Re: Private interconnects

[Karl Denninger <karl () mcs net>]

I agree.  The DOJ ought to start looking at this to determine if anti-trust
laws are being violated.

I believe that they are and have been for quite some time.

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On Sat, Nov 29, 1997 at 06:01:41PM -0800, David S. Holub wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Nov 1997, Alan Hannan wrote:
>
> >   Anyone that does definitively know, is likely to be covered under 
> >   MNDA such that legally they couldn't tell you, anyway.
>
> Which is exactly the problem and why the DOJ and other regulators should
> be concerned/informed. The Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreements to which you
> refer Alan are not intended to to protect 'Proprietary Information' (i.e.
> inventions and trade secrets) but rather to inhibit the First Amendment
> Rights of many of these ISPs. The effect is to virtually eliminate good
> faith bargaining between these carriers (that have used or continue to use
> this MNDA vehicle) and the rest of the Internet which in turn allows for
> highly discriminatory interconnection based on the theory that they can
> squelch the reporting of it with the threat of disconnection, litigation
> or both.
>
> Seems to be working too - for now.
>
> --david