As Clay Shirky tweeted, "MPAA to Public: All your intermets are belong to us!" The short version: music/movie lobbyists want "network monitoring" provisions in the broadband stimulus bill, to track what you're doing in the name of anti-filesharing. Snip from Public Knowledge post:
Hollywood's lobbyists are running all over the Hill to sneak in a copyright filtering provision into the stimulus package. The amendment allow ISPs to "deter" child pornography and copyright infringement through network management techniques. The amendment is very, very controversial for a couple of reasons:
1. First, infringement can't be found through "network management" techniques. There are legal uses for copyrighted works even without permission of the owner.
2. Second, it would require Internet companies to examine every bit of information everyone puts on the Web in order to find those allegedly infringing works, without a hint of probable cause. That would be a massive invasion of privacy, done at the request of one industry, violating the rights of everyone who is online.
Right now, we need you to contact a few key Senators: Majority Leader Harry Reid, Chairman of the Appropriations Committee Daniel Inouye, and Chairman of the Commerce Committee Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of the Finance Committee Max Baucus, and senior member of the Appropriations Committee Senator Barbara Mikulski, and tell them to leave out this controversial provision.
