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AT&T mulls copyright censorship at the network level
Posted by Cory Doctorow, January 9, 2008 10:12 PM | permalink
AT&T is considering adding content filters to its network. These will try to 
figure out if your network connection
contains a copyrighted work, and censor any communications that are believed 
to be infringing.

This strategy will work for approximately 30 seconds -- about as long as it 
takes for people who like to download
copyrighted works to switch to using an encrypted protocol -- and thereafter 
it will be primarily useful to bullies and
schemers who will use it to silence critics (by claiming their works infringe 
and getting them censored) and prevent
competition (by raising the cost of operating an ISP through the inclusion of 
the spyware and the hardware to run it on).

Of course, AT&T has already shown its commitment to its customers by helping 
the NSA conduct wholesale warrantless
wiretapping on the entire nation -- adding a censorious, expensive, and 
useless piece of spyware to its network
operations is entirely in keeping with its behavior.

    “What we are already doing to address piracy hasn’t been working. There’s 
no secret there,” said James Cicconi,
senior vice president, external & legal affairs for AT&T.

    Mr. Cicconi said that AT&T has been talking to technology companies, and 
members of the MPAA and RIAA, for the last
six months about implementing digital fingerprinting techniques on the 
network level.

    “We are very interested in a technology based solution and we think a 
network-based solution is the optimal way to
approach this,” he said. “We recognize we are not there yet but there are a 
lot of promising technologies. But we are
having an open discussion with a number of content companies, including NBC 
Universal, to try to explore various
technologies that are out there.”

Link (Thanks, Virtual Tours and Leon!)