Cloudflare, dirty networks and politricks

Sun Jul 31 12:39:47 UTC 2016

On Sat, Jul 30, 2016 at 03:34:32PM -0400, bzs at theworld.com wrote:
> I don't know if one can write a ToS which says you will be shut down
> if you harm another party utilizing another party's services but not
> otherwise involving us. Well, you can write anything but is it lawful
> and enforceable?

Yes.  And it doesn't require that the activity be illegal, which is
a good thing because of what most of us recognize as abusive may or
may not be illegal depending on which legal professional is interpreting
the law, which law they're interpreting, and what jurisidction(s) apply.

I fired an 11-year customer in under an hour when I discovered them
spamming via one of the numerous spammers-for-hire out there.  This
activity had nothing to do with the services I was providing them,
but it fell under the provision that said (abbreviating liberally
from the legalese) "if you spam from anywhere, you're toast".
I didn't like doing it to a longtime customer, particularly because
they happened to be my biggest customer, but I did...because it
was the right thing to do, and because I had made it crystal-clear
to them when they signed on that I would do it without hesitation.

I expect the same from everyone else.  If I can do it without
the budgets, staff, and legal departments that so many far larger
operations enjoy, then so can they.  It's just a question of whether
or not they recognize their ethical, professional obligation to
the rest of the Internet and are willing to put that ahead of profit.

---rsk