Light Reading has an story that contrasts the views of AT&T; and Verizon on dealing with copyrighted material on their networks.
Verizon is said to reluctant to monitor what is traversing its network. Besides privacy and the risk of missing content that should be screened, Verizon is concerned about the slippery slope: having to identify what other types of content should be blocked.
Verizon’s executive vice president for public affairs Tom Tauke said:
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.
On the other hand, AT&T; CEO Randall Stephenson told the World Economic Forum that AT&T; was looking for ways to actively block unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material on its network. He told the conference in Davos:
It’s like being in a store and watching someone steal a DVD. Do you act?
If the state of deep packet inspection technology for traffic management provides information about the nature of the content, even the rightful ownership of the content, can service providers continue to turn a blind eye to their role in transmission of contraband material?
AT&T;’s official statement on the matter is:
We want to set the record straight that we have not said we are going to filter, and in fact, there is no technology solution available at this time. What we have said is that we are working with some in the content industry on the very real issue of piracy that has raised costs for all Internet users. It is our hope that this relationship leads to encouraging the legal downloads of movies, TV shows, and other entertainment and content.
We will be exploring the issue of net neutrality in a special session on Wednesday June 18 at The Canadian Telecom Summit in June.
Update [February 11, 11:30 am]
Michael Geist’s column in the Toronto Star today speaks of cloud computing and raises the question of an legal protection for ISPs for hosted content but over which they have no knowledge or control.
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