This has to be the dumbest idea I've heard of yet: filtering for copyright violations at the network layer:

At a small panel discussion about digital piracy here at NBC’s booth on the Consumer Electronics Show floor, representatives from NBC, Microsoft, several digital filtering companies and telecom giant AT&T said the time was right to start filtering for copyrighted content at the network level.

How would they even tell whether content being passed is being passed in a legitimate fashion? Network level DRM? What about the false positives that are guaranteed to pop up? What about an even simpler question - given the way safe harbor works in the DMCA, aren't the network providers jumping hip deep into the alligator ridden swamp if they try this?

Now that the music labels have given up on DRM, are we about to see "Wanton Stupidity, the Sequel"?

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