Re: Anonymity, accountability, and control

[mccoy@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Jim McCoy)]

> From: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@Athena.MIT.EDU>
> 
>    From: greg@ideath.goldenbear.com (Greg Broiles)
>    Date: Fri, 26 Mar 93 01:14:00 PST
> 
>    I've got my net access becuase I pay UUNET roughly $50/month for
>    it - and I get my own domain name, with as many hosts (and as many users
>    on those hosts) as I care to set up......
>    [...] and if people don't like what I do or
>    say on the net, that's just too damn bad.
> 
> Well, there is still *some* accountability --- if you do something
> really wretched, and someone complains to UUNET, won't UUNET at least
> tell that person who is paying for that link, and if you do something
> really egregious, and UUNET gets enough complaints, will UUNET shut you
> down?

I believe that UUNET has applied for and received common carrier status, in
which case they are not responsible for thier traffic and cannot make any
judgement calls regarding the traffic coming from a particular site.  It is
kind of like the phone company; they may not approve of the 976-BABE
numbers, but as long as those operations do not break the law there is
nothing the phone company can do about them no matter how many complaints
they may receive.

jim