As I understand & pls correct if I am wrong: > There is a long established legal tradition that telecommunication > transport is not liable for the content it transmits. It's called > common carrier.
Telephony = common carrier yes- considered 'basic service'under Telecom Act 96.. but data is considered 'enhanced services' different section of the Act. Thus common carrier does not apply. The dualism/argument began in the 2nd computer inquiry and scales right up to [US dominated] Intl telephony settlements- ICAIS where VoIP is not settled the same way [$] but governed by peering/transit arrangements Nancy Paterson (Reachability as a Net Neutrality Issue) PhD student, YorkU, Toronto Quoting Richard A Steenbergen <r...@e-gerbil.net>: > On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 10:57:27PM +0100, Rod Beck wrote: > > Hi Richard, > > > > It is a more complicated issue than that. > > > > There is a long established legal tradition that telecommunication > > transport is not liable for the content it transmits. It's called > > common carrier. If someone makes an obscene phone call, the phone > > company cannot be held liable. Yes, if the client subsequently > > complains and asks for that number to be blocked and the phone company > > does nothing, that's different. > > > > But the general principle is that anyone who transmits bits is not > > liable for content. > > > > Unfortunately in my personal view that principle never got established > > in the Layer 3 world. > > This has nothing to do with telecommunications or any kind of carrier or > business relationship. This is intentionally leaving your computer open > so that anyone on the Internet can come along and appear to be coming > from your IP, where they will promptly set off doing bad stuff that will > get traced back to you rather than them. Think of it like intentionally > leaving your car unlocked with the keys in the ignition and a note > authorizing people to borrow it and take it for a spin, and then > expecting not to get into any kind of trouble when they rack up speeding > tickets and/or use it to run someone over. > > Besides, the kind of consequencies I'm talking about are "having your > internet account shut off for abuse"... But if you do happen to be one > of those unlucky people who gets sued for downloading illegal content I > don't think "but your honor I was running tor" is the defense you're > looking for. :) > > -- > Richard A Steenbergen <r...@e-gerbil.net> http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras > GPG Key ID: 0xF8B12CBC (7535 7F59 8204 ED1F CC1C 53AF 4C41 5ECA F8B1 2CBC) > > >