Already reviled for their cooperation with the US Government on electronic wiretapping of any data that cross the AT&T high-speed backbone, the newly reconstituted Ma Bell is taking additional steps to further piss off Internet privacy advocates. Yesterday, it was announced that AT&T would be working with industry groups in Hollywood and the music industry to filter and remove copyrighted materials from their network, a first for a major Internet carrier.
The decision to develop technology to filter out content deemed illegal for violating copyright in and of itself is nothing to get into an uproar over, but in the case of AT&T, the decision not only impacts their customers, but of most Internet users across the US and even the globe. When you go to connect to some website, send an email, or download a file from a server on the other side of the world, your connection is not always crossing the network of the Internet Service Provider you have an account with. Packets you send out will take the shortest, fastest route to the destination, which means they may cross the networks of major backbone connectivity providers such as Cogent, or AT&T. So AT&T taking on the watchdog role can impact everyone, even those who never agreed to an AT&T service agreement.
This decision also calls into question AT&T's common carrier status, which says that if you're just providing the lines of communication, you are not responsible for how anyone uses those lines. This legal protection prevents someone from suing a phone company because a customer placed a threatening phone call using the service. With AT&T getting ready to police their lines for illegal content, they're forfeiting that status and protection.
The LA Times is one of many media outlets covering the story. Check the link below for more.