Why does AT&T want to know what you’re downloading?
Chances are that as you read this article, it is passing over part of AT&T’s network. That matters, because last week AT&T announced that it is seriously considering plans to examine all the traffic it carries for potential violations of U.S. intellectual property laws. The prospect of AT&T, already accused of spying on our telephone calls, now scanning every e-mail and download for outlawed content is way too totalitarian for my tastes. But the bizarre twist is that the proposal is such a bad idea that it would be not just a disservice to the public but probably a disaster for AT&T itself. If I were a shareholder, I’d want to know one thing: Has AT&T, after 122 years in business, simply lost its mind?
No one knows exactly what AT&T is proposing to build. But if the company means what it says, we’re looking at the beginnings of a private police state. That may sound like hyperbole, but what else do you call a system designed to monitor millions of people’s Internet consumption? That’s not just Orwellian; that’s Orwell.
How can a corporation be a “common carrier” and examine packets crossing it’s network? This makes no sense!
One of the intelligence agencies wants to do that with every packet on the Internet so what’s the big deal?
Only they won’t be looking for IP violations.
🙁
This is the set-up for the spy spoof “In Like Flynt” (I think?). Yes–Ma Bell the fascist ubercorp.
This only makes sense if they are being paid to do so by RIAA or similar group or they have that much IP of their own–which I assume they don’t, but maybe they do?
Hard to complain about ANYBODY enforcing the law. Rather, we should complain about the law itself, and get it change.
IP has been taken way too far.
If they say they are thinking about it doesn’t that mean that they are doing it already?
That’s a lot of traffic to monitor. It would require a huge investment in computing power. So there’s no incentive for them to do unless someone is paying them to do it. The question is, who?
I guess we’ll have to start encrypting downloads now so they can’t be monitored.
Mmm… I just said to my wife that my ATT email is slower than my other emails. If I send an email from a third account I have, I get it faster on gmail than ATT email. I know there could be other factors but now I am beginning to wonder. I may cancel my ATT email account ($10 a month).
Common carrier only applies to their phone network. The isp doesn’t fall under those rules. However, the point to point data does.
Check again. Start by reading the article.
Point the finger at China huh?
😆
Cheers
#3 Hard to complain about ANYBODY enforcing the law.
Did we completely outsource our government already?
Sitting here waiting for big brother to show up. Everything is in place.
So I take a photo and e-mail it to a friend. How is ATT to know whose copyright it is?
Its called payback to the government for letting AT&T reconstitute themselves after the big break up so many decades ago.
I would think AT&T is setting itself up for a massive class action law suit. They can not be the arbitrators of what is protected property and what is not.
If I send a Torrent file to several customers then I don’t want them complaining to me that it is incomplete. That is bad for my business and could end up costing me money.
I use AT+T so I must transmit this message in code:
Ay-thay an-cay ite-bay y-may ass-hay.
Seriously- At some point some hard-working programer will develop and popularize a system wherein all data on all servers is encrypted, and the clients use encrypted connections to said servers. The transmisssions will appear to be full of gibberish to the snoopers. What you look at and I look at is none of the governments or AT+T’s business.
A simple change to their terms of service will take care of that.
Grammar warning—warning—
Run for your lives!
contraction in headline posing as a possessive: it’s
[Fixed. That’ll teach me to post something in the middle of the night! — Uncle Dave]
and just like the fbi, the riaa and the mpaa will fail to pay the bills and at&t will pull the plug.
Look at&t will scam them like any other customer.
you think they are really gonna report anyone.. not while they can keep collecting scam money from the biggest scammers in the usa!! once the riaa and mpaa stop paying up they’ll pull the plug.
Won’t that open up AT&T for huge liabilities under the MDCPA? Right now ISP’s and hosts can not be held liable for copyright violations as long as they remove contested content when notified.
If AT&T proactively monitors content, then they can be help liable under the law if any copyrighted content shows up on their servers or networks.
I can’t imagine why on earth this would be worth it for AT&T. Between the expense of doing this, and the liability they will incur, not to mention the customer wrath.