North American Network Operators Group
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Re: Measured Internet good v. "bad" traffic

  • From: Keptin Komrade Dr. BobWrench III esq.
  • Date: Thu Aug 28 11:53:48 2003


I can have some sympathy for the customer in this case...But...

Do you consider the definition of 'bad traffic to include spam?

To me, this is really simple. (as usual, IANAL, BUT...) It is 'theft of services' on the part of:

a) the person(s) who wrote and released the virus, and

b) contributory negligence on the part of anyone who didn't patch their systems when they found out.

It would remain an open legal question if the ISP could be held negligent for not blocking the ports. Not ground I, as an ISP, would like to see explored either. Even though we did block all the appropriate ports.

As to billing credit, it is an interesting problem. An equivalent would be someone causes your power utilization to go up. You still have to pay the bill. If you can prove who is doing it, you might be able to re-coup some of the costs. This all comes, again, back to the matter of enforcment for the crimes. And LEO's being unwilling to do anything unless you can show a direct financial loss. Well, the financial loss is starting to show up. Complain to your upstream, and call the long arm of the law.

Bob




Raymond, Steven wrote:

Have received complaints from usage-based-billing Internet customers lately
about not wanting to pay for the nuisance traffic caused by worm-of-the-day.
I believe that in the case of a short-duration, targeted attack that can be
eventually be stopped, a billing credit is probably appropriate.  But what
about these current plagues that go on for weeks or forever- what is your
network's response?
Some simply want the traffic filtered in our routers- permanently.  That is
my least favorite option.  Others want to simply not be billed for "bad"
traffic.  My reaction is to suggest that metered billing is probably not for
you, then.  But I could of course sympathize if I were footing the bill.
What are other network operators doing about this issue, if it is an issue
for them at all?

Thanks