NYT on Thing.net

Fri Jan 10 12:57:01 UTC 2003

On Thu, 9 Jan 2003, batz wrote:

> I suppose that any ISP can turn off a connection they deem
> a threat to the rest of their operations, but I think this 
> incident can serve as an example of how ISP's can get dragged
> into political spats. It shows how Verio was manipulated 
> by Dow to squelch critics

Uhm. If an ISP has a policy catch-all clause of "We can disconnect
customers at will, without reason" then you get what you deserve,
responsibility for your actions.

After a few big money costing lawsuits over this, I hope ISP's will
return to their common-carrier status. I have no hopes that they
will do so from a moral or ethical point of viwe, but let's hope
they do so from a commercial point of view.

If as an ISP, you don't want to get involved, it is very simple
- Only take action based on court decisions (or in the case of the
  US, also DMCA requests and DMCA notice expirations)
- If a third party wants any information/decision against a customer,
  make them indemnify you for any consequences their legal action
  will have on you, the ISP.

This way, you're out of the loop, let the parties fight each other in
court, and do whatever the judge tells you to do, without the risk of
getting sued by one of the parties involved for your (in)actions.

With policies like that, you can host things like say, http://xenu.net/
without getting sued by even such trigger happy people as Scientology O:)

Paul