AT&T Says: Downloading Is Bad, Mmmkay?

Today must be my ISP ranting day. First, there's issues with Comcast, and now this!

AT&T has apparently made it no secret that they wish to filter traffic on the network level. At CES this year, they participated in a panel that also featured Microsoft and NBC to discuss their desire to move forward with network-management packages.

In essence, they want to be able to sniff out the downloading/uploading of copyrighted material and kill it. Kill it dead. Without remorse or flowers. Why have they come to this conclusion? Well, according to James Ciccioni, Senior VP of legal and external affairs for AT&T:

“What we are already doing to address piracy hasn’t been working. There’s no secret there... We are very interested in a technology based solution and we think a network-based solution is the optimal way to approach this. We recognize we are not there yet but there are a lot of promising technologies. But we are having an open discussion with a number of content companies, including NBC Universal, to try to explore various technologies that are out there”

So they have decided to move forward with traffic shaping! When asked about how they think they'll be successful in this venture where Comcast has had... less than stellar results (ask their share holders what they think about traffic shaping once the lawsuit and FCC fines are leveraged), the AT&T rep responded that they would have to pay close attention to consumers desires and find a "friendly" way of cutting off your bandwidth.

That's exactly what a consumer that already pays too much for broadband access wants: an F*** you with a smile!

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