AT&T says it will become the first Internet provider to block pirates from using its network. The promise emerged two weeks ago at the Digital Hollywood Summit.

As one of the two largest telco-TV providers, along with Verizon, AT&T cares about its rep in Hollywood. "We do recognize that a lot of our future business depends on exciting and interesting content," senior VP James Cicconi was quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times.

The initial approach took in place in March, when Viacom and the Motion Picture Association of America met with Cicconi. Since then AT&T has conferred with tech executives from Viacom and Paramount, casting around for a technology "that would stem piracy but not violate privacy laws or Internet freedoms espoused by the Federal Communications Commission," according to the LAT. Cicconi told the Associated Press that the main targets are mass-scale copyright criminals operating outside the U.S.

Even so, the prospect of antipiracy filtering does not sit well with advocacy groups and tech critics. As Geoff Duncan pointed out in DigitalTrends.com: "Transfer of copyrighted material can be perfectly legal.... Will AT&T's network be smart enough to make snap decisions regarding ownership, licensing, and copyright law?"