Ok, Let me put in my two cents worth on this can of worms I just opened.
As a carrier, I know that we should not and can not filter/censor/monitor any content on our "pipes". This includes unsolicited emails,
This is false in that it's overly broad. All you cannot do is pro-actively edit for content, you can't act like a newspaper editor (eg.) and still lay claim to being a common carrier. But as an analogy, if someone made harassing phone calls to your home you could certainly call the telco and complain and they could act on that information once you complain. Your summary would seem to say that the telco couldn't do anything at that point which I think we all know isn't true, they can block further calls etc., even shut off service. There certainly are things you can't do and maintain a claim of common carriage. But there are also certainly things you can do. Note also you can do a lot if something is potentially interfering with the technical operation of your piece of the network. That was my argument with Sprint: That once the party sending thousands of mail msgs per day was informed that all their mail to us was being blocked and had a few days to react it was no longer a content issue, they simply had a software loop out of control, maliciously or negligently, eating up bandwidth, and it had become an operational matter. -- -Barry Shein Software Tool & Die | bzs@world.std.com | http://www.std.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202 | Login: 617-739-WRLD The World | Public Access Internet | Since 1989