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To hear the Cisco CEO tell it, placing the ISPs under Title II will take us back to 1950's voice and undermine innovation. >liability for what you are deliveri

To hear the Cisco CEO tell it, placing the ISPs under Title II will take us back to 1950's voice and undermine innovation. >liability for what you are delivering While I fear further regulation may introduce unforeseen consequences or inhibit innovation, I also fear doing nothing is proving to have problems as well. Regulations need to be written by people with the knowledge to be very precise about how things are done; we don't want mandatory ISP deep packet inspection (I already get letters from my cable company about HBO torrents that I download).

sologoub 12y ago
Not sure that's accurate. From something posted on Cisco's website: "Apart from payment for the service, the carrier is absolved from liability regarding the content of the messages, and from the actions of the customers of the service. This form of social contract is the basis for the status of a common carrier." http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac123/ac147/archived_issues/ipj_5-3/uncommon_carrier.html http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac123/ac147/archived_issues/i... Effectively, common carriers are protected from liability unless they know that what they carry is not legal.
- Karunamon 12y ago
  <comment class="devils-advocate"> Given that logic, wouldn't it mean that an ISP is basically obligated to block traffic to, say, the pirate bay when they become aware of it?
  - rosser 12y ago
    Actually, no. First, there is some legit content on TPB. Secondly, however (and more importantly, in this context), for an ISP to block content in one illegal case implies (in a legal sense, rather than a technical one) the ability to block it in all such cases, which then exposes them to liability for the illegal content they didn't block. Effectively, the only sustainable way to maintain common carrier status is to maintain a deliberate ignorance of the legality — or lack thereof — of any traffic they might carry.

sologoub 12y ago

Not sure that's accurate. From something posted on Cisco's website: "Apart from payment for the service, the carrier is absolved from liability regarding the content of the messages, and from the actions of the customers of the service. This form of social contract is the basis for the status of a common carrier." http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac123/ac147/archived_issues/ipj_5-3/uncommon_carrier.html http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac123/ac147/archived_issues/i... Effectively, common carriers are protected from liability unless they know that what they carry is not legal.

Karunamon 12y ago
<comment class="devils-advocate"> Given that logic, wouldn't it mean that an ISP is basically obligated to block traffic to, say, the pirate bay when they become aware of it?
- rosser 12y ago
  Actually, no. First, there is some legit content on TPB. Secondly, however (and more importantly, in this context), for an ISP to block content in one illegal case implies (in a legal sense, rather than a technical one) the ability to block it in all such cases, which then exposes them to liability for the illegal content they didn't block. Effectively, the only sustainable way to maintain common carrier status is to maintain a deliberate ignorance of the legality — or lack thereof — of any traffic they might carry.