North American Network Operators Group

Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical

Re: Suggestion for NANOG Meeting

  • From: Barry Shein
  • Date: Mon Jan 20 14:35:45 1997

> 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    | [email protected]          | http://www.std.com
Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202        | Login: 617-739-WRLD
The World              | Public Access Internet     | Since 1989
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -