On Thu, 10 Aug 2006, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
Lots of groups state that ISPs must take responsibility for lots of things.
Lots of ISPs together stated that ISPs must take responsibility for a few things.
The movie industry joined together and introduced the Hays Production Code. The comic book industry joined together and introduced the Comic Book Code. Their respective industries took responsibility for a few things. The result was the moviegoing and comic buying public was effectively blocked from alternative choices and attempts by smaller independent studios to create movies and comics outside of established codes were punished by the industry members.
Small, but significant difference there, dont you think?
There is a small, but significant difference, between ISP's providing good, bad or no anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-x filtering on messages being received by customers that want those services; and a group of ISPs deciding to enforce common terms and conditions on customer behavior above and beyond what is necessary to protect and operate the network on unwilling customers that don't want to accept those T&Cs. As soon as you say ISPs "must," the compulsory nature of the business terms and conditions is a necessary, but problematic condition. A group of 100 ISPs decide on particular terms and conditions doesn't mean the other 30,000 (or whatever the current count is) ISPs must agree to the same terms and conditions. Perhaps a small, but significantly different way to phrase it: A group of X ISPs agreed to accept responsibility for abuse by their users.