AT&T Will Talk with Copyright Filter Critics
AT&T’s planned copyright network filter is raising telco interest and consumer group concern. The technology -- now at the “vaporware” stage, in one onlooker’s words -- aims to balance the need of Viacom and other Hollywood companies to protect copyrighted data with consumers’ right to access legitimate material, AT&T spokesman Claudia Jones said (CD June 14 p14). But EFF Senior Intellectual Property attorney Fred von Lohmann told Communications Daily he doubts such a “silver bullet” technology can be cast: “AT&T wants consumers to just trust them and Hollywood. But why should they?”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
AT&T needs consumer trust to succeed, Progress & Freedom Foundation Pres. Thomas Lenard told us. If it invades consumers’ privacy and angers them, they'll go elsewhere, he said. Besides, copyright protection is a positive Internet development, he said: “I don’t see [copyright filter development] as a problem for anyone.”
AT&T should involve consumer advocates in the technology talks, von Lohmann said, calling first developing technology, then asking for consumer opinion “backwards.” AT&T is willing to discuss its antipiracy efforts, it said: “We keep a regular and open dialogue on privacy and other consumer issues, and there is no reason those discussions should not extend to our antipiracy efforts,” a spokeswoman said: “We're happy to sit down with EFF and any other groups to listen, to learn, and to try to be as responsive as we can.”
The filter is an “unfortunate example of the way companies who need access to Hollywood content serve Hollywood needs before customers’,” von Lohmann said. AT&T and any other company “no longer satisfied with just being an ISP” may be forced to appease Hollywood, to distribute its video over their networks, he said: “Can companies that need content hold out if Hollywood threatens them? Or will they make the deal with the devil?”
“AT&T is aggressively moving into the content distribution business,” the carrier said in a statement: “Our success is critically dependent on our ability to provide a secure and reliable platform to distribute content for content providers and consumers alike. We also know that piracy severely dampens incentives for content creators to make their products available. When content is secure, providers are encouraged to make it available to more people in more ways.”
AT&T’s project is “futile” because each day technology expands the collective ability to make and distribute copies of material, von Lohmann said: “To think fighting the tide will work is pretty short-sighted.” MovieLabs CEO Steve Weinstein disagreed: Fingerprinting technology -- developed to interpret songs played through cellphones -- is powerful enough to recognize copyrighted material that has been transformed, he said. Fingerprinting works at the ISP level, he said -- but it’s up to the ISP to decide how to use it.
For now, Qwest and Verizon will wait to see what comes of copyright filters, they said. Qwest follows “all developments related to security and privacy with interest,” it said. Verizon will monitor the technology’s progress, but generally errs on the side of customer privacy protection, it said. Von Lohmann voiced optimism that, given its privacy record, Verizon will stay away from copyright filters.
Cable operators “do not face the same problems that AT&T does,” CableLabs senior Vp-Communications Mike Schwartz said. CableLabs, a nonprofit R&D cable operator consortium, isn’t working on a copyright filter “because cable operators have long protected the content they distributed via strong conditional access systems,” he said.
Entertainment companies enthused about the AT&T announcement. An NBC Universal spokesman said: “AT&T deserves praise for stepping up to the challenge of developing technology that protects copyrighted content and doesn’t intrude in any way on the privacy of its customers.” Viacom agreed: “We are pleased that AT&T has decided to take such a strong, proactive position in protecting copyrights,” the company said: “AT&T’s support of strong anti-piracy efforts will be instrumental in developing a growing and vibrant digital marketplace and will help ensure that they have a steady stream of great creative content to deliver to their consumers.” And Chmn. John Kennedy of global recording industry assn. IFPI said: “ISPs hold the key to stopping mass copyright infringement and other ISPs should follow AT&T’s lead and examine how they can take action to uphold the law online.”