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AT&T Silences Criticism in New Terms of Service

marco13185 writes "AT&T's new Terms of Service give AT&T the right to suspend your account and all service "for conduct that AT&T believes"..."(c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries." After cooperating with the government's violations of privacy and liberties, I guess AT&T wants their fair share. AT&T users may want to think twice about commenting if they value their internet service."

4 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. Let them try disconnecting... by freedom_india · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Let them try disconnecting a landline telephone line in mid winter in East Coast to a house which has an infant in it.
    Laws exist that prevent disconnecting landline AND electricity which is used to power heat to any house in New England states which has an elder or an infant in it.

    Let AT&T just try it.

    You would see the full weight of law and the CT Supreme Court falling upon it.

    --
    "Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
  2. Re:Reason #1 for net neutrality... by speaker+of+the+truth · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Then why aren't they liable for every single piece of child porn that goes through their network? Aren't they facilitating the distribution of child pornography? Possibly even accessories?

    --
    Using openSUSE instead of Windows since 9th of October, 2007 and liking it.
  3. Re:Corporate dickishness by BlueParrot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ethics was never a component of capitalism, we should not be surprised when companies realize that its more profitable to ignore them.


    Ok, for the love of god, stop calling the US economic system capitalism, it isn't, at least not in the way Adam Smith, or even Friedman talked about it. Capitalism assumes that the government limit regulation only to account for externalities ( pollution, healthcare, education etc... ) while simultaneously ensuring that you don't get coercive monopolies. Does this sound like the US today? AT&T is a problem precisely BECAUSE you don't have any meaningful competition. Virtually all of the problems in the US are caused by corrupt decisions that run directly against the idea of utilizing competition in a free market to balance prices. Copyright , Patents, Farmer Subsidies, Trade barriers... you name it.

    It appears to me that you have two very common naive interpretations of capitalism. The first is the "libertarian" viewpoint in which the free market is a magical solution to all problems and government intervention is the source of all evil. The second is what I like to call the "hippie" interpretation which blames all problems on capitalism no matter what. I've heard people seriously trying to argue that capitalism is the root cause of homophobia, apparently due to how corporations favor "the nuclear family" or something (I was tempted to suggest that the nuclear family should be banned on environmental concerns because radiation causes cancer, but I figured it was a bad idea. ).

    Really, stop blaming every single problem on capitalism ( or communism for that matter ). Reality is that the government is corrupt, which will cause you trouble in a planned economy as well as a market based one. Much of this is the consequence of a bad electoral system which favors only two very similar parties, but thinking that the problem would somehow go away if the US had a more socialistic system is naive at best. It would merely substitute government agencies for corporations. To really deal with it you would have to overhaul the electoral system, but that is not going to happen any time soon.

  4. Re:Not censorship by VeteranNoob · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I can't see how anyone could complain about it.

    You mean you haven't seen anybody complaining about it, right?

    --
    Adapt, adopt, or get out of the way!