Thursday, August 09, 2007

Goofin' at AT&T

If you want to really understand what Net Neutrality means and how it will disappear in the hands of telecom companies, look no further:
In a prominent nod to one of the festival's lead sponsors, the logo for this year's Lollapalooza concerts in Chicago includes the tag line, "delivered by AT&T." But Sunday's headliner Pearl Jam complained that AT&T delivered less than the band's full performance during its Lollapalooza webcast. The powerhouse telco turned off the audio during the song "Daughter" while singer Eddie Vedder was railing against President George Bush. That bit of censorship -- which AT&T says was a mistake -- gave a bit of fuel to the forces arguing for "Net neutrality" regulations.
...
AT&T spokeswoman Tiffany Nels said the company goofed. Its Blue Room website is open to Internet users of all ages, so it tries to block "excessive profanity" from the broadcasts. It hires contractors to monitor the performances, and the broadcasts are delayed slightly to enable monitors to bleep off-color material. But those monitors aren't supposed to edit songs, just the stage patter between them, Nels said. "It's not our policy" to censor performances, Nels said, "and we regret the error." She added, "There was no profanity. It was a mistake."
What, exactly, was this "excessive profanity" that caused it to be cut out of the broadcast?
"George Bush, leave this world alone"
"George Bush find yourself another home"
What I expect Tiffany actually meant was that it was not their policy to publicly admit AT&T would censor songs.

These are the corporate toads that want to control the internet but also want you to believe they won't do anything like they just did. Nothing about these people is to be trusted. Nothing.

2 Comments:

Blogger The Misanthrope said...

I am going to post your entire post on my site (Friday AM). If you object I'll delete it right away. As many people as possible should see this.

11:55 PM  
Blogger theBhc said...

Nope. Go right ahead.

11:35 AM  

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