How the system will work
Rights holders identify IP addresses of devices or locations they believe to be downloading files illegally. This is done through a variety of methods, including "listening in" to traffic on Bittorrent networks - a common practice
A "Copyright Infringement Report", known as a CIR, will be sent to the ISP involved. It will contain the IP address as well as the date and time the alleged infringement took place
The ISP will then match that report to a customer account it knows was connected to the internet from that IP address at the time of the download
It will then send out an alert to that customer about the behaviour, either as an email or a physical letter
Identifying users in this way is not an exact science. Sometimes, it will be unable to determine which customer account was being used at the time.
Furthermore, in the alerts, no individual person will be directly accused - as a single IP address could be used by several people at a time, or even, to use one example, by someone using a neighbour's wifi without their knowledge.
