AT&T Piracy Filters Tread Dangerous Ground Telco in talks with NBC Universal & Disney (old news - 01:54PM Thursday Nov 08 2007) tags: Video · competition · Fileswapping · business · content · net-neutrality · AT&T U-Verse · AT&T DSL Service AT&T is the first ISP we've seen that wants to voluntarily put mechanisms in place that will filter pirated material from the company's network. "As AT&T has begun selling pay-television services, the company has realized that its interests are more closely aligned with Hollywood," AT&T's James Cicconi stated when the plan was first unveiled. No specific technology has been announced, but insiders say that AT&T has been testing a solution from Vobile since last Spring. Vobile insists their "Video DNA" technology has a "a near-zero false positive rate." AT&T has promised that whatever technology is utilized, they'll be sure to protect subscriber privacy. Given AT&T's recent history, that's not comforting privacy advocates. It also may not make simple business sense. Investors may not like a significant investment in a technology that -- if history is any indication -- pirates will certainly find ways around. Techdirt notes that the plans aren't legally necessary, since AT&T is protected by safe harbor provisions they helped enact. AT&T also risks a massive backlash from customers, given that it's no secret (unless you're in public relations, or denial) that piracy has been this industry's killer app. In addition to driving file traders to competing networks (if there are any), the filters, if implemented poorly, could accidentally block legitimate content. Given that this could rile network neutrality advocates, marketing of the plan will be key. Business Week says the company is hard at work on how to pitch this technology to their users, with one plan being to first sell the solution as an anti-kiddie porn weapon: AT&T is also working on a plan for marketing the approach to consumers. One possibility is to focus at first on using the technology as a way to filter illegal content, such as child pornography. "This could make it all seem a lot more innocent," says Forrester Research (FORR) analyst James McQuivey. The website notes that AT&T is in talks with NBC Universal and Walt Disney to help prevent specific trafficking of their content. NBC, in their never ending quest to help the American farmer, has been demanding that the FCC force ISPs to implement such filters, and has even advocated pirated content filters on home networking gear. Related: AT&T To Buy Echostar? AT&T Invests In Anti-Piracy Firm TorrentSpy Calls It Quits AT&T Developing New Web Browser Wait, Why Exactly Am I Writing About Zillion TV? Google Voice Ban Is Clear Network Neutrality Violation Nobody's Complaining About Comcast's New Throttling What Network Neutrality Is REALLY About

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Neil Armstrong, products director at BT-owned ISP PlusNet, said: "It isn't possible for us to tell if a customer is downloading a copyright file or not unless we specifically 'snoop' every packet on the customer's line.

"We would obviously only do this where we have a proper request from the relevant legal authority to do so, and even then it is unlikely we would be able to see inside encrypted payloads."

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The rapid acceleration in encryption isn't limited to BitTorrenters. Estimates say torrent traffic accounts for about between 50 and 60 per cent of all file-sharing. Usenet, which the RIAA recently said is a bigger offender than Kazaa-type services, accounts for about another 25 per cent. It's set to see more scrambled files shared over it, too, as providers including Giganews now offer SSL encryption.

Paul Sanders, part of the team of music and ISP veterans behind PlayLouder [said] "I think this trend is absolutely a warning to those people in the music industry who believe they can win this war"

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The principles of "net neutrality" are as old as the telegraph, but they've only become widely known since the advent of the digital age. Simply put, net neutrality ensures that all communication traffic, be it voice or data, has not been tampered with as it travels between any and all sources. But in North America, net neutrality lies in a legal grey area. In Canada, Philippa Lawson, director of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, says blocking Internet traffic raises the question if it is unfair discriminating Web usage which is prohibited under the Telecommunications Act.

In the United States, an FCC policy statement says "consumers are entitled to run applications and services of their choice," but that principle is "subject to reasonable network management."

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