DigitMemo.com

The new 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.  

AT&T has rolled out new Terms of Service for its DSL service that leave plenty of room for interpretation.

In section 5 of its legal ToS, AT&T stipulates the following:

AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes (a) violates the Acceptable Use Policy; (b) constitutes a violation of any law, regulation or tariff (including, without limitation, copyright and intellectual property laws) or a violation of these TOS, or any applicable policies or guidelines, or (c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries.

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.