First ISP to team up with copyright holders to to keep pirated content off its network.
It seems AT&T Inc is joining forces with the MPAA and RIAA to keep pirated content off its internet network, making it the first ISP to do so, and perhaps heralding a new age where providers begin to police the content shared on their networks.
Many ISPs have been the frequent subject of criticism for not doing more to crack down on customers who download and shared pirated content illegally. They have, in the past, required court orders to single out customers whose IP addresses have been under scrutiny by the MPAA or the RIAA, never being proactive in this pursuit over fears of angering customers who could easily switch carriers.
For the first time an ISP seems to not care, actually joining forces with the MPAA and the RIAA “…to develop anti-piracy technology that would target the most frequent offenders, said James W. Cicconi, an AT&T senior vice president.”
The obvious reason would seem to be that it’s attempting to free up bandwidth resources, as P2P and file-sharing programs make up something like 2/3 of network traffic on average but, it seems that the real reason is to actually help defend its fledgling new cable TV service.
It recently launched a new cable TV service called U-verse in a handful of cities and neighborhoods across the country, and apparently has come to the realization that it too is now a content provider and so must take a stand against customers who would try to get content for free using its internet network.
AT&T’s top leaders decided to help the MPAA, and thereby the RIAA by default, in protecting copyrighted content since it is now a provider of such material.
“We are pleased that AT&T has decided to take such a strong, proactive position in protecting copyrights,” Viacom said in a prepared statement. “AT&T’s support of strong anti-piracy efforts will be instrumental in developing a growing and vibrant digital marketplace and will help ensure that they have a steady stream of great creative content to deliver to their consumers.”
Last week, execs from a number of Hollywood studios met with AT&T execs to devise a “…technology that would stem piracy but not violate privacy laws or Internet freedoms espoused by the Federal Communications Commission.”
But, the EFF doubts such claims are tenable commenting that “The risk AT&T faces is fighting the last war by spending money and energy plugging an old hole in the wall when new ones are breaking out,” and that “The answer should be to figure out how to turn them into paying customers.”
Other critics like Gigi B. Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a digital rights advocacy group.also criticized the plan noting that “AT&T is going to act like the copyright police, and that is going to make customers angry.” She furthered that The good news for AT&T is that there’s so little competition that where else are the customers going to go?”
This is what’s really most disturbing in all of this. With the number of ISPs providing reliable home broadband connection service limited to oftentimes a single choice in many cities, a customer doesn’t have the ability to switch to an alternative if he disagrees with AT&T closely monitoring his traffic on their network.
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Let them start losing customers and then you may see how much they care!
Using this tactic/logic I wonder how long it would before telephone companies begin to monitor their customer’s calls in the name of stopping crime and terrorism?
thank god i have comcast! to meyou123: they can’t lose customers if there’s no competition in the area
hey im switching HA! what idiots they are going to loose alot of customers i for damn sure will be switching
im just so angry i had to comment once more. F@CK AT&T . Soon comcast will take over~
I think you are deluding yourselves. Most of the subscribers will probably be unaware of this unless AT&T make mention of it in a mass emailing/newsletter or some broadcast on a big network and even then a lot of people ignore it/miss it. The amount of drop off will be probably be miniscule. This is the problem. We create these monsters. We flock to the services and they grow to be the biggest for that area and then they are a monopoly for that area so they can do damn near what they like and you just have to suck it up or leave (Thus losing service entirely if they are the only player available). We can only hope this does not spread. Of course we all know they will use AT&T as an example to try and push other ISP’s to do the same. Especially through the political/law system.
there is no choice in HULL! We only have karoo offered by kingston communication (not BT). If they start to do this as well we are forced to comply!!
I just love how the internet is increasingly becoming more and more regulated.
To those who said AT&T would not lose customers over this I think you are just fooling yourselves. When enough people get sued and find out it was AT&T that turned them in it will only be a matter of time before people start to turn away in droves!
AT&T already spies on our phone calls for the NSA duh they are going to make what’s left of our free life a living hell.