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On Sept 13, Donovan White included this observation in response to a
Steve Outing post:


>>>>

ISPs provide access to email. That's a two-way flow. Regulating
that flow

based on content is a publisher's decision, not a carrier's
responsibility.

If AOL insists that they can control data traffic through their pipes
based

on the editorial content of that data, they're responsible for _all_ 
the

content that goes through their pipes. And I don't think they want that

kind of responsibility. 


<<<<<<<<


It reminds us that we are just starting to come to grips with the carrier
vs publishers dichotomy. The mantra has been that carriers don't have and
shouldn't be held responsible for content (phone companies, mail
delivery, ISPs). Publishers do take on the role of gatekeeper and assume,
therefore, some liability for content.


Services such as AOL are a new breed, properly befitting an industry that
we tout as part of the blurring of boundaries of traditional media. They
serve as a publisher in their roles of creating content areas, hiring
people called or functioning as gatekeepers. At the same time, they have
a role as carriers, handling e-mail and providing facilities for
IRC/chat. 


It is unfair, in this new paradigm, to make AOL or its counterparts  fit
such entities into an outmoded carrier OR content structure. We need to
recognize that a single entity can be both (or more). They key is what
part of the service is at issue. It is much the same as the telecos and
their Yellow Pages. While one expects to be responsible for what does
over their lines, they do have responsibility for what they allow in
their directory. Same company, different roles.


The courts will clearly need to affirm the new models and, if they can't,
Congress (heaven help us) may have to undraw the old boundaries. 






Benjamin Compaine

Bell Atlantic Professor of Telecommunications

Chairman, Center for Information Industry Research

Temple University

215-204-6434            e-mail:  bcompaine@usa.net

***********************************

http://astro.temple.edu/~ciir
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