The Technology Liberation Front - Latest Comments in The Technology Liberation Front » Archive » Comcast and Freedom to Obtain Service Plan Information

Re: The Technology Liberation Front » Archive » Comcast and Freedom to Obtain Service Plan Information

BubbaDude — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:11:52 -0000

I seem to recall Hammurabi making some noise about service plans in the first draft of his opus "My Codex and Other Cool Laws of Cyberspace." The relevant text was done in bas-relief on basalt, written in cuneiform script. The Service Freedom portion was lost when the stele fell off the back of the slave who was carrying it to Hammurabi's library after the election of 1760 BC removed the Plutocrat Party from office, replacing them with the Autocrats. Incidentally, the Babylon Babblers won the World Series that year, lifting the curse of Ur-Nammu.

Re: The Technology Liberation Front » Archive » Comcast and Freedom to Obtain Service Plan Information

dimitris — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:06:08 -0000

the consumer “shall ensure that your use of the Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or degrade any other user’s use of the Service, nor represent (in the sole judgment of Comcast) an overly large burden on the network.”

How can the user ensure that her behavior does not violate a standard which is set in the sole judgment of Comcast, unless Comcast publishes that standard?

Do I need a special law-school-exclusive brain implant to read Comcast contracts?

Thanks.

Re: The Technology Liberation Front » Archive » Comcast and Freedom to Obtain Service Plan Information

jimharper — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:30:07 -0000

The "freedom to obtain service plan information" - if I'm not mistaken, that was the missing "fifth" freedom in FDR's 1941 State of the Union address.

Though historians are still searching for confirmation of this, it was apparently dropped from the speech because the president's advisors wanted an equal number of traditional negative freedoms (e.g., from interference with speech, worship) and unworkable "positive freedoms" (e.g., from want, fear, and confusing fine print in Terms of Service documents).

Re: The Technology Liberation Front » Archive » Comcast and Freedom to Obtain Service Plan Information

BubbaDude — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:26:14 -0000

Go read the Comcast Comcast Agreement for Residential Services, where you will find the following (HSI = High Speed Internet access):

b. Prohibited Uses of HSI. You agree not to use HSI for operation as an Internet service provider, a server site for ftp, telnet, rlogin, e-mail hosting, "Web hosting" or other similar applications, for any business enterprise, or as an end-point on a non-Comcast local area network or wide area network.

BitTorrent acting as a seed (after the download is complete) is a server. That's forbidden on Comcast Residential Accounts.

This is old news and has already been discussed at great length on this blog.