Jim Dixon wrote: > Bob omits "the statements quoted above", confusing the meaning of > what I wrote. > > What he clipped out were assertions to the effect that it is illegal > in the European Union to keep records of user IP addresses, including > dynamic IP addresses. These statements were supposedly made by > EU "law enforcement officials". > (edit) > As I tried to make clear, Europe's ISPs are not advocating logging; > they are being urged or even required to do so by national > governments. If the European Commission were to make maintenance > of such logs illegal, this would put ISPs in an impossible situation. My apologies for the error. The Internet Service Providers (ISPs), lacking any so-called protective "common carrier" status are, indeed, in a bind. With various levels of governments pressing them with various demands and requirements. All of which would dissolve if a clear, protected legal status were framed. However, this would, in my opinion, also involve obligations to respect various regulations including critical civil liberty and human rights observations. More importantly the clients of ISPs are even more exposed to difficulties. Your various AUP's (Acceptable Use Policy's) or Terms and conditions leave us with no protections or rights. Perhaps arising from your own precarious positions. From the perspective of the average citizen this is absolutely outrageous and infuriating. Basically ISPs say "We can do what we want and tough luck if you don't like it. Do find another ISP if you don't like our policy". Only problem is... every ISP has a similar policy. It would be really nice if we could address these crippling and critical issues directly and come to some sort of consensus. Bob Allisat Free Community Network _ [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fcn.net _ http://fcn.net/allisat [EMAIL PROTECTED]
