AT&T Censorship of Pearl Jam Brings Attention to Net Neutrality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQH1tp8_zAA
A bit of heavy-handed censorship of a Pearl Jam concert by AT&T this weekend led the band to fire off an open letter to fans—a letter in which Pearl Jam railed against media and ISP consolidation and called for readers to support network neutrality.
The incident happened during a Lollapalooza webcast over at AT&T’s “Blue Room” media showcase. Pearl Jam’s performance of their big 90’s hit “Daughter” morphed into the melody from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” and Eddie Vedder served up a pair of anti-Bush lyrics to the tune. “George Bush, leave this world alone,” he sang. “George Bush, find yourself another home.”
Fans at the event got to hear the words in all their glory, but in the webcast, the lines were censored—AT&T made the decision to silence them, apparently believing that they would prove offensive to listeners. When Pearl Jam found out about the censorship, the band posted a strongly-worded message on its web site.
I hate cutting and pasting entire articles, but I had to comment on how happy I am to see one of my all time favorite bands advocating network neutrality. Now many people may say “woah, wait a minute….AT&T can do whatever they want with their network” which I can respect to a certain degree however, I do not think AT&T has the right to decide what is acceptable for viewers just because they may not support Pearl Jam’s anti-Bush lyrics. AT&T seems to think that they are the new FCC of the internets.
Filed under: net neutrality, Blogs
