Verizon already forwards copyright notices to customers who are tagged by the entertainment industry's intelligence-gathering organizations, but they don't disclose the customer who was actually using the IP address at the time the infringement occurred. In a move that signals a ramp-up in their cooperation with the entertainment industry, CNET cites inside sources at Verizon who say the company is about to launch a new letter notification campaign in cooperation with the RIAA. The new campaign is a "test" according to the source, and doesn't include references to account termination:While the entertainment industry would like to see ISPs boot heavy P2P users from their networks (ignoring the fact these are potential customers), ISPs don't want the extra cost of playing content babysitter. Companies like AT&T and Verizon have instead suggested ramping up the user notification process. Carriers like citing a 2008 UK study that claims 72% of P2P users would stop with just a warning, or a similar 2009 study that puts that number closer to 64%. But other studies have suggested that users will, as they have for the better part of a decade, continue to ignore these warnings unless they come with the threat of disconnection.

Disconnecting users for P2P use however brings up a wide variety of problems however, including who independently confirms there's no false positives, who pays for the technology, and who tracks offenders across ISPs. There's also questions concerning the overall reliability of the DMCA notification process -- as well as fairness questions in terms of smaller ISPs being unable to shoulder the added support and hardware costs. If that's not enough to chew on, imagine setting this expensive, "graduated response" initiative up with government involvement, only to see users skirt around the restrictions by using encryption.

If you're a Verizon user who receives one of these alerts please send us a copy, as it would be nice to see how they vary from the letters Verizon is already sending to its customers who engage in the trading of copyrighted film and TV programs.