Re: Policies affecting the Internet as a whole
Hello all, My only request is that folks keeping lists of "cooperative" and "uncooperative" ISP's keep in mind that it is not a world of all black and white. In particular, there are many steps that a provider can take to cooperate with an ongoing security or spamming incident which are clearly valuable and legal (e.g. confirming contact information, escalating visibility of the situation at the customer/origin site, providing guidance on how to filter/remedy the situation locally at the destination, or opting to terminate service [all of the above actions are, of course, subject to the agreement between the ISP and site]). There are a set of actions which have been requested in the past which violate contract, consumer protection, or federal law in various contexts (e.g. termination w/o notice in the absence of a threat to life/property/service, certain privacy violations regarding email or wiretapping, etc.) Frankly, an ISP which engages in such activities without diligence is a hazard to us all. It will be interesting to see when the first ISP goes out of business for terminating someone's service without adaquate process (as the first customer terminated without notice as a result of forged email is going to win big in the court). If folks can tolerate the delay associated with ISP/customer resolution of complaints, then we may have an adaquate system. For those who want policing of the net and instant justice, I'd recommend investment in Internet-literate law enforcement and judicial staff, for this is the only place where "orders" should ever come. /John
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John Curran