In his 1843 report to Congress, the then commissioner of the Patent Office, Henry L. Ellsworth, included the following comment: "The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end." As Jeffery shows, it's evident from the rest of that report that Commissioner Ellsworth was simply using a bit of rhetorical flourish to emphasize that the number of patents was growing at a great rate. Far from considering inventions at an end, he outlined areas in which he expected patent activity to increase, and it is clear that he was making plans for the future."
That's funny, the post that I responded to was very specific about "scanning all email" and "blocking all outbound emails" that contain specific content.
It's a nice idea, but the biggest problem that I can see is that it would make ISPs responsible, in a very real, legal and scary sense, for the content of the packets that they carry.
As it stands, an ISP is not that much different than the phone company. They connect one user to another and don't worry about what is being said. What you are proposing is that all service providers would spy on their users and take corrective action if they are caught saying the wrong things.
This would be no different than the phone company terminating your call if they hear you mention the words "pie", "face", "chimp" and "white house" all in the same conversation.
If an ISP were to take such an interest in what their users have to say, then it would leave them in a tricky legal position -- If they have a policy of shutting down users who traffic in Windows Malware 2002 (tm), then why do they turn a blind eye to such horrible things as kiddie porn, copyrighted music and Harry Potter fan-fiction? The lawsuits would spread like wildfire, and the imminent death of the internet would arrive at eleven.
After having big success with the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up" and Madonna's "Ray of Light", Microsoft is hoping to license the popular "American Life" MP3 for this new campaign.
"Microsoft. What the F*** do you think you're doing?"
...The colours of the rainbow / So pretty in the sky
Are there on the faces / Of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands / Saying "How do you do?"
They're really sayin' / "I love you"...
<SARCASM>Thank ${DEITY} that Clearchannel is there to protect us from this subversive propaganda!</SARCASM>
Slashdot Mirror
Which post did you think I was responding to?
As it stands, an ISP is not that much different than the phone company. They connect one user to another and don't worry about what is being said. What you are proposing is that all service providers would spy on their users and take corrective action if they are caught saying the wrong things.
This would be no different than the phone company terminating your call if they hear you mention the words "pie", "face", "chimp" and "white house" all in the same conversation.
If an ISP were to take such an interest in what their users have to say, then it would leave them in a tricky legal position -- If they have a policy of shutting down users who traffic in Windows Malware 2002 (tm), then why do they turn a blind eye to such horrible things as kiddie porn, copyrighted music and Harry Potter fan-fiction? The lawsuits would spread like wildfire, and the imminent death of the internet would arrive at eleven.
After having big success with the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up" and Madonna's "Ray of Light", Microsoft is hoping to license the popular "American Life" MP3 for this new campaign. "Microsoft. What the F*** do you think you're doing?"
Are there on the faces / Of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands / Saying "How do you do?"
They're really sayin' / "I love you"...
<SARCASM>Thank ${DEITY} that Clearchannel is there to protect us from this subversive propaganda!</SARCASM>
-D