Verizon’s executive vice president for public affairs Tom Tauke tells the New York Times Blog Bits why Verizon does not want to police its network for pirated movies.

From the blog posting:

Mr. Tauke offered at least three objections to the concept:

1) The slippery slope.

Once you start going down the path of looking at the information going down the network, there are many that want you to play the role of policeman. Stop illegal gambling offshore. Stop pornography. Stop a whole array of other kinds of activities that some may think inappropriate.

2) It opens up potential liability for failing to block copyrighted work.

When you look back at the history of copyright legislation, there has been an effort by Hollywood to pin the liability for copyright violations on the network that transmits the material. It is no secret they think we have deeper pockets than others and we are easy-to-find targets.

3) Privacy.

Anything we do has to balance the need of copyright protection with the desire of customers for privacy.

Mr. Tauke also downplayed the argument put forward by Hollywood and AT&T that illegal sharing of video is a burden on the network.

We see substantial increases in the volume of traffic. Generally we see that as a good thing. We have more customers paying for more services we provide.

Movie Piracy is a $18.2 billion market. Music Piracy is a $4.5 billion market.