TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Vonage's Citron Says VoIP Blocking Is 'Censorship'

Re: Vonage's Citron Says VoIP Blocking Is 'Censorship'

Isaiah Beard (sacredpoet@sacredpoet.com)
Mon, 07 Mar 2005 14:41:50 -0500

Dana wrote:

> Isaiah Beard wrote:

>>> My local convenience store and drugstore carry certain newspapers, but
>>> not all for my area. Does that mean they are _censoring_ the ones
>>> they don't sell? According to Vonage they are.

>> You comparison is overbroad and overreaching, and compares apples to
>> oranges.

> No, his comparison is right on.

It would be right on if grocery stores and newsstands had exclusivity
arrangements. They do not. However, cable ISPs have exclusive
franchise agreements in many areas where they provide service, and by
default and through fancy FCC footwork, ILECs are often the only other
game in town. A duopoly doesn't make for much choice.

>> I would think of it more this way: let's say that
>> your phone company provider, be it Verizon or other LEC, decided
>> that profanity should no longer be used on its phone lines, and
>> installs special filters to capture and "bleep out" such speech.
>> Would that be acceptable?

> This is a strawman argument,

If it was a straw man argument, then you would have a quick and easy
rebuttal other than this.

> as this is in no way compariable to the situation with Vonage.

On the contrary: your retail store argument is the only straw man here.

E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: news01@jmatt.net: "Re: Paris Hilton's Sidekick Hacked"
Go to Previous message: Dana: "Re: Vonage's Citron Says VoIP Blocking Is 'Censorship'"
May be in reply to: Charles Cryderman: "Vonage's Citron Says VoIP Blocking Is 'Censorship'"
Next in thread: DevilsPGD: "Re: Vonage's Citron Says VoIP Blocking Is 'Censorship'"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page