I am not a lawyer but we had a lawyer look into these issues and here is
what he said.
It is helpful to distinguish between "legal" and "violation of user
agreement". It is not illegal to violate your user agreement, there is no
criminal statute covering the area. If your ISP feels that you have
violated your user agreement, then they can cancel you service and maybe
initiate a civil suit. But if they took civil action, they would have to
prove your actions caused them loss of revenue and even if they succeeded
(which is hard in this case for a bunch of reasons), they would be crazy to
initiate such an action to recoup a couple a hundred dollars. The Time
Warner Cable lawsuits are civil actions against a corporation that was
attempting to profit off of sharing the TWC connection. A little bit easier
case there.
High speed data services are not covered under the Cable Piracy Act so there
is no criminal law against sharing. The cable companies and telcos lobbied
against its inclusion to keep the regulators away from those services. And
this is different from the RIAA suits as well since those are copyright
violations which are indeed criminal acts (DCMA).
Hope that helps
-Ted
Message: 1
From: "Matt Gaston" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 21:03:50 -0700
Subject: [BAWUG] legality
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I've been trying to connect to my neighbor's computers so we can share =
his cable-modem account. We both thought it was a great idea, but he =
found the following passage in his "Acceptable Use Policy" that's making =
us wonder if what we're doing is indeed legal. =20
Prohibited Uses and Activities
Prohibited uses include, but are not limited to, using the Service, =
Customer
Equipment, or the Comcast Equipment to:
(ix) resell the Service or otherwise make available to anyone outside =
the
Premises the ability to use the Service (i.e. wi-fi, or other methods of
networking), in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, or on a =
bundled or
unbundled basis. The Service is for personal and non-commercial use only =
and
you agree not to use the Service for operation as an Internet service
provider or for any business enterprise or purpose, or as an end-point =
on a
non-Comcast local area network or wide area network;
Would that make any of you a little jumpy, or is it just me?
Thanks,
Matt
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