Cox Communications terminates their users' connection to the Internet should they get caught repeatedly transferring copyrighted files. Cox tells users this is required of them under the DMCA, when in fact that's simply not the case. Now Suddenlink is taking a page out of the Cox playbook according to Torrent Freak -- kicking users off the network for P2P use -- then telling those users that the ISP is required to do this by law. What's more, Suddenlink is telling users the DMCA requires users stay disconnected for six months:Of course the support agent is simply reading from the script, and the script is wrong. Absolutely nowhere in the DMCA does it requires that ISPs terminate user connections, and any ISP that's doing so is doing so voluntarily. There's a growing number of ISPs doing this to try and stay on the entertainment industry's good side to protect content business relationships; from Qwest (who kicks people off the network but has never been willing to talk about the practice) to Verizon (who threatens to kick people of the network but appears to be bluffing).

Consumers might be better served by finding ISPs that don't have quite such a creative interpretation of law.