AT & T Targets P2P in the Battle against Copy Right Infringement

P2P has been targeted by AT&T as in need of a “Technology based solution…” and James Cicconi (VP Legal and External) states that the solution would have to be “network based…” Indeed the infrastructure giant has been in talks with Technology Companies, MPAA & RIAA, about producing a network wide block for copy right infringement. Indeed the growing problem of copyright infringement, especially through P2P technology has caused shockwaves at the head offices of music, movie and media corporations worldwide. Nick Cotton, general counsel for NBC Universal has specifically targeted P2P and suggest that the current situation “…should not be an acceptable, continuing status…the question is how we collectively collaborate to address this.” As difficult as it is to imagine the battling Mass Media companies acting as a collective, it seems that they have little choice, this issue poses a direct and real threat to these companies, as revenues decline and production costs increase the margins are being squeezed very hard indeed. Whilst I do not necessarily agree with copy right infringement, the pressure that the internet has put on the industry as a whole has had some positive effects; it has necessitated change, for the first time in a generation, in the media arts. Music has become far more accessible, and cheaper to legally download, and anybody is able to produce a song, get it on the net and get viewers (Arctic Monkeys being the eponymous web success in the UK, check out their stuff on www.arcticmonkeys.com, they rock.) Cinema has had to innovate and make viewing the product at a cinema a more appealing option to the consumer with Imax and the latest production techniques of films such as Beowulf. So if the corporations manage to blanket the ISP’s and eliminates illegal downloading will these innovations disappear, probably, at the very least the cost of maintaining such control over the web will just be passed onto the consumer in the end, making all of our media more expensive. Lets face it, even with P2P and other copyright issues, the big boys still call all of the shots and still generate huge profits. Lenin said that all art should be free, and that everybody had the basic right to information, but then again, he was a dirty commie.