While AT&T is considering helping large copyright owners police infringements on its network, Verizon. The NYT Bits Blog reports, Verizon Rejects Hollywood’s Call to Aid Piracy Fight. Tom Tauke, Verizon’s executive vice president for public affairs offers three reasons why ISPs have no incentive to monitoring for copyright infringements:
“1) The slippery slope.
Once you start going down the path of looking at the information going down the network, there are many that want you to play the role of policeman. Stop illegal gambling offshore. Stop pornography. Stop a whole array of other kinds of activities that some may think inappropriate.
2) It opens up potential liability for failing to block copyrighted work.
When you look back at the history of copyright legislation, there has been an effort by Hollywood to pin the liability for copyright violations on the network that transmits the material. It is no secret they think we have deeper pockets than others and we are easy-to-find targets.
3) Privacy.
Anything we do has to balance the need of copyright protection with the desire of customers for privacy.”
