Pearl Jammed

August 9, 2007

There’s no question that, during the live webcast of a recent Lollapalooza concert, AT&T made a mistake. Artistic expression is a staple of Internet content and shouldn’t be silenced. Period.

But let’s be clear: This incident has absolutely nothing to do with net neutrality. Nothing. Zero. Zilch.

From a technological standpoint, the mistake here involves a website owner making a stupid edit to the content on its site. This is a legal right guaranteed by Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act. By contrast, net neutrality involves blocking or degrading the web sites of others, not infringing on the rights of a web site operator to decide what to carry on his or her own site.



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