AT&T and Other ISPs May Be Getting Ready to Filter

[wightstraker]

"For the past fifteen 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 ISPs may be about to embrace a new metaphor: traffic cop.

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

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/...sps-may-be-getting-ready-to-filter/index.html

I wonder if there's any way to nip these ideas in the bud?

 

[Iscariot]

I bet the dinosaurs clung to life, too.

 

[PlaceofDis]

not going to do much good imo. how will they determine whats allowed and whats not?

oh i know microsoft would love this, and i'm sure they have plenty of ideas and ways they want to implement it. but i just don't see how this would work.

AT&T needs to be broken up again, its gotten too big for itself.

 

[Prelude2Tragedy]

This is just one step toward censoring and regulating the internet, no matter what cloak they want to pull over the consumers eyes.

Big Corporations - 1
Personal Liberty - 0

 

[Rodimus Prime]

this is just wrong and what is worse is they are going to charge us an extra fee for doing this filtering.

So we will have to pay for filtering even though we object to it.♠

 

[rdowns]

This is all because the media companies are clinging to a dead business model and refuse to wake the f*** up. Sell us content at a fair price with minimal restrictions and let us watch it/listen to it on whatever device we choose and your profits will soar again. iTMS has proved there is a huge market for fair priced content, even with DRM.

 

[Bogie]

I would like the option at least to have it filtered. There's too many work arounds on a system side block. The option should at least be available for parents who want to protect their kids as much as possible.

 

[bigandy]

.... and as usual the clever people of the interwebs will find a way around it after corporate R&D hits $500m, and release it in an easy to use package, two days before it's implemented.

 

[GFLPraxis]

This has already begun. Research Sandvine, which is being used by Comcast in limited areas. They use it to block BitTorrent traffic. My PC can only download- Comcast blocks us in Spokane from uploading BitTorrent traffic by constantly sending reset packets.

 

[synth3tik]

I bet the dinosaurs clung to life, too.

LOL. Thank you. That made the day.

 

[Marble]

This has already begun. Research Sandvine, which is being used by Comcast in limited areas. They use it to block BitTorrent traffic. My PC can only download- Comcast blocks us in Spokane from uploading BitTorrent traffic by constantly sending reset packets.

Could you explain a little bit more about how this works? I assume this is more sophisticated than just blocking ports that Bittorrent clients typically use?

 

[0007776]

If they are dumb enough to do this I really hope they lose the lawsuits that will definitely happen and reopen everything.

 

[bigandy]

Could you explain a little bit more about how this works? I assume this is more sophisticated than just blocking ports that Bittorrent clients typically use?

undoubtedly some form of packet inspection at certain routing points on ISP networks. it's not that difficult to implement. you'd be freaked out if you knew how much ISPs can see anyway. i am. but then I see it first hand at work

 

[Marble]

undoubtedly some form of packet inspection at certain routing points on ISP networks. it's not that difficult to implement. you'd be freaked out if you knew how much ISPs can see anyway. i am. but then I see it first hand at work

It is freaky. Any idea if encryption would be a relevant countermeasure?

 

[neoserver]

Better yet, use some form of tunneling system like VPN... then they won't be able to distinguish "bad" packets from "good" ones...

 

[joshwillmarth]

Better yet, use some form of tunneling system like VPN... then they won't be able to distinguish "bad" packets from "good" ones...

Correct. Tunnel all of your traffic through an encrypted VPN and they will have no clue what you are doing.

Disclaimer: I run a VPN service.