Transit politics (Telus blocking sites it does not like)

Patrick W. Gilmore patrick at ianai.net
Mon Jul 25 14:05:39 UTC 2005


On Jul 25, 2005, at 9:14 AM, Mike Tancsa wrote:

> Canadian telephone company and ISP "Telus" has admitted that they  
> are <http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2005/07/24/1145417- 
> sun.html>blocking all attempts to access a website set up by the  
> employee's union (who is currently "on-strike" or "locked-out",  
> depending on your point of view). Currently no customers of the  
> Telco's ADSL service (or any other ADSL service provider who leases  
> lines) can access the <http://www.voices-for-change.com/>union's  
> webpage. Is it reasonable for an ISP to censor webpages they don't  
> agree with during contract negotiations?"
>
> As Telus is one of my transit providers, they are still advertising  
> the path to me, but are blackholing the /32s in question.  Kind of  
> sets a bad precedent for a common carrier argument :(  I like BGP  
> blackholing to protect internet infrastructure, but what exactly is  
> this protecting ?

ISPs are not common carriers.  Look at your contract, I think you  
will find they are allowed to filter specific things if they feel  
necessary for a wide variety of reasons.  (I have not read the Telus  
contract, but such language is pretty standard.)

Put another way: If the /32 in question was a spam source, would you  
feel the same?


All that said, there may very well be Canadian law about union  
busting or some such which could apply.  But Telus is a phone  
company, and one thing phone companies have is lawyers. :)

Besides, since they are not a common carrier, you are probably able  
to move to a new transit provider - i.e. vote with your [wallet|feet| 
whatever].  This might be true even if you are in a long term  
contract, since they are filtering access to a site you want to  
view.  Check with your lawyer.

-- 
TTFN,
patrick



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