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June 14, 2007

AT&T to exit the Internet

AT&T is going to start policing its network to prevent the distribution of materials it considers to violate copyright. (Um, Fair Use?) It's doing this so it can strike special deals with content companies to offer their products exclusively.

Putting a cop in the middle of the network and making available content not accessible by other networks means that if the AT&T says it's offering Internet connectivity, it's lying. The Internet is a set of protocols that ensure that bits will be moved across networks (inter-networking) without giving special privileges or control to the carriers.

And forget the definitional violation. This is a big step toward turning the Internet into cable TV -- a proprietary network that makes money by selling its users content. [Tags: net_neutrality att berkman copyright copyleft digital_rights]

Posted by D. Weinberger at June 14, 2007 11:25 AM


Comments

I wonder if they plan on doing this for their wireless division too?

Posted by: Ricky | June 14, 2007 12:36 PM


yea, and I suppose G. bush is president, too

Posted by: yougotthatright | June 14, 2007 12:50 PM


Unfortunately, this isn't a big surprise. The current chair of AT&T was the CEO of SBC who first declared his intention to start shaking down Google, etc, for access to his customers (who were already paying him for access to Google, etc).

Posted by: eas | June 14, 2007 01:31 PM


It will soon be time for a Samizdat network. There must be at least one already. Could a completely bottom up infrastructure really work? It could be good, it could be not so good. But a corporate controlled internet is sounding worse and worse by the minute.


Posted by: Bill Anderson | June 14, 2007 01:51 PM


This is weird.

I can see AT&T (and/or Comcast) doing something at the edges that they serve. It would be great to help trap spam/phishing zombies before they get into the cloud. I would hope this intervention is not at the traffic and routing level. That would violate lots of conditions.

But policing the edges might make sense as a term of conditions as an ISP. Then we get to haggle on what conditions are intrusive and objectionable there.

Posted by: orcmid | June 17, 2007 03:38 PM


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Posted by: fasdf | June 18, 2007 02:58 AM


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