ATT and Others Set to Filter the Internet?

In a classic case of closing the barn doors after the horses get out, media companies are frantically trying to keep their products in the form that they want them at the price they want us to pay. I understand this, honestly.

I, like most people, am totally against piracy as it pertains to movies and music on a big scale. I'll go out on a limb, and say that people who illegally obtain media, and distribute it for sale are bad. OK? I don't even like it when people download movies on those sharing sites. There's something distasteful about that to me.

The line is fuzzier when it comes to ripping CDs, copying them to your iPod, or burning a CD for your mom. And if you're only using music or video that you've already paid for on a different device, well, I don't see anything wrong with that.

So while going after the big dudes makes total sense to me, it sounds in this story like they're trying to go after the little guy. And creating roadblocks and hassles to getting legitimate media. It sounds bad.

[Excerpt]

AT&T and Other I.S.P.’s May Be Getting Ready to Filter

For the last 15 years, Internet service providers have acted - to use an old cliche - as wide-open information super-highways, letting data flow uninterrupted and unimpeded between users and the Internet.

But I.S.P.’s may be about to embrace a new metaphor: traffic cop.

At a small panel discussion about digital piracy at NBC’s booth on the Consumer Electronics Show floor, representatives from NBC, Microsoft, several digital filtering companies and the telecom giant AT&T said the time was right to start filtering for copyrighted content at the network level. . .

Read more at: New York Times