tor

Thu Jun 25 16:22:08 UTC 2009

As I understand & pls correct if I am wrong:

> There is a long established legal tradition that telecommunication
> transport is not liable for the content it transmits. It's called
> common carrier.

Telephony = common carrier yes- considered 'basic service'under Telecom Act 96..

but data is considered 'enhanced services' different section of the Act. Thus
common carrier does not apply.

The dualism/argument began in the 2nd computer inquiry and scales right up to
[US dominated] Intl telephony settlements- ICAIS where VoIP is not settled the
same way [$] but governed by peering/transit arrangements

Nancy Paterson
(Reachability as a Net Neutrality Issue)
PhD student, YorkU, Toronto

Quoting Richard A Steenbergen <ras at e-gerbil.net>:

> On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 10:57:27PM +0100, Rod Beck wrote:
> > Hi Richard,
> >
> > It is a more complicated issue than that.
> >
> > There is a long established legal tradition that telecommunication
> > transport is not liable for the content it transmits. It's called
> > common carrier. If someone makes an obscene phone call, the phone
> > company cannot be held liable. Yes, if the client subsequently
> > complains and asks for that number to be blocked and the phone company
> > does nothing, that's different.
> >
> > But the general principle is that anyone who transmits bits is not
> > liable for content.
> >
> > Unfortunately in my personal view that principle never got established
> > in the Layer 3 world.
>
> This has nothing to do with telecommunications or any kind of carrier or
> business relationship. This is intentionally leaving your computer open
> so that anyone on the Internet can come along and appear to be coming
> from your IP, where they will promptly set off doing bad stuff that will
> get traced back to you rather than them. Think of it like intentionally
> leaving your car unlocked with the keys in the ignition and a note
> authorizing people to borrow it and take it for a spin, and then
> expecting not to get into any kind of trouble when they rack up speeding
> tickets and/or use it to run someone over.
>
> Besides, the kind of consequencies I'm talking about are "having your
> internet account shut off for abuse"... But if you do happen to be one
> of those unlucky people who gets sued for downloading illegal content I
> don't think "but your honor I was running tor" is the defense you're
> looking for. :)
>
> --
> Richard A Steenbergen <ras at e-gerbil.net>       http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras
> GPG Key ID: 0xF8B12CBC (7535 7F59 8204 ED1F CC1C 53AF 4C41 5ECA F8B1 2CBC)
>
>
>