One idea would be to set up a "working group" to develop subscribed to operations guidelines and principals for ISPs. The group could have a charter and systems for addressing issues like this now and in future. They could have built in review mechanisms and audit systems. Police ourselves or be policed! The frontier work Paul and company have done is great but needs to be formalized.

A very good idea! Please also consider that the best cops are your customers. Do what you do - publicly. Inform your customers of your policies, what you block and explain why. You have a control loop as a built-in mechanism. Drop out rates and objections from potential customers will tell you if you are out of sync with your customers desires. If the Internet becomes the possession of a few large Mega-Corps any of these control ideas become a politically (and economically) "Bad Thing". If the Internet continues to be composed of many, smaller and competitive entities, that operate in a public manner, many customers will be well served and that is a "Good Thing". Most of the Spam problem comes down to DOS. It won't take any great leap of logic for a working group to tie DOS to the fairly cross-cultural legal principle of theft and fraud. An RFC gives us all a good starting point. Operating in the full glare of publicity will keep many people honest. The ultimate rule must come from the users. Democracy is messy and control freaks abound. If DOS is equated with theft in users expectations, we can politically battle the groups that would impose outside controls by feeding the snake it's own tail. If you would control my content, other than as directed or delegated by me, for my own good and sufficient reasons, you are engaged in theft. The more users that operate on this paradigm the harder it will be for censors to control. Remember: Educate, Educate, Educate. -- Bill Hogan http://www.titania.net E-mail: Bill Hogan <bhogan@titania.net> Sent: 10/28/97 CDT/CST 11:57:10 "They will pry my encryption algorithms from my cold, dead fingers." --