AT&T Spying For The MPAA and RIAA

The LA Times is reporting that AT&T will be the first major Internet provider that will develop anti piracy technology to target individuals downloading and sharing music and movies.

It’s probable that AT&T has caved to the movie and record lobbies in order to receive a favorable deals so they can offer movies, TV shows and music over AT&T services. AT&T has just recently begun selling pay-television services.

“We do recognize that a lot of our future business depends on exciting and interesting content,” he [James W. Cicconi, an AT&T senior vice president] said.

But critics say the company is going to be fighting a losing battle and angering its own customers, and it should focus instead on developing incentives for users to pay for all the content they want.

I completely agree with that assessment. The biggest issue here is that Hollywood keeps on ignoring what consumers want and how they want it. Even if piracy were to stop overnight, Hollywood’s problems would continue as consumers aren’t as interested in the ways Hollywood delivers content anymore.

[AT&T to target pirated content]

[tags]at & t, at and t, at&t, att[/tags]