ATT To Target Pirated Content Over Its Network

[DudeAsInCool]

AT&T Inc. has joined Hollywood studios and recording companies in trying to keep pirated films, music and other content off its network — the first major carrier of Internet traffic to do so.

The San Antonio-based company started working last week with studios and record companies to develop anti-piracy technology that would target the most frequent offenders, said James W. Cicconi, an AT&T senior vice president.

The nation's largest telephone and Internet service provider also operates the biggest cross-country system for handling Internet traffic for its customers and those of other providers.

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[DudeAsInCool]

In his excellent editorial, Huffington Post blogger Art Brodsky weighs in to the heart of the matter:

"AT&T has yet to realize that it should be more concerned about its customers and their needs than about Hollywood and its demands. Customers should be in control of they use the network, not the company providing the "series of tubes." When former AT&T Chairman Ed Whitacre made his famous threats about how companies like Google and Yahoo! wouldn't use his network "for free," he forgot that it wasn't Google and Yahoo! pulling down the content. It was his customers, who pay the company every month for the privilege.:

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[DudeAsInCool]

Ars Technica suggests that a new web war will heat up:

"Despite the major technical problems inherent in such a program, AT&T is moving ahead. By making themselves into the arbiters of copyright law, the company risks being drawn into a costly "arms race" with programmers who don't like the idea of a massive corporation (and one which appears to have turned over information to the NSA) peeking into their packets and deciding which ones go through.

This is exactly the situation that Dr. Greg Jackson, CIO of the University of Chicago, warned Congress about last week. "The only successful, robust way to address problems that involve personal responsibility and behavior is with social rather than technological tools," he said in a hearing. "If we instead try and restrict behavior technologically... the only result will be an arms race that nobody wins."

Read more at Ars Technica

[DudeAsInCool]

Colbert on the monopolistic ATT

[Redneck4sure]

I have AT&T but I will drop them if they start filtering my stuff.

[DudeAsInCool]

I have AT&T but I will drop them if they start filtering my stuff.

the problem is that they own a lot of the pipes--so even if you had Time Warner, for example, you still may have to go thru ATTs infra-structure

[Redneck4sure]

true but at least I could cut their revenue by a hundred bucks a month.

[DudeAsInCool]

true but at least I could cut their revenue by a hundred bucks a month.

i think we need to do that. ive come to the opinion that we need to break up most of the mega corporations in this country..and make sure they never can get back together. did you ever notice that corporations are socialist in structure?

[Redneck4sure]

I've also managed to stay out of the new Wal-Mart superstore that opened less than a half a mile from my house. It had it's one year anniversary last week and I haven't been in the store yet. If my boycott list gets much longer I will be living under a bridge......no phone no pool no pets. I'll be "King of the Road". Great tune by Roger Miller.

Edited June 18, 2007 by Redneck4sure

[DudeAsInCool]

AT&T willing to spy for NSA, MPAA, and RIAA

In a move that has executives from movie studios and record labels grinning from ear to ear, AT&T has announced that it will develop and deploy technology that will attempt to keep pirated content off its network. The move is spurred in part by the company's decision to offer IPTV television service as part of its U-Verse package, AT&T senior VP James W. Cicconi told the Los Angeles Times.

The first step for AT&T is coming up with a technological solution that works: something that can effectively filter out illicit traffic while protecting its users' privacy. That's a tall—if not impossible—order. YouTube hasn't managed to do it even for video yet, and that's when customers are sending them entire files which they can scan at their leisure. Monitoring all the files sent through BitTorrent—which splits them into tiny pieces—could be even more difficult; doing it in real-time sounds both expensive and impossible.

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[NelsonG]

Sounds like just a deal they made with the studios, etc to bring themselves exclusive content or prices. Their advantage is the size of their network.

...whoever said Bigger wasn't BETTER?

[DudeAsInCool]

Sounds like just a deal they made with the studios, etc to bring themselves exclusive content or prices. Their advantage is the size of their network.

...whoever said Bigger wasn't BETTER?

yep, they are seeking content. but they wont be able to stop questionable filesharing