New Police State?

AT&T is considering becoming police of the internet. The company has been in discussions with technology companies as well as the the M.P.A.A. and R.I.A.A. about carrying out digital fingerprinting techniques on the network level. The point would be to sniff out any violations of U.S. Intellectual Property Laws and clamp down on piracy.

Anyone think that if this goes through, we should just shut down the internet? Say, "it's been great, but see ya" to the good ol' information superhighway?

Not to mention, this is a terrible idea for AT&T, as pointed out here:

On the technical side, if I were an AT&T engineer asked to implement this plan, I would resign immediately and look for work at Verizon. AT&T's engineers are already trying to manage the feat of getting trillions of packets around the world at light speed. To begin examining those packets for illegal pictures of Britney Spears would be a nuisance, at best, and a threat to the whole Internet, at worst.

Well, I suppose it is a noble goal to rid the world of illegal Britney pictures.

More about AT&T's nutty idea from the NYTimes here.