Phone Carriers Vs. Piracy

Here's an oldie but a goodie...

Hollywood wants Verizon to filter traffic that holds copyrighted data. Verizon’s response? No way. Verizon states that they have no intention on filtering traffic over their network. What does AT&T do? Well, they are already ahead of the game and working on a filtering system. Two companies with two very different opinions on privacy and piracy.

There are two possible reasons why Verizon does not wish to fight the battle of piracy with their customers. The first potential reason is that the company does not want to invest the time and money in a system to find copyright infringing material. AT&T, after all, seems to have been dedicating a lot of time to creating a system that will find, locate, and filter copyright infringement. What would Verizon gain from doing this anyways? Well, they would gain nothing and potentially lose customers. It would be the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot.

The other possibility is that Verizon sincerely wants to give the impression of protecting its users to earn more customers, or the company is just lazy. If the company was being lazy, claiming they want to protect their customers is a much wiser decision. We already know that Verizon doesn’t care too much about their customers, but at least this way they make them feel warm and cozy. Consumers will take notice of these issues, one day, and if there are more alternative ISPs available, people will switch.

AT&T, on the other hand, just seems hellbent on wanting to surrender its customer’s privacy. Why is this? Some people have opinions on the situation, and they all lead to one thing. AT&T wants to save on the bandwidth costs by reducing copyright violations. It is their network; however, I am of the opinion that this is a stupid move.

Unfortunately, the piracy debates are just beginning. In the future, governments will put legislation into effect that will make piracy more difficult, and the punishments will slowly grow more intense. Verizon’s unwillingness to comply is just a genius marketing plan, and that plan will earn the company more customers.