If you haven’t heard, people are talking this week about Sunday night’s Lollapalooza concert in Chicago, in which Pearl Jam’s headlining performance was edited by an AT&T webcast that carried the concert. Lyrics critical of President Bush were apparently bleeped out of the webcast, which was carried by AT&T’s “blue room” web page.

Now, whether or not you believe it to be appropriate for musicians to voice opinions on political matters during their concerts, there’s a deeper underlying concern here: Advocates of net neutrality claim that this incident foreshadows a more widespread censorship that could occur should net neutrality fail to become law. (What’s net neutrality? Click here to find out.)

For its part, AT&T claims that the edit was a mistake made by a third-party contractor. Its blue room website currently offers an apology to its customers and to Pearl Jam. This kind of mistake, they say, will never be allowed to happen again.

Nonetheless, feathers have been ruffled. Because AT&T financially sponsored the event, and because it is a private corporation and not a government entity, it has the right to alter its webcasts in any way it sees fit. However, AT&T also has an enormous market share, and some believe that actions such as these bear the mark of censorship, a word that’s almost taboo in our free society.

The Washington Post’s Kim Hart offers a nice summary of the controversy.

What do you think? Is this issue connected to the net neutrality debate? Do you think it’s being blown out of proportion, or does it serve as a warning of what can happen when large companies control huge parts of the market? Sound off below and let us know your thoughts.