I.S.P.’s May Start Filtering for Copyright Infringement
In the ongoing battle of copyright infringement the New York Times informs that AT&T and a few other I.S.P.’s have started to discuss the possibility of filtering for pirated material. The news comes from a panel at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) where a few third party filtering companies along with NBC, Microsoft, AT&T and others discussed the minimal success of preventing users from sharing and downloading copyrighted material. Currently, I.S.P.’s act as an open “data highway” allowing users to download and distrubute anything without looking at it’s contents.
From a consumer standpoint this sounds terrible. Just what average joe customer needs, his over priced I.S.P. starting to act like big brother. The real issue that keeps getting swept under the rug is that our concepts of copyrighted material are outdated and need to adjust to reflect the change in technology and world we live in today. Of course the record industry, media conglomerates and general owners of copyrighted material would beg to differ and this will continue to be a bloody fight for years to come.
