AT&T to Pearl Jam: Oops!
If you happened to tune into the live Webcast of Pearl Jam playing at Lollapalooza in Chicago this past weekend, you may have missed something. Telephone and telecommunications giant AT&T “accidentally” censored the band’s performance, cutting out a portion of the performance that was critical of the President.
According to CNET, the “live” Internet broadcast wasn’t really so live because AT&T hired an outside company to monitor the concert to bleep out profanity, but apparently someone though Eddie Vedder’s lyric “George Bush, leave this world alone; George Bush find yourself another home” crossed the line and cut it from the show, which was seen through AT&T’s Blue Room site.
Of course, the phone company says it was all a big mistake and they issued an apology to the band and its fans. In part of its statement the company said, “We have policies in place with respect to editing excessive profanity, but AT&T does not edit or censor performances.”
AT&T isn’t opposed to blocking other kinds of content streaming across its lines, however. Not two months ago, the phone company came out strongly in favor of telecom providers monitoring — and blocking — network activity that might involve the unauthorized transmission of copyrighted material. The company told a digital entertainment conference that they were working on systems to detect and prevent users from uploading or downloading pirated movies and music.
Is anyone else starting to feel a chill in the air?
(Very funny AT&T graphic thanks to the EFF.)
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