Cogent cutting links to Russia?

Fri Mar 4 22:03:53 UTC 2022

On Fri, Mar 4, 2022 at 12:55 PM Martin Hannigan <hannigan at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> I would argue they don't have much of a choice:
>
> "The economic sanctions put in place as a result of the invasion and the
> increasingly uncertain security situation make it impossible for Cogent to
> continue to provide you with service."
>
> I would expect to see others follow suit  if that is the case.
>

That's an interesting slope to slide along...

I fully understand ISPs disconnecting customers for non-payment; we've
all had to do that at one point or another in our careers, I'm sure.
However, that's generally done *after* the customer has demonstrated
an inability or unwillingness to pay their bills.

This doesn't seem to indicate that any existing invoices have gone
unpaid past their due date, but simply that there is *concern* that a
future bill might go unpaid due to the economic sanctions.

I'm not sure that's a good precedent for a service provider to create;
"we may terminate your service at any point if we suspect that at an
unspecified time in the future, you may become unable to pay future
invoices."

Shades of Minority Report.  We'll imprison you today for a crime we
suspect you will commit in the future.   ^_^;

If and when bills go unpaid, I fully support turning off customers.
I worry about the precedent of disconnecting based on suspicions
of what might happen in the future, however.

Matt
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