[OFB Cafe] Consequences for ISPs (was Re: PD: Something to Fan the Flames... OFB Endorses Candidates)

[Timothy Butler]

>>
>
> The companies were aware that they were doing something illegal, but
> did it anyway.   "just following orders" is never an excuse.  If at&t
> is let off the hook, it sends a message that it's easier and safer to
> help the government do illegal things than to tell them off the way
> qwest did.

	I guess what I am wondering is what would happen to me, as a  
*really* small ISP, if the government approached me. I don't have the  
funds or the time to fight them, so I would have little choice but to  
cooperate. If I am then also liable for my cooperation, that means  
essentially, that the government making such a request of me will be  
a guarantee that I am going to go out of business (since either the  
government or my clients can easily destroy me -- it's just a matter  
of who I want to destroy me, and I'd probably say the latter, just  
because the former can do worse things to me). How do you deal with  
that? I'd like to think the government that started the problem  
should be responsible for it, not the guy caught in the middle by no  
choice of his own.

	Illegal becomes a difficult issue here since the body that creates  
and executes the laws is the one making the demands. Will bad laws be  
struck down as unconstitutional? Quite possibly and hopefully! But in  
the mean time, the average person cannot simply say, "uh, that's  
illegal, so leave me alone."

>>
>>    Incidentally, I'm not sure how Sen. Clinton is a Republican
>
> She's a war hawk, a corporate shill, and an authoritarian.  That's the
> republican platform to a 't'.

	Actually, that's the Neo-Con agenda. There are plenty of Republicans  
out there that aren't that way.

	Frankly, I think you'll be disappointed in Obama and find him  
authoritarian too. There is very little difference in his record from  
hers, other than the initial Iraq vote. You'll note that both of them  
will admit as much.

	-Tim


---
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Editor, OfB.biz   | The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the  
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