Has AT&T Lost Its Mind?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Synthesis:Law and Technology Law and Technology [synthesis.law.and.technology () gmail com]
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 7:58 AM
To: David Farber
Cc: ip; Aleecia M. McDonald
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: Has AT&T Lost Its Mind?

Dave,

I believe there is some confusion here.

It is important to note that the Verizon blocking was a decision they took, not a case.  We have no way of knowing 
(merely guessing) what happens if a decision is contested in court.  Also, if it went to court there is no guarantee 
common-carrier status would be invoked.  We are a lot less guessing with the AT&T situation.

Common-carrier is a 'status' and that 'status'  can be used as an 'exemption' for certain things.

Store-and-forward is a process not a status.  You can have a store-and-forward system without being a common carrier 
and you can be a common carrier without any store-and-forward and vice versa.  The only reason we talk about 
store-and-forward is that inherent to the technology is the potential that some offending content 'might' end up on a 
server and be used as evidence of violation, in which case the carrier would want to invoke the exemption.

Hope this helps.

Dan


Dan Steinberg

SYNTHESIS:Law & Technology
35, du Ravin phone: (613) 794-5356
Chelsea, Quebec
J9B 1N1




On 1/17/08, David Farber <dave () farber net<mailto:dave () farber net>> wrote:

________________________________________
From: Aleecia M. McDonald [ am40 () andrew cmu edu<mailto:am40 () andrew cmu edu>]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 3:49 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   Has AT&T Lost Its Mind?

Professor Farber,

For IP?

On Jan 17, 2008, at 8:59 AM, Mark Blacknell wrote:

> This, of course, should destroy its status as a common carrier and
> all the
> protections from liability that go with it, right?

Things are more complicated than that.

If you hold your cell phone to your ear to make a call, AT&T is a
common carrier. If you hold your cell phone in your hand to send
a text message, AT&T is not a common carrier. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/us/27verizon.html?hp

I believe the DMCA is the place to look for why ISPs are not
responsible for their users' copyright violations. Non-authoritative
but plain English overview of common carrier history, with legislation
and case law pointers: http://slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=36623

With email I believe there is case law about storing email on a server
vs. transient hops through routers. IANAL and do not have notes on
case names. If anyone knows, or better yet knows the status of forward
and store systems under DMCA, I would appreciate any pointers.

       Aleecia
       PhD student in Engineering & Public Policy @ CMU


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