The entertainment business is leaning on its network of bribed politicians to force ISPs to monitor customers and detect copyright infringements.

The powerful lobby group said that the idea is working well and should be adopted in the United States. Realizing that its own snooping has not been doing particularly well in court,  Shira Perlmutter, a vice president for global legal policy at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, said that her companies would prefer to enter into voluntary "partnerships" with ISPs.  But she threatened that if they do not, governments are mandating such surveillance if ISPs don't work something out.

During a discussion at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's technology policy conference here, Perlmutter wanted a filtering solution that would involve identifying particular files that are (or are not) permitted to be sent to particular destinations.

AT&T spokesman told CNet that there was wrong with P2P applications, which are legal technologies that are used and welcomed on our network. It did not want to become an enforcement agent on the Internet, nor will it inhibit the ability of our customers to access any legal content they want.

More here.