A Six-Strike Rule for Internet Piracy

Violators won't be cut off from the Web, but they'll get a message: What they're doing is wrong.

March 3, 2013 5:20 p.m. ET

Just because technology makes something possible, does that make it right? The question has vexed the Internet for as long as people have downloaded music and movies illegally, which was among the first uses of the Web. So it is progress when a new policy is put in place, even one as modest as "six strikes and you're out."

The country's top Internet service providers this month began the new program, formally known as the Copyright Alert System, to deter illegal downloads. "Peer to peer" sharing sites...

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