Should ISPs Be Liable For What Passes Through Their Systems?

Published on November 5th, 2009

Posted by Uncle Dave in Politics, The Internet, crime

The MPAA and RIAA want ISPs to police their traffic for pirated material. Others wants them to police for child porn. Now this. When are phone companies going to be held liable for chuckleheads drunk dialing when I sleep? When are cable companies going to be held liable for allowing stations to up the volume on commercials or playing bad shows? This is just idiotic, irresponsible, pointless lawmaking on so many levels.

The House Financial Services Committee has approved a bill, the Investor Protection Act, which requires to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block any traffic on their networks which fraudulently invokes the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, Failure to do so will make the ISPs subject to court injunctions and liable for any damages that result from the fraud.

The SIPC’s job is to protect investor assets when a brokerage firm fails. The committee found that fraudulent actors on the Internet and elsewhere sometimes represent themselves as legitimate.
[...]
Note that the rules include any data simply routed through the network. This amounts to a requirement that all data on the network be subject to deep packet inspection and contextual analysis. This is an enormous, potentially crippling burden for ISPs, both large and small. Even if representations are found that someone represents the SIPC, it’s not clear how the ISP is supposed to determine if it’s fraudulent. And the bill doesn’t appear to make any allowances for data encryption, which would probably make the ISPs duties impossible to implement.

28 users responded in " Should ISPs Be Liable For What Passes Through Their Systems? "

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# 1 BAT21 said, on November 5th, 2009 at 5:36 am

Only if telephone companies are held liable for what passes through their systems.

# 2 badtimes said, on November 5th, 2009 at 5:51 am

IANAL, but after reading the bill excerpt I can’t agree with the conclusion that this will require deep packet inspection and/or contextual analysis. The key phrases (to me) are ‘has actual knowledge’ and ‘is aware of facts or circumstances from which it is apparent’. It seems both of those would be hard to prove.

# 3 jobs said, on November 5th, 2009 at 6:41 am

I thought net neutrality was the buzz word of the week… doesn’t sound neutral to me.

# 4 The Judge said, on November 5th, 2009 at 6:48 am

Cornholer is a douche

# 5 Improbus said, on November 5th, 2009 at 6:54 am

What a bunch of morans. This from the body that gave us Ted “It’s a series of tubes” Stevens.

# 6 Animby said, on November 5th, 2009 at 7:36 am

Judge #4 – I don’t mean to nitpick but shouldn’t that read, “Cornholer is an enema”?

# 7 Dallas said, on November 5th, 2009 at 7:43 am

#1 Well said.

# 8 amodedoma said, on November 5th, 2009 at 7:53 am

They tried this same bullshit years ago here in spain, law went to the books. But like other impracticable laws it just sits there and collects dust. Even if every ISP in the nation were to dedicate twice as much computing power and bandwidth they wouldn’t come close to being able to do this. The logs alone would be so massive as to make it currently impossible. The entertainment industry is so obstinately encrusted in it’s own ignorance that it seems to be setting up the context of it’s own demise. If they’d've spent half as much on adapting to the internet as they have on legal actions and lobbying they’d be making money like never before. Screw the cinema, I’m more comfortable at home. What do I want with CD’s or DVD’s? They take up lots of room and scratch easily. They want some kind of guarantee they’ve never had before. People have always pirated music and films and always will. I would prefer a quality service at a reasonable price and if they ever come to their senses I might just go back to buying music and video. For now, I say screw ‘em.

# 9 GigG said, on November 5th, 2009 at 7:55 am

I think that if an ISP chooses to not be a common carrier by favoring certain packets over others then yes they are taking responsibility for what happens on there wires.

This is how we will keep net neutrality.

# 10 Judge Mental said, on November 5th, 2009 at 8:23 am

All cities should be liable for what is transported over their road and sidewalk systems.

# 11 tlmck said, on November 5th, 2009 at 8:35 am

While we are at it, we should include everyone all the way back to the original owners of the net, the US government. And let’s not forget the inventors like Vint Cerf, Tim Berners-Lee, Al Gore, etal…

# 12 GetSmart said, on November 5th, 2009 at 9:02 am

And you thought Internet speeds were sluggish before. I sometimes wish I weren’t an atheist, because I could pray for asteroid impacts on certain places. I’d be praying a lot, too.

# 13 ECA said, on November 5th, 2009 at 9:34 am

OK,
If this happens, I want the telephone company to have a NO CALL LIST.

