Verizon Changes FiOS AUP, -1, Offtopic

RasputinAXP writes "Verizon has changed their FiOS AUP effective yesterday, and added an interesting new clause to their specific examples that we're all familiar with: 'it is a violation of the Agreement and this AUP to ... post off-topic information on message boards, chat rooms or social networking sites.' At this point, every FiOS-based Slashdot user is breaking the new AUP."

Comments

Re:Star Destroyer Vs. Borg Cube?

[Joe U]

SCUBA is an acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus

Re:My first hand experience on Modern Warfare 2

[realisticradical]

Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the Fandango?

Re:Have you guys ever...

[sopssa]

But the problem here is the constant Windows vs. Linux fighting. We've spend all this time fighting and completely forgot to laught at how stupid Mac OS X users are.

Re:Windows ME

[Kjella]

I'm sorry, but that post is automatically -1, Redundant instead because it's been done to death, resurrected as a horse, flogged to death and beyond then turned into a zombie and still haunts this place.

Re:lol

[The Archon V2.0]

do i even need to bring up the constitution here? free speech anyone?

Since it's a corporation, it's not bound by the First Amendment.

Hey, wait, that means bringing up the Constitution is off topic.

Very good.

Re:I'm Not!

[Kjella]

Seriously though - how are they going to enforce this without reading the information I'm sending over the net. Shouldn't that be Illegal?

Honestly, they don't care as long as you pay and nobody complains. This is just another case where if they get complaints from someone, they can terminate you for ToS violation. In reality, not much has changed - have you read some of them? There's usually enough insane terms to terminate anyone, any time anyway. This is just adding one more possible excuse to put on the termination notice.

Re:Star Destroyer Vs. Borg Cube?

[MalleusEBHC]

The star destroyer was neither a star nor a destroyer. Discuss.

Re:Someone wants to check /. from work

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Cute. That statement amounts to giving themselves the power to inspect both the origin/destination and the content of all communications.

Better SSL up.

Err.. no.

[Fished]

IANAL. I don't even play one on TV. However, your "constitutional rights" are a list of things that the government may not do to you. While there might be some legal angle based on Verizon's status as a common carrier, public utility, etc., generally speaking a private company has no obligation to enable your freedom of speech. Think about it... does a newspaper have to print your letter to the editor? No. Same deal here.

Re:Part (b) : "flaming"

[oenone.ablaze]

Actually, I suspect that it's because Verizon just cares about what's going on in _their_ forums, and they included that clause so they could terminate the internet service of complainers / trolls in their forums without saying so explicitly. That's what I would do, if I were a myopic, profit-maximizing natural monopoly.

Re:My first hand experience on Modern Warfare 2

[Afforess]

I thought New Moon was a poorly done movie. The acting was terrible, and the characters themselves, corny. 4/10, would not see again.

Re:My first hand experience on Modern Warfare 2

[JWSmythe]

    I guess that's better than three men with one buttock. Siamese triplets with one ass? Who wipes it?

Re:Why they may have done so

[Chyeld]

If you read the whole section, it's a list of examples of what they consider to be violations of Section 1. Someone just got diarrhea of the fingers and started listing all the ways to misbehave online. They even include flaming.

The takeaway is Verizon is attempting to say that if you act out in any manner whatsoever, do anything they don't like, or just get on the wrong side of one of their IT folk, your service is dead. Overbroad is an understatement. This is them writing a blank check to themselves to allow them to do whatever they want, whenever they want.

1. General Policy: Verizon reserves the sole discretion to deny or restrict your Service, or immediately to suspend or terminate your Service, if the use of your Service by you or anyone using it, in our sole discretion, violates the Agreement or other Verizon policies, is objectionable or unlawful, interferes with the functioning or use of the Internet or the Verizon network by Verizon or other users, or violates the terms of this Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP").
2. Specific Examples of AUP Violations. The following are examples of conduct which may lead to termination of your Service. Without limiting the general policy in Section 1, it is a violation of the Agreement and this AUP to: (a) access without permission or right the accounts or computer systems of others, to spoof the URL, DNS or IP addresses of Verizon or any other entity, or to penetrate the security measures of Verizon or any other person's computer system, or to attempt any of the foregoing; (b) transmit uninvited communications, data or information, or engage in other similar activities, including without limitation, "spamming", "flaming" or denial of service attacks; (c) intercept, interfere with or redirect email or other transmissions sent by or to others; (d) introduce viruses, worms, harmful code or Trojan horses on the Internet; (e) post off-topic information on message boards, chat rooms or social networking sites; (f) engage in conduct that is defamatory, fraudulent, obscene or deceptive; (g) violate Verizon's or any third party's copyright, trademark, proprietary or other intellectual property rights; (h) engage in any conduct harmful to the Verizon network, the Internet generally or other Internet users; (i) generate excessive amounts of email or other Internet traffic; (j) use the Service to violate any rule, policy or guideline of Verizon; (k) use the service in any fashion for the transmission or dissemination of images containing child pornography or in a manner that is obscene, sexually explicit, cruel or racist in nature or which espouses, promotes or incites bigotry, hatred or racism; or (l) use the Service in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria or any other E:1 Country as designated by the Department of Commerce.

