Full Disclosure mailing list archives
Re: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internet from their home user clients?
From: Harry Hoffman <hhoffman () ip-solutions net>
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 22:48:09 -0500
I'm sorry but I think that's a bunch of crap. Enforcing the AUP towards the outside world is not enforcing the AUP. Comcast has before and still does take the stand that they do not protect their End Users. AUP's are used to protect the business from lawsuits by placing blame on the customer (whether or not it was the customer's direct fault). Otherwise the AUP would read "We will protect your from the other users on our network by providing X, Y, and Z" instead of "If we find you doing certain things that a) we aren't profiting on or b) are causing us to spend more on infrastructure then you can expect us to go medieval on your ass!" How can it be Comcast (or any other ISP) use an AUP to stifle communications to the outside world yet still allow attacks within it's network from one customer to another? And it is indeed censorship! While the justification may be the safety of the "net" in general aren't we currently dealing with that in our own country with the Patriot Bill! It's an oft used method to scare everyone into submission. Private company or not when a service becomes common-place it transcends what the private company may or may not do. Consider things like the tel-co's, privatized garbage collection or privatized public transit. Lots of times the only difference is regulation/small subsidies from the govt. (which by the way is the people!). Don't forget that without the customer their wires aren't worth anything. The unfortunate position is that the customers are tied into a service because of a certain needs. Quoting "Randal L. Schwartz" <merlyn () stonehenge com>: *> But they also have the right/responsibility to enforce an AUP, and to *> play "good net neighbor". *> *> In this case, they are disconnecting users who are violating AUPs *> or causing them to collectively no longer play "good net neighbor". *> *> It's not censorship. It's especially not "censorship" when it's a *> private company (you can always take your business elsewhere). *> *> "Freedom of the press" doesn't mean you get to use everyone's press *> for free, or that everyone gets a free press. Comcast is entirely *> within their right to cut people off as clients or from the net or *> both. It's their wires. *> *> -- *> Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095 *> <merlyn () stonehenge com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/> *> Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc. *> See PerlTraining.Stonehenge.com for onsite and open-enrollment Perl *> training! *> *> _______________________________________________ *> Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. *> Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html *> -- Harry Hoffman hhoffman () ip-solutions net ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- radical: 1) Someone waiting in line to become "The Establishment" ------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IpSolutions: http://www.ip-solutions.net/ _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
Current thread:
- RE: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internet f rom their home user clients? Chmielarski TOM-ATC090 (Mar 10)
- RE: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internet f rom their home user clients? Frank Knobbe (Mar 10)
- Re: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internet from their home user clients? Exibar (Mar 10)
- Re: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internet from their home user clients? Frank Knobbe (Mar 10)
- Re: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internet from their home user clients? Steve Menard (Mar 10)
- Re: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internet from their home user clients? Randal L. Schwartz (Mar 10)
- Re: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internet from their home user clients? Exibar (Mar 10)
- Re: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internet from their home user clients? Luke Scharf (Mar 10)
- RE: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internetfrom their home user clients? Matthew C. Beckman (Mar 10)
- Re: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internetfrom their home user clients? Exibar (Mar 11)
- Re: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internet from their home user clients? Exibar (Mar 10)
- RE: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internet f rom their home user clients? Frank Knobbe (Mar 10)
- Re: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internet from their home user clients? Harry Hoffman (Mar 10)
- Re: Comcast using IPS to protect the Internet from their home user clients? Thomas Lakofski (Mar 10)