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A Pearl Jam concert at Lollapalooza this past weekend seems to have been censored on AT&T's Blue Room media showcase, causing quite an uproar from Pearl Jam, and other Internet public service groups.
The argument centers around the need for net neutrality, which would even the playing field for ISPs and be in the better interest of the end consumer. When Pearl Jam's performance morphed into a song about George Bush, asking him to "leave this world alone...and find another home," it would appear that AT&T wasn't too pleased with the medley, as these words were not heard in the Blue Room version of the concert. AT&T says that the censorship of this particular part of the concert was a mistake, but Pearl Jam thinks otherwise.
Pushing even harder for net neutrality as a stance against content "nannies" and media censorship, Pearl Jam and AT&T seem to be at odds on this particular argument. This is mainly because AT&T doesn't regard this situation as a correlated issue to net neutrality. As AT&T only censored its own streaming version of Pearl Jam's concert, it's not very different from a broadcast or cable television station bleeping out profanity. I'm sure this isn't the last we'll hear about the situation from Pearl Jam, AT&T and especially the public interest groups out there.
Google's public policy blog has also set out to address issues around net neutrality.