NBCU, Public Knowledge Spar over ISP Filtering

Fair-use advocate Public Knowledge took aim at NBC Universal for defending ISP filtering for illegal content. But the company's executive VP and general counsel, Rick Cotton, said that the group was off base in its characterization of his comments on a Feb. 18 conference call concerning intellectual property protection.

Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said it was "ridiculous" to compare filtering for copyright to filtering for viruses, as she said Cotton did on the call. "ISPs are technically able to tell what is a harmful virus and what is not, unlike the situation for copyright content, which may be used legally. Viruses are a danger to the ISPs network, and it is in their best interest to protect against them." But Cotton says that was referring to a separate question of whether he thought filtering "inevitably violates people's privacy." Cotton said he answered that "no, it does not inevitably because that would be like saying a virus filter inevitably violates piracy." He says that was not a position "as to what should happen, how it should be used, or when."