Former Prosecutor: ISP Content Filtering Might be a ‘Five Year Felony’

Former Prosecutor: ISP Content Filtering Might be a ‘Five Year Felony’: By Ryan Singe, May 22, 2008

Internet service providers that monitor their networks for copyright infringement or bandwidth hogs may be committing felonies by breaking federal wiretapping laws, a panel said Thursday.

University of Colorado law professor Paul Ohm, a former federal computer crimes prosecutor, argues that ISPs such as Comcast, AT&T and Charter Communications that are or are contemplating ways to throttle bandwidth, police for copyright violations and serve targeted ads by examining their customers’ internet packets are putting themselves in criminal and civil jeopardy.”