-----Original Message----- From: Jack Bates [mailto:jbates@brightok.net] Sent: Thu 6/25/2009 2:39 PM To: Suresh Ramasubramanian Cc: NANOG list Subject: [SPAM-HEADER] - Re: tor - Email has different SMTP TO: and MIME TO: fields in the email addresses Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
ISPs are not common carriers. Geoff Huston is - as always - the guy who explains it best. http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac123/ac147/archived_issues/ipj_5-3/uncommon_...
Except interestingly, TOR is the common carrier at its best, not filtering and investigating the use of the packets being transfered. The cause for saying an ISP is not a common carrier is the handling of abuse of the network, which could still be argued as common carrier in that the effects of spam, port scans, etc do have an impact on an ISP if they go unchecked and watch other networks filter them out. In addition, there are plenty of laws designed to protect customer privacy in the government's attempt to provide common carrier status for an ISP. DMCA also attempts to preserve common carrier for the ISP, requiring the ISP to extend a level of trust and act in specific a manner to maintain those protections. I don't think any of it is perfect, and it will take time for government to catch up to understanding how the Internet can be handled. Jack Agreed. The current regulatory framework, which says that ISPs provide 'enhanced services' is specious. IP is not an enhanced service, it is just a transport protocol, albeit a very popular one because the interfaces are cheap and it embraces routing. As I vaguely recollect, the enhanced service definition came up as way of preventing Telcos from completing dominating the ISP world. Regards, Roderick.