Re: Has AT&T Lost Its Mind?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Aleecia M. McDonald [am40 () andrew cmu edu]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 3:49 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   Has AT&T Lost Its Mind?

Professor Farber,

For IP?

On Jan 17, 2008, at 8:59 AM, Mark Blacknell wrote:

> This, of course, should destroy its status as a common carrier and
> all the
> protections from liability that go with it, right?

Things are more complicated than that.

If you hold your cell phone to your ear to make a call, AT&T is a
common carrier. If you hold your cell phone in your hand to send
a text message, AT&T is not a common carrier. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/us/27verizon.html?hp

I believe the DMCA is the place to look for why ISPs are not
responsible for their users' copyright violations. Non-authoritative
but plain English overview of common carrier history, with legislation
and case law pointers: http://slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=36623

With email I believe there is case law about storing email on a server
vs. transient hops through routers. IANAL and do not have notes on
case names. If anyone knows, or better yet knows the status of forward
and store systems under DMCA, I would appreciate any pointers.

        Aleecia
        PhD student in Engineering & Public Policy @ CMU


-------------------------------------------
Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com