From: Shawn McMahon [mailto:smcmahon@eiv.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 8:50 AM To: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: AOL holes again.

On Wed, Mar 21, 2001 at 07:55:05AM -0800, Roeland Meyer wrote:

...

But, it would be trivial to claim exemption by contractual

agreement. Read

...

the AOL TOS please. There are clauses in there that specifically allow AOL to monitor, modify, or delete email messages at-will. Back in the old days, AOL actually had volunteers going through their message-base, regularly, monitoring and deleting content that didn't meet AOL criteria.

You can't modify federal law with a contract.

Tell that to the ICANN <g>. You can't sign away your civil-rights, but you can assign agents to perform specific tasks related to them. I have an MBE, in Colorado, that I pay to toss anything that is either "Bulk Rate" or to "Resident" (junk mail). They have no problems doing that, as my agent, even if it involves federal issues. They've been doing that job for years. I have similar arrangements here in California. Otherwise, I'd have to hire separate haulers to dump the junk-mail. Yes, that's US Postal Service delivered mail, under Feral regulation. Anyone signing the AOL agreement is making the same sort of arrangement. Again, I suggest a reading of the AOL TOS. The only way you are exempt from that TOS is to not use AOL (not a bad idea). Simply say "no".