I think some ISP's would like to their subscribers to think that there are restrictions on how they may use the bandwidth they buy, but that does not make that view either correct or true. Actually enforcing such terms in court may prove difficult.
ISP's typically advertise and price their services based on a certain quantity of bandwidth (e.g. 600 kbps down/128 kbps up). I believe you ought to be able to use all your bandwidth 24x7 if you desire. I've never heard anyone even so much as question this notion when talking about a T1 line; other, lower bandwidth services ought not be different. Whether you use the bandwidth (that you buy!) to download music or to donate to your community (perhaps helping low income families in your neighborhood) is your personal decision. Suppose one of us that lives near some housing projects sets up an open AP off a DSL line that gives free access to all those low income families. I think it would be really awful PR for an ISP to try to pull the plug on that person. As consumers, we sometimes have choices of providers. Some providers (Speakeasy comes to mind) allow you to do pretty much whatever you want (as long as it is legal) with the bandwidth you buy from them. If my provider threatened me for exercising my freedom to use the services I bought from them, I would quickly seek out another provider. > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Ken Leisten > Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2002 1:22 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [BAWUG] Time Warner Nasty-gram > > > > > It seems that for these "mesh networks" to become viable for > commercial use or > otherwise,each AP would need to have direct access to the inernet > backbone. > Not a residential or business connection through an ISP. If ISPs get > ticked-off enough or scared enough they could easily yank the plug on your > internet access and it would be within their rights. Wether it > clearly says > "no sharing or redistribution" in your subscriber agreement or > not it seems > clear that the intended use of any ISPs service is on a per > subscriber basis.I > beleive that this is the biggest threat to the future of > interconnected wi-fi > that we have to deal. Setting up the network between APs is the > easy part. -- general wireless list, a bawug thing <http://www.bawug.org/> [un]subscribe: http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
