common carrier laws.

Nintendo Wii owners were recently left feeling a little under appreciated with the news that Playstation 3 owners will be getting Netflix broadband video streaming next month. Blog rumblings indicate that Netflix streaming will be coming to the Wii eventually, but may not arrive until next year with the shipping of a modified, HD-capable Wii variant. This image was sent out to some Wii owners in a survey last march, and the console owners have been eagerly anticipating the streaming service ever since. The blog's leak sources insist that it's not entirely impossible the launch could also happen before the holidays.

Techdirt points out how the RIAA has come out in favor of network neutrality -- sort of. In a missive written over at the RIAA blog, RIAA President Cary Sherman proudly supports the government's network neutrality push -- provided it in turn supports the implementation of piracy filters. The RIAA correctly notes the FCC continues to use language that indicates any neutrality laws will not apply to the transfer of illegal content (even if determining what's not legal is still very murky ground). Says the RIAA:Given the number of former RIAA employees now working within the Department of Justice, the idea that the FCC's new neutrality rules will be written around the RIAA's desires shouldn't really surprise anybody.

Previously, Google Voice required that you create a new number for use with the platform, which allows you to manage multiple numbers while offering services like voicemail transcription and free SMS. According to a post over at the Google blog, you can now use your existing number with the service, though not all functionality will work -- such as automated voicemail transcription, call recording, and different voicemail greetings for different callers. As we discussed the other day, many people don't understand yet how products like Google Voice will seriously disrupt the traditional phone empire, and leeching voicemail functionality away from the telcos continues the evolution.

According to a post over at the Playstation Blog, Netflix broadband video streaming -- currently the exclusive territory of Microsoft's Xbox 360 -- will be coming to the Playstation 3 in November. Interestingly, a post over at the Netflix website indicates that PS3 users will need a free DVD in order to make the functionality work -- at least until the next PS3 system update comes along and embeds it via broadband. Those interested can also check out this press release.

"It’s time to start getting paid for broadcast content online," proclaims News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey, who this week indicated that Hulu would probably start charging for access in 2010.