Verizon to Hollywood: 'We Won't Help You Fight Piracy'

Refuses to take on the role of traffic cop, and says that it generally sees increased traffic as a "good thing."

In a recent interview, Tom Tauke, Verizon’s executive vice president for public affairs, criticizes Hollywood's efforts to get ISPs like AT&T to begin identifying and preventing copyrighted material from being illegally shared on its network.

Verizon seemingly acknowledges the fallacy of trying to monitor and police traffic on its broadband network, as well as the futility of even the most well financed efforts in doing so.

“We generally are reluctant to get into the business of examining content that flows across our networks and taking some action as a result of that content,” he said.

Now The fact that AT&T is even considering the proposal seems crazy in its own right that is, until one considers that it just underwent a controversial, and hugely partisan merger with BellSouth, which gave it effective control over more than half the telephone and Internet access lines in the US! If you want evidence of it attempting to cozy up to politicians and the entertainment industry that spreads around millions in contributions, then look no further.

Tauke also points out that unlike AT&T, which seems overly burdened by all of the increased traffic thanks to the illegal file-sharing of video content, it embraces the increased need for services from its customers. "We see substantial increases in the volume of traffic," he says. "Generally we see that as a good thing"

"We have more customers paying for more services we provide."

On the issue if BitTorrent throttling, or traffic shaping, Tauke says that “We don’t want to solve any network congestion issues by restricting the flow of certain kinds of traffic."

He then noted 3 clear observations about how "examining content" is a bad idea.

1) The slippery slope.

Once you start going down the path of looking at the information going down the network, there are many that want you to play the role of policeman. Stop illegal gambling offshore. Stop pornography. Stop a whole array of other kinds of activities that some may think inappropriate.

2) It opens up potential liability for failing to block copyrighted work.

When you look back at the history of copyright legislation, there has been an effort by Hollywood to pin the liability for copyright violations on the network that transmits the material. It is no secret they think we have deeper pockets than others and we are easy-to-find targets.

3) Privacy.

Anything we do has to balance the need of copyright protection with the desire of customers for privacy.

It sounds like there may just be an ISP out there with some common sense after all. It's a dirty little secret among them that illegal file-sharing is what's driving the demand for faster and faster internet connection speeds.

Streaming video from YouTube and e-mail in no way justifies expensive $45 dollars a month subscription packages offering 7Mbps DL and 512Kbps UL speeds! It's illegal file-sharers who are driving the demand for such services and as Tauke says, at least Verizon sees the need for such services as a "good thing."

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