MPAA Says Net Neutrality Would Hamper Its Anti-Piracy Efforts

from the must-be-a-bad-idea-then dept

If you were on the fence about net neutrality, this might just push you over: the MPAA has sent a letter to the FCC saying that net neutrality regulations shouldn't be implemented because they might interfere with filtering technologies and foster the sharing of copyrighted content. Like so many things the MPAA says, this doesn't make a lot of sense. Even if net neutrality regulations covered the use of packet inspection and filtering to weed out illegal content (and it's not clear that they would), the regulations would only apply to ISPs. Despite the proactive stance AT&T is taking in sucking to Hollywood by deciding on its own to try and filter content, few ISPs would want to join them. There's no reason for them to try and filter out copyrighted content: they have no legal responsibility to do so, thanks to safe harbor laws, while spending money to do something that's only going to annoy their customers is generally regarded as a bad idea. It's not hard to see what's happening here, though. The MPAA wants to ensure that net neutrality laws, or anything else, would preclude ISP filtering -- then it's going to push for new laws forcing ISPs to police their networks for unauthorized content.

Filed Under: net neutrality, piracy, politics
Companies: at&t, mpaa