[governance] Net neutrality: Definitions

[Tapani Tarvainen]

On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 03:08:07AM -0700, Karl Auerbach (karl at cavebear.com) wro
> On 08/17/2010 01:57 AM, Tapani Tarvainen wrote:
> 
> >In particular, if you are doing business, you do *not*
> >have the right to discriminate arbitrarily against selected
> >clients in Finland
> 
> I had not heard about that in Finