According to a story in the Los Angeles Times, AT&T is teaming with movie studios and recording companies to thwart pirated material from traversing its network.

AT&T is the first carrier to team up with Hollywood to stop pirated films, music and other copyrighted material from illegally being distributed across its Internet backbone.

AT&T, along with movie studios and the recording industry, is working on new technology that would prevent pirated materials from crossing its network. The antipiracy technology will target repeat offenders, according to the story.

Verizon, on the other hand, has steered in a different direction and is avoiding deploying antipiracy technologies on its network that might have an impact on its customers' civil liberties.

Stepping on customer’s civil liberties is a sore subject with AT&T and other carriers. AT&T came under fire last year after the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed evidence in court that the AT&T provided unfettered access to its network for the purpose of wiretapping.