There is an interesting parallel available from another common utility. It's well known that many power companies look for statistical "oddities" in consumer power usage. A sudden drastic drop in month-to-month usage (taking time of year into account) *might* suggest meter tampering (though it could also be a sudden dropoff in major appliance usage, installation of solar panels, etc.)
Similarly, a massive unusual *increase* in power usage has often been a trigger for police investigations of possible indoor pot growing operations (due to all the plant lights). Both of these cases are essentially traffic analysis examples. But what happens next? In the power decrease case, the company would typically ensure that the (usually external) meter and surrounding connections were inspected soon. The power company doesn't usually show up at the door and demand to inspect the house contents. In the power increase case -- it was becoming fashionable for power companies to report such cases to law enforcement. Police were then using thermal imaging (IR) devices from outside the homes to image inside looking for pot growing thermal signatures. However, some years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court (in a ruling where the yes votes were not necessarily from whom you might expect) declared this practice illegal surveillance if a search warrant was not obtained first: http://prfamerica.org/US_supreme_court_sides_with_privacy_rts.html In essence, the Supreme Court ruled that use of thermal imaging to look inside a house (that is, at its *contents*) was not permitted for law enforcement purposes without a warrant. I believe that there may be a useful analogy here to the AT&T P2P situation, where AT&T is discussing inspecting the *contents* of end-to-end user data for "illicit" materials, rather than just performing traffic analysis that would be much more typical in the course of ordinary business. --Lauren-- NNSquad Moderator - - - Bob Frankston wrote: > This is a good test of NN in the sense that if ATT were doing this normally > they would be accused of vigilantism. Just because they happen to control > the pipe of information to my house why are they any more justified in such > actions? Is the electric power company going to take responsibility for what > people do using the light from street lamps? > > > > The DMCA point is a good one -- Kevin Bankston will likely be talking more > about this particular issue than I will at > http://www.netneutrality2008.org/Schedule.html but I will try to make sure > it gets raised though there isn't much time and the panels seem to be > staffed mostly by those with a stake planted firmly in the pat and up ... > sorry, gotta be nice. > > > > As to child porn - how many of those so concerned voted in favor of health > care for children - my guess is that the correlation between the two is > negative. > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Lauren Weinstein > Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 12:48 > To: nnsquad@nnsquad.org > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [ NNSquad ] AT&T, P2P, and Filtering (from Slyck) > > > > Greetings. Definitely do read the article referenced below. > > Particularly interesting is how AT&T attempts to simultaneously > > claim the moral high ground when it comes to filtering (even > > invoking child porn examples, as predicted) while simultaneously > > making it clear that economic issues are their core concern (related: > > http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000356.html ). > > > > AT&T also attempts to *praise* P2P technology at the same time that > > they condemn many of its users. > > > > Particularly amusing is how they'd like to legally finesse such > > monitoring and filtering, apparently by acting as a "notification" > > agent when they detect "illicit" materials -- but then not taking any > > direct action themselves. In this way, they obviously would hope to > > avoid taking on legal responsibilities that could decimate their > > DMCA exemptions. > > > > Anyway, it's a good article: > > > > http://www.slyck.com/story1640_ATT_P2P_Filtering_and_the_Consumer > > > > --Lauren-- > > NNSquad Moderator > >
