Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
ISPs are not common carriers. Geoff Huston is - as always - the guy who explains it best. http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac123/ac147/archived_issues/ipj_5-3/uncommon_carrier.html
Except interestingly, TOR is the common carrier at its best, not filtering and investigating the use of the packets being transfered.
The cause for saying an ISP is not a common carrier is the handling of abuse of the network, which could still be argued as common carrier in that the effects of spam, port scans, etc do have an impact on an ISP if they go unchecked and watch other networks filter them out. In addition, there are plenty of laws designed to protect customer privacy in the government's attempt to provide common carrier status for an ISP.
DMCA also attempts to preserve common carrier for the ISP, requiring the ISP to extend a level of trust and act in specific a manner to maintain those protections.
I don't think any of it is perfect, and it will take time for government to catch up to understanding how the Internet can be handled.
Jack
