I understand John Gilmore's frustration with his ISP.

SPAM is bad, I'll give you that, but so is getting an unsolicited fax or a pushy telemarketer calling over dinner. If an ISP wants to be considered a "common carrier" with all of the legal protection that entails it should start acting like one. All that an ISP should be is the next generation phone company. Doesn't sound exciting, well it isn't. Just like the electric company, the water/sewer company, the phone company, your ISP should at least provide you with a certain amount of bandwidth for a price, period. I'm not saying that they can't offer you more than that, heck even the phone company now offers "caller id", "distinctive ring", "voice mail", etc.

Imagine if the telephone company could prevent you from calling the NAACP or the Aryan Nation because those organizations are racially motivated, perhaps if send faxes advertising your custom cat mutilation service they could disconnect your phone, after all that's illegal right? Well, that last one's a bit over the top, and while most people would agree that harming animals is wrong, the phone company can't disconnect your service because of it.

Perhaps this would be a better analogy to John Gilmore's situation. John gets a personal 800 (or is it 888 now? ) number for all of his friends and associates to use. He pays his bill every month, and his associates can place calls from all over the globe, no need for them to worry about carrying cash in the Sudan. Well one day a friend of a friend uses John's 800 number to send 1000 faxes to, as many state and local government as he has numbers for, warning them of the "evils" of our capitalistic system. Some would think that probably isn't a smart thing to do, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who wouldn't want to hear it. A few of them complain to his phone company. What does the phone company do?

Most likely tell the person complaining that it isn't any of their concern. There are laws that deal with sending unsolicited faxes, contact their local law enforcement. What they wouldn't do is tell him that it isn't politically correct for him to allow foreigners to use his personal 800 number to send political faxes and therefore is restricting his 800 number to calls made from his residence.

As long as he pays the bill, who uses the bandwidth, and what they say or send over it is between him and whoever he's talking to. That's how it should be. They are a "common carrier", they are there to provide bandwidth, not monitor every conversation for illegal, immoral, or subversive plots. ISP's should behave likewise.

I hate to say it, but perhaps we need a legal definition of what an ISP is. Not only would it say what one is, and the protections that being one provides, but it would well them what they can't do and what would happen to them if they do it anyway.

We have, hopefully, progressed beyond the days of operator Mary, listening in on our phone calls and spreading gossip about who we are talking to and about what. It is long past time that our ISP's grew up as well.

someone247356_AT_yahoo.com

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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/articles/173/4953#4953