AT&T to Facilitate the Prosecution of its own Customers
Here we go again. This time, it's AT&T jumping into bed with the RIAA and the MPAA to root out the evil in their own customers. With competition out of control in their space, they felt it was more important to take care of corporate connections by facilitating the prosecution of their own customers for file sharing (of the questionably legal variety).
Dave Winer says it best:
"What a lack of awareness of their relationship with customers. They should do things to reward customers for being smart enough to have chosen AT&T as their Internet service provider. Instead, they would make their customers the stupidest people on the planet, choosing the only ISP that will send you to jail to create a new business model for them. Instead of competing to provide great service at the lowest possible price, they want to drive their customers to financial ruin, for having made the mistake of choosing AT&T."
It does bring up the question, is all illegality equal? For sure, I expect AT&T to expose child pornographers within their network. Is this any different, really? I have an idea, but really I'd just like to hear what you have to say.
Is it different for AT&T to turn over a child pornographer than a bootlegger of intellectual property? You tell me.