At 21:27 -0400 5/1/03, Ken Hirsch wrote:
Wrong. They do a credit check. And if that's not sufficient,
they'll require a
deposit--in addition to the installation charges, which are probably
comparable to a
certificate. They know where you live, they have your credit
history, and cash up
front. Not unlike what a certificate requires.
You are describing functions that have only to do with a contractual
relationship - the PRIVATE relationship - between a company and its
customer. The above are OPTIONS for any business selling anything
from dialtone to swimming pools. These decisions are made privately.
The elements of this discussion that reference such acts suggest that
they will be made mandatory and that the system will not work without
them, that they will be imposed on all participants who use a given
protocol/class of applications. That is VERY different. If you deign
to authorize just one way of doing things, you also have to outlaw
(in real law, not just in words shouted loudly) everything else...
and that stops innovation.
WHO will impose this regime on the entire world's computers? WHO has
the authority to enforce?
We already have the DMCA. Just develop a protocol that can be found
to fall under the DMCA and demand that everyone use it. Problem
solved, can of worms opened.
E.g. here's the clause from Alltel's N.C. contract:
"The Company reserves the right to cancel any contract for service with and to
discontinue service to any person who uses or permits the use of
obscene, profane or
grossly abusive language over or by means of the Company's
facilities, and who,
after reasonable notice fails, neglects or refuses to cease and
refrain from such
practice or to prevent the same, and to remove its property from the
premises of
such a person."
ISPs generally have such language too. But that has nothing to do
with protocol or regulation.
The question you are raising, which I think is only necessary
question, is "why don't ISPs just disconnect spammers who abuse the
systems of others?" That question is the key to all of this. It will
not be answered in this forum.
> And they certainly don't check to make
sure that you've never been accused of making unsolicited phone calls
in the past.
I'm sure they do check their own records to see if you've ever had your line
disconnected for cause.
Don't be so sure... people move frequently; their records don't. For
that matter, the phone companies run very aggressive collections
departments, disconnect and reconnect service, accept cash payments
in person (go to any in-the-city Sprint PCS store on a given Saturday
and see people lined up to pay cash to bring accounts current).
This also comes back to motivation and until you understand that, you
can't approach the problem. A single phone line (or a single ISP
customer) is expensive to acquire but costs very little to maintain.
So the *incentive* is to sign up many customers and weed out the
problems only after (and if) they become problems... ANY money that
flows in, even from deadbeats, is more than flowed in previously. All
the infrastructure is largely held as a sunk cost. Deadbeats don't
change its magnitude even slightly as long as the total population of
deadbeats is held to a reasonable value, and it is.
Remember *incentive*. Figure out how to change the incentive
structure, and solutions to the spam problem will become apparent.
_______________________________________________
Asrg mailing list
Asrg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg