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Last week I (and many, many others) wrote about AT&T's DSL Terms of Service. When taken literally, they suggested that if you wrote disparagingly about Ma Bell, you would have your service disconnected. Some fuzzy-minded bloggers, confusing AT&T with the government, called it censorship. I said that was nonsense. AT&T has come out with updated Terms of Service making their intentions very, very clear. The new TOS and our take on it, after the jump.

5.1 Suspension/Termination. AT&T respects freedom of expression and believes it is a foundation of our free society to express differing points of view. AT&T will not terminate, disconnect or suspend service because of the views you or we express on public policy matters, political issues or political campaigns. However, 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; or (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. Your Service may be suspended or terminated if your payment is past due and such condition continues un-remedied for thirty (30) days. Termination or suspension by AT&T of Service also constitutes termination or suspension (as applicable) of your license to use any Software. AT&T may also terminate or suspend your Service if you provide false or inaccurate information that is required for the provision of Service or is necessary to allow AT&T to bill you for Service. [emphasis mine]

All I can say is: How disappointing. AT&T, your terms of service should reflect your steely-willed intent to control all communications crossing your networks and your disregard for what whiners who don't own fiber-optic backbones think. The Ma Bell I knew and loved was a tough old broad! That's it, I'm switching my phone service to a company with some frickin' self-respect.