[ale] comcast static IP?

Jason Day jasonday at worldnet.att.net
Mon Jan 24 14:07:16 EST 2005


On Sun, Jan 23, 2005 at 05:45:13PM -0500, Jim Popovitch wrote:
> Basically an external provider has no means of enforcing terms of
> service within my premises where they have no legal authority to
> determine what equipment I have.  Just because someone puts words into a
> document and calls it "Terms of Service" in no way establishes authority
> to enforce said words.

HAH!!  You're kidding right?  Have you never even looked at a software
license?  I've used software before that required a dongle in the
printer port before it would work.  Didn't matter if the vendor had the
"right" to do that, or "legal authority to determine what equipment" I
had.  They had a technical means of enforcing their terms of service,
and they did so.

Of course, I had the option to reverse-engineer the dongle, or buy a
hacked dongle and violate the license agreement.  Current laws however
would make such activity illegal.  Just like it is currently illegal to
watch a DVD on a linux laptop.

The *only* reason that BellSouth, Comcast, etc. don't enforce the "home
networking" charge is because they have no technical means of doing so.
Whether thy have the "right" to enforce it does not matter.
-- 
Jason Day                                       jasonday at
http://jasonday.home.att.net                    worldnet dot att dot net
 
"Of course I'm paranoid, everyone is trying to kill me."
    -- Weyoun-6, Star Trek: Deep Space 9



More information about the Ale mailing list