On Sun, 27 May 2001 18:57:57 -0400, Glenn McCorkle wrote:
> On Sun, 27 May 2001 03:10:47 -0500, Samuel W. Heywood wrote:
>> On Sat, 26 May 2001 15:57:41 -0700, Thomas Tabler wrote:
<snip>
>> I believe it is illegal for an ISP to refuse service to a subscriber
>> for reason that the subscriber is using an OS which competes with the one
>> the ISP is trying to promote. This is a violation of the anti-monopoly
>> laws. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that MicroSoft is paying bribes to
>> ISPs that go out of their way to promote their OS to the exclusion of all
>> others.
> Where would you *ever* get such an idea???
> You must be mistaken.
> Bill Gates would *NEVER* do such a thing!!! <VBG>
Were it not so, then the ISP would be serving neither their own interests
nor those of their customers by excluding an OS. The only way an ISP can
make more money by excluding an OS would be through whatever gain there
might be in accepting payoffs from some gangsters engaged in criminal
methods of competition. If it is true that Mindspring and Earthlink are
engaged in such suspicious activities as excluding access for an OS, then
the appropriate federal authorities ought to initiate an investigation
into the matter.
Sam Heywood
P.S. BTW, here is another point:
If an ISP were to exclude DOS users from accessing the internet the ISP
might be found guilty of discriminating against the handicapped. As most
of us know, many sight-impaired persons have a most understandable
preference for DOS browsers such as Net-Tamer and Bobcat/Lynx because these
programs are so very easy to use with their screen readers.
There is a law known as The Americans with Disabilities Act which requires
businesses to accomodate handicapped persons by providing convenient
parking spots, wheelchair access ramps, special hand-rails, Braille
characters on elevator buttons, and a host of other things for the
convenience of the the handicapped. In the wording of the law there is
probably a "catch all" phrase that would cover any reasonable
considerations not specifically enumerated therein. If this is the case,
then we could infer that it might be a violation of law for an ISP to deny
access to DOS users.