So,
they want that ALL ISP’s in the USA have a REG code, and that EACH reg code be ID’d and IF a advert comes to you, or PORN, or ANYTHING fraudulent..IT can be Processed by LAW or BLOCKED by the ISP.
Umm, NOT GOING TO WORK. Unless you regulate it to the point that ONLY USA ISP’s have access to the USA. Might as well cut us OFF from the rest of the world.
WHO is going to SIT, and watch the Picture data FLYING threw a ISP/service. just to tell if its PORN.

# 14 bac said, on November 5th, 2009 at 9:37 am

Probably shouldn’t leave out the paper industry.

The MPAA and RIAA should lock up all of their content so that no one can steal it. May be place it inside of old gold mines with highly trained security guards patrolling the outside.

# 15 The Future called and said, on November 5th, 2009 at 9:43 am

Hack law by a hack politician. With all do respect to our older citizens, frankly these old guys entrenched in their way of thinking are simply getting in the way of true progress.

I would hazard a guess that congressman Paul Kanjorski, the bills author, has monthly trouble with his email attachments and lacks any basic knowledge of network technology.

# 16 Mr. Fusion said, on November 5th, 2009 at 9:55 am

Someone took too many stupid pills to come up with this.

# 17 Dennis said, on November 5th, 2009 at 10:17 am

I thought they were already doing that in SF at AT&T….but I guess that is old news and no one remembers the push for ALL COMMUNICATIONS to be Monitored for Enemies of the ‘State’.
Nothing has changed since.,..

# 18 Brian said, on November 5th, 2009 at 10:21 am

Realistically speaking, the RIAA is the greater of the two evil entities. Which is odd, considering the fact that production of their entertainment venue carries several orders of magnitude lower costs.

I don’t buy movies anymore. I’m finding it increasingly hard to find three movies a WEEK to rent via Netflix, and I rarely have an itch to own any of them.

I rarely buy music anymore, and when I do, it’s by surfing the clearance CD bins at Half Price Books. I won’t buy low bitrate, DRM-infected music online because one corrupted key or application (or hard drive or operating system or…..this fault tree gets pretty big), and POOF. If Garth “Beelzebub” Brooks ever gets his wish, I just won’t buy any music anymore. there are plenty of free-to-me ways of listening to music.

And God forbid we ever remember that this is for the purposes of entertainment. Those organizations seem to be under the impression that we live and work to entertain ourselves, and not that we use entertainment to take the edge off living and working, to make it a little more bearable every day.

# 19 bill said, on November 5th, 2009 at 10:39 am

What about Zerox?

SUE THEM INTO THE STONE AGE!

# 20 Toxic Asshead said, on November 5th, 2009 at 10:42 am

Ya still don’t think this administration is trying to take control of everything? Every direction you look….

# 21 Postman said, on November 5th, 2009 at 10:55 am

#18

I tried remaining honest like you. Now I just steal everything that is not easier to get free.

# 22 SparkyOne said, on November 5th, 2009 at 10:58 am

not until they can pass materiel goods via 0’s and 1’s

# 23 jescott418 said, on November 5th, 2009 at 12:10 pm

No they are only a bridge to provide the content. ISP’s should not be forced to be the moderator. As with any service like the elctric company. Should they tell you what type of bulbs to use or when to turn your lights on? Should the phone companies monitor and bleep out foul language? Two places content can be controlled. From the source and at the receiver. These are easily done and very effective.

# 24 N orman Speight said, on November 5th, 2009 at 12:12 pm

ANY web user can download anti-spam – hell, it’s even plugged on Dvorak.blog.
So. Why on earth don’t ISPs use anti-spam (at source) to kill all this crap that annoys?
Spam could have been stopped YEARS AGO!. But, they still won’t do anything to kill it.
I know I’m dim, but why?

# 25 Uncle Dave said, on November 5th, 2009 at 3:36 pm

#24: true, but this isn’t about spam.

# 26 ECA said, on November 5th, 2009 at 7:27 pm

24,25,
YES THEY COULD HAVE FIXED the way EMAIL is handled and routed in the net to make SPAM difficult..

This article is about FORCING the ISP to monitor your Downloads and location, so that you DONT download MOVIES/MUSIC/PORN, WHICH is almost impossible. Unless you want someone to SIT and decrypt EVERY BIT of every picture and DL, to verify its not against the law. And dont forget about monitoring EACH person and logging EVERY site you hit on the net.
The paper work alone would be astounding.

# 27 deowll said, on November 6th, 2009 at 12:02 am

Congress can pass laws even when it knows nothing about what it is supposed to be controlling. Every bill passed this year proves it.

# 28 Mr. Fusion said, on November 6th, 2009 at 6:42 am

#27, doill,

You make a good, if inaccurate point.

Anyone can complain about something they know nothing about. Your posting history bears that out.

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