Media pirates in the U.S. may be able to rest a little easier now, as the controversial “six strikes” copyright infringement warning system has officially been retired.

Internet service providers began sending warnings to suspected pirates in 2013 as part of the Copyright Alert System, a program created through an agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America. The MPAA and RIAA monitored peer-to-peer file sharing systems for infringing activities, and if any were discovered, the organizations would forward that information to the pirate’s ISP, who would then send out a warning letter.

The warnings scaled in severity, beginning with a simple alert telling the suspected pirate to stop illegally downloading copyrighted content. Further alerts would require the user to acknowledge that they received the warning, and in the case of Comcast, users would eventually see a persistent alert on every website they visit until they contacted customer service to remove it. The final two warnings could result in bandwidth throttling or other penalties from the ISP.

The final warnings seem to be as far as the system went, and there do not appear to have been any penalties beyond that point, which might explain which the program has been retired. A statement from the Center for Copyright Information suggests that the Copyright Alert System may have seen some success, but the organization did not share any data to back up its claim.

“After four years of extensive consumer education and engagement, the Copyright Alert System will conclude its work,” the CCI said in its statement. “The program demonstrated that real progress is possible when content creators, Internet innovators and consumer advocates come together in a collaborative and consensus-driven process. CAS succeeded in educating many people about the availability of legal content, as well as about issues associated with online infringement.”

Piracy continues to be a concern for a number of industries, from entertainment media like movies, music and video games to expensive software and even operating systems. Streaming media sites such as Netflix and digital marketplaces such as Steam provide users with easier access to content, but media companies still issue tens of millions of takedown requests for infringing material each month. Google’s transparency report shows that the search engine removed more than 914 million links to infringing content in 2016 alone.

Photo: Gwenaël Piaser Jolly Roger via photopin (license)