Private interconnects

Sun Nov 30 02:01:41 UTC 1997

On Fri, 28 Nov 1997, Alan Hannan wrote:

>   Anyone that does definitively know, is likely to be covered under 
>   MNDA such that legally they couldn't tell you, anyway.

Which is exactly the problem and why the DOJ and other regulators should
be concerned/informed. The Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreements to which you
refer Alan are not intended to to protect 'Proprietary Information' (i.e.
inventions and trade secrets) but rather to inhibit the First Amendment
Rights of many of these ISPs. The effect is to virtually eliminate good
faith bargaining between these carriers (that have used or continue to use
this MNDA vehicle) and the rest of the Internet which in turn allows for
highly discriminatory interconnection based on the theory that they can
squelch the reporting of it with the threat of disconnection, litigation
or both.

Seems to be working too - for now.

--david