AT&T obtains patent to detect and ban file sharers

American internet provider AT&T has obtained a patent on technology to recognize and rate filesharers on a network. Using the technology it should be easy to block notorious pirates from the internet. The AT&T patent describes a system which gives rates users based on  'subscriber reputation scores'.  The scores are calculated by monitoring network traffic of subscribers. Once the system detects an user downloading or sharing illegal content, the score is increased accordingly.

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If a pre-set score is exceeded, the system can automatically apply a penalty to the subscriber. This could be automatically restricting the user's internet access but the system can also send warnings to the user, or pass information to an anti-piracy organisation or the government.

Although AT&T now owns this patent, it remains unclear whether the provider already has implemented the system or is planning to  implement it. It would not be surprising as the company is very active in the battle against pirates. Earlier this year it became known that the company monitors downloads of its subscribers. It mainly monitors torrent traffic using deep packet inspection (DPI).

This technology makes it possible to filter network traffic by  examining the data part of network  packet as it passes an inspection point. AT&T uses it to check if the packet is based on a known file sharing protocol and this way the company can check whether an user is using file sharing software. It also uses the technology to collecting statistical information on its network usage. For this technology the company also obtained a patent.

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