Slashdot Mirror
Bad Behavior on the 'Net - Who Pays the Bandwidth Bill?
rakolam asks: "I am involved with network management in the hosting department of a fairly large ISP. Constantly we have customers who dispute inbound bandwidth spikes and demand service credits on their burstable connections. Events such as the Slammer Virus literally have everyone knocking on their salesperson's door at the end of the billing cycle. My position is that the internet is a public space, and by placing themselves in that space, one has to realize the consequences (and the implications of burstable billing). I'd like Slashdot's perspective on this. Should ISP's ultimately eat the costs of malicious behavior? Is the customer ultimately responsible for the bandwidth they've generated, regardless if it's desired or not? Is this a new frontier for insurance companies?"
How about you put your money where your mouth is and wardial someone's 800 number (that they pay for). See how long it takes before the FBI shows up. See how long it is before they don't pay the phone company for it.
Unsolicited commercial calls to a cell phone are illegal for a reason. You're paying per minute or per call. If you did not request those calls, or they're harassing, you can have it disputed. Calls to your cell phone that reach your voice mail are charged to you, so even if you don't answer the cell phone, you still pay for it.
In addition, the phone company has the resources to accturately determine who called you, complete with a physical address where the phone is installed, or the billing address if it's a cell phone.