To cover the fanfic requirement:

DOOM: Repercussions of Evil

John Stalvern waited. The lights above him blinked and sparked out of the air. There were demons in the base. He didn't see them, but had expected them now for years. His warnings to Cernel Joson were not listenend to and now it was too late. Far too late for now, anyway.
John was a space marine for fourteen years. When he was young he watched the spaceships and he said to dad "I want to be on the ships daddy."
Dad said "No! You will BE KILL BY DEMONS"
There was a time when he believed him. Then as he got oldered he stopped. But now in the space station base of the UAC he knew there were demons.
"This is Joson" the radio crackered. "You must fight the demons!"
So John gotted his palsma rifle and blew up the wall.
"HE GOING TO KILL US" said the demons
"I will shoot at him" said the cyberdemon and he fired the rocket missiles. John plasmaed at him and tried to blew him up. But then the ceiling fell and they were trapped and not able to kill.
"No! I must kill the demons" he shouted
The radio said "No, John. You are the demons"
And then John was a zombie.

Re:My first hand experience on Modern Warfare 2

[JWSmythe]

    If someone flips a coin to decided something with me, I punch them in the face. When they wake up I tell them "Nope, it's what I called." They obviously didn't care much if they left it to the random chance of a coin flip. Try it. You'll find it helps solve a lot of problems. Well, until they start trying to do the same thing. If they swing at you, after they wake up, knock 'em out again just for spite. ... and people say violence doesn't solve anything.

Re:Forget (e) offtopic, how about (b)?

[Thinboy00]

"[I]t is a violation of the Agreement and this AUP to[...] (b) transmit uninvited communications, data or information"

I'd say this is pretty Pythonesque. I can't send you data until you invite me. Of course, you sending me an invitation is prohibited unless I invited you to do that. But I can't do that unless you invited me first. Etc.

That just means in theory that VZ customers can't contact each other.

Of course, in theoretical practice VZ customers can't contact anyone by any reasonable and modern protocol.

Of course, in practical practice it means VZ can terminate its customers whenever it wants.

Re:Part (b) : "flaming"

[MillionthMonkey]

Well, the spellchecker does underline "asswipes" when I type it, but it doesn't underline "assholes", and it doesn't underline "Verizon" either, so make your own assumptions.

Re:My first hand experience on Modern Warfare 2

[Jason Levine]

I see your Bohemian Rhapsody and raise you a Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody!

http://www.youtube.com/user/MuppetsStudio#p/c/C9E4DEEA577A3A79/0/tgbNymZ7vqY

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew: "Will you let me go?"
Mahna Mahna: "Ma-na-ma-nah!"
Snowths: "do do do do do do"
Lew Zealand: "Let me throw."
Mahna Mahna: "Ma-na-ma-nah!"
Beauregard: "I will not let you throw."
Crazy Harry: "Let me blow."
Mahna Mahna: "Ma-na-ma-nah!"
Beauregard: "I will not let you blow."
Fozzie Bear: "Let me joke."
Statler and Waldorf: "Do not like your jokes."
Fozzie Bear: "Let me joke."
Statler and Waldorf: "Do not like your jokes."
Fozzie Bear: "Let me joke."
Statler and Waldorf: "Do not like your jokes."

Re:Forget (e) offtopic, how about (b)?

[spidercoz]

Huh? (head explodes)

now who the fuck is going to clean that up?

Re:My first hand experience on Modern Warfare 2

[sopssa]

I agree. Moon was a great movie, the single science fiction I've managed to watch for years actually.