IIC Internet Virtual servers

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On Thu, 12 Apr 2007 10:23:27 -0400
Matthew Gillen <me at mattgillen.net> wrote:

> Kristian Hermansen wrote:
> > Interestingly, have you ever read your ISPs terms of service in
> > detail?  When my father signed up for Adelphia 8 years ago or so (no
> > other high-speed around the area) I actually read through it.  The
> > terms clearly stated...
> > 
> > "...assumes all ownership for any ideas, communication, and
> > technologies produced and transmitted via this service..."
> 
> Someone else pointed out recently (on this list perhaps, or maybe I saw it on
> slashdot), that Comcast has (or had, I saw it a while ago, but can't find it
> now) the a very similar thing in their agreement.  In one line, they said they
> weren't responsible for anything, then in the next line claimed copyright on
> anything going over their wires.  Since I can't find it now, maybe they came
> to their senses and removed that clause...
> 
> > So, if you write some proprietary code, and upload to your web server,
> > Adelphia now has the right to use your source code.  It's ridiculous,
> > but no one ever reads the terms of service.  
> 
> It's also completely unenforceable.  If you use ssh/ssl for all your important
> traffic, they can't prove what you're doing anyway.
Here is Comcast's terms of use. 
http://www.comcast.net/terms/use.jsp

Maybe Adelphia copied the language from a University. Normally,
colleges and universities have very strong language regarding IP.
Essentially, if a professor invents something  and he/she used
university time or facilities, the university has certain ownership
rights. Or maybe Adelphia thinks it is SCO, which owns the rights to
Unix? and anything that was derived from Unix including Linux, all the
FSF code, Berkeley code :-)
-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
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