If true, this is of particular concern to me:

AT&T has rolled out new Terms of Service for its DSL service that leave plenty of room for interpretation. From our reading of it, in concert with several others, what we see is a ToS that attempts to give AT&T the right to disconnect its own customers who criticize the company on blogs or in other online settings.

My DSL service is with Bellsouth, which recently was reabsorbed into the AT&T borg collective. So if they’re serious about this, they could in fact choke off my tube to the Interweb. After all, when one Googles Bellsouth DNS Problems,” one of my posts comes up number two. Same thing with my complaints about “Bellsouth Usenet Problems.” And don’t even get me started on email.

So, yeah, I’m concerned, I guess, but as the article points out, it wouldn’t be very good PR for them to cut off service to critics (particularly when the criticism is completely legitimate).

But I also have a problem with the article:

There’s nothing which guarantees that what AT&T is doing here is either legal or what the company intends. This wouldn’t be the first time that poorly thought-out legal language made it into a contract used by a major corporation. Why are we thinking it’s an oversight? Simple: we believe that AT&T isn’t misguided enough to expect to be able to squash First Amendment rights with a ToS contract without losing both face and their cozy legal status.

Apparently, very few people understand the First Amendment, at least insofar as it protects speech rights. Ahmadinejad had no First Amendment right to speak at Columbia, and he had no First Amendment right to not be criticized, either before, during or after his speech. And I have no First Amendment right to AT&T DSL service, or to not have it cut off if I express an opinion over its tubes. All that the First Amendment says is that “Congress shall make no law,” not “Columbia University will grant a podium and audience,” or “AT&T shall provide Internet service regardless of the behavior of the customer.”

AT&T has a right to do this, but as is often the case, what it has a legal right to do wouldn’t necessarily be right. And I would hope that they don’t do it, both for their sake and mine.

[Update on Wednesday morning]

For what it’s worth, AT&T says not to worry:

“AT&T respects its subscribers’ rights to voice their opinions and concerns over any matter they wish. However, we retain the right to disassociate ourselves from websites and messages explicitly advocating violence, or any message that poses a threat to children (e.g. child pornography or exploitation). We do not terminate customer service solely because a customer speaks negatively about AT&T. This policy is not new and it’s not unique to AT&T.”

I kind of assumed that was the real intent.