AT&T blocks Pearl Jam's Bush slam

[sabra]

http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/08/08/pearl_jam/

Anyone who was at Sunday's Pearl Jam show closing the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago would have seen the band in a political mood. Eddie Vedder invited an injured Iraq war soldier up to the stage and called on the audience to work for peace in the Middle East. And in the middle of a performance of "Daughter," Vedder sang "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush find yourself another home" to the tune of "Another Brick in the Wall."

But if you were at home listening to the show on the Webcast being provided by AT&T, you would have missed those lines. As the band writes on its site, the Web transmission cut out the protest lines. AT&T says its monitor did so by mistake -- what a strangely precise and politically convenient mistake!

The band says the company's actions highlight the need for action on "network neutrality" -- the fight for regulations prohibiting broadband firms from making decisions about what content is and is not allowed on their networks. AT&T is currently fighting network neutrality, helping the NSA spy on Americans, and developing a way for Hollywood to police the Internet.

[Nomad559]

1. :- )

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x299892

:)

[NashVegas]

2. I Don't Think Net Neutrality Will Dent This Particular Instance

AT & T cuts deals with festival organizers (Bonnaroo, Vegoose, Lolla..) and owns the broadcast / webcast rights to the live stage recordings, exclusively.

Net neutrality wouldn't make a difference in this instance because no other entity could stream it without getting threatened with a lawsuit.

[peacetalksforall]

3. I'm curious to read whether anyone defends AT&T.

Does anyone here remember their earliest impressions of AT&T - weren't they once considered an honorable company or were they an American disaster from the start?