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By Saul Hansell, Bits Blog - NYTimes.com, Sept. 25, 2008
Mr. McCurry has spent the last two years as the chairman of Hands Off the Internet, a group that opposes proposed laws to create what has been called network neutrality. The group has been criticized by Common Cause (and others) for hiding the fact that it’s backed by major phone companies, including AT&T. (The group’s site now lists its members.)click here to read the full article
Net neutrality and filtering for copyrighted material are not the same issue, but they are related. The net neutrality proposals are meant to keep Internet providers from discriminating against some content flowing over their networks. Depending on how a net neutrality rule were written, it might or might not restrict the ability of an I.S.P. to block copyrighted material.
Internet providers like AT&T are interested in such filtering as a way to reduce the high usage of their networks by people trading video files. Most telephone and cable companies, moreover, are in the video business and need to maintain good relationships with media companies.
