According to this CNET article, AT&T and Comcast may soon be assisting the RIAA in combating piracy. What a boondoggle in the making—I’ll try and make this short and sweet.

ISPs cannot become arbiters of content and the defacto police for creators—this would be an extremely dangerous precedent. It conjures images of the Great Firewall of China. Piracy is a serious issue, but attempting to filter it at the ISP level is a minefield.

I have no problem paying for Internet access, but I won’t pay for access to MOST of the Internet. Filtering is not just a threat to individual’s access to a free flow of information, but a threat to all content creators and their rights to uncensored distribution. How long before any company with a bit of cash can filter out a smaller competitor for trumped up violations? How long before blacklists of questionable content become whitelists of paid-for content providers? For customers, what constitutes a violation, and what is the recourse? Does an ISP keep a running list of all your activities using their service without your consent, available for purchase by the highest bidder?

Today we enjoy a huge amount of open access and rely upon law enforcement and the courts to address copyright infringement. These duties should not be turned over to for-profit companies and advocacy groups. This isn’t just a threat to Net Neutrality, but to every citizen’s access to a free flow of uncensored information.

Update
Apparently, Google has similar ideas. Yesterday they launched M-Lab, “an open platform that researchers can use to deploy Internet measurement tools.”

At Google, we care deeply about sustaining the Internet as an open platform for consumer choice and innovation. No matter your views on net neutrality and ISP network management practices, everyone can agree that Internet users deserve to be well-informed about what they’re getting when they sign up for broadband, and good data is the bedrock of sound policy. Transparency has always been crucial to the success of the Internet, and, by advancing network research in this area, M-Lab aims to help sustain a healthy, innovative Internet.