Darned if they do or don't (was Re: SaidCom disconnected by Level 3)

Fri Mar 16 02:32:09 UTC 2007

On Thu, 15 Mar 2007, Jon Lewis wrote:
> When we have a customer spamming, we don't call the police.  We either talk 
> to, ACL, or shut off the customer.  The above suggests to me that SaidCom had 
> spam issues that they were either unable or unwilling to remedy themselves.

Probably no one besides SaidCom and Level3 knows the whole story. If you 
do some more research you will find allegations, besides spam, that
would involve law enforcement. I don't repeat them here because I don't 
know if they are true or not.

Skipping the faces (or lack of facts ) in this particular case.

People criticize ISPs for not shutting down customers.  And  people 
criticize ISPs when they do shut down customers.  Whether it is a 
10Gig link or a DSL/Cable link, do bad guys get more leeway just because 
they pay for more expensive circuits?  Or should an ISP shutdown customers 
as soon as possible when they violate the AUP/TOS regardless who it is.
Three warnings, six warnings, six hundred warnings, how many is too
many?

Would you be more careful about your computers being compromised, 
copyright infringement, signing up downstream customers if you knew
violations of your ISP's AUP would result in disconnection? Everyone 
always wants the other guy's circuit terminated when something
bad happens, but never wants their own circuit terminated when they
screw up.

How many people thank the police officer for stopping them and giving
them a ticket for violating traffic rules?