[ale] Speedfactory now requires mail contents to be readable

[Jerald Sheets]

>
> I think that Christopher Fowler's last post was the reason
> (I suppose I was in denial about Speedfactory) - that it is
> a business reason and the times are a changin'. When I got
> the free upgrade to a faster connection and complained to
> Speedfactory tech support about being put on PPPOE, I was
> told that BellSouth forced PPPOE down Speedfactory's throats
> since BS controlled Speedfactory's pipe and BS thought that
> PPPOE was "easier to control and administer".  <cringe>
> Like Christopher I was agog and upset but it was the price I
> paid for faster DSL.  I made the deal with the devil and the
> dropped connections have been getting worse the past months.
>  I suppose that their customer base has grown to include
> those deserving to be beaten for their unresponsible actions
> and so Speedfactory has perhaps been forced to act as their
> internet guardian.
>

So then we agree.  What was the problem?

> However the ISP's have avoided any responsibility for
> internet evil just as the telephone companies have done - by
> claiming that they only carry information and are not
> responsible for it's content.  So yes - I agree with Robert
> that by filtering it they seem to be going down a road they
> have long avoided.  I guess this will make a lot of
> litigation lawyers happy.
>

Well, the precedent case is the one I alluded to before.  IIRC, the  
Prodigy case was brought by a user, chastising Prodigy for not  
censoring a user's speech.  Prodigy lost because they had done  
"censorship" elsewhere, and were then falling under laws designed for  
publishers, and not the  newfangled electronic communications medium.

Was it right?  You be the judge.

But yes, SF is in serious "CYA" mode.

> First it was Mindspring then DirectTV now Speedfactory -
> soon I will be where I started - on MSN on 56K dial-up.  I
> guess everything good comes to an end.

Legal pads and paper airplanes is the future.  All this tech is just  
a passing fad.

:)


Jerald M. Sheets jr.
Sr. UNIX Systems Administrator
The Weather Channel Interactive
404.293.8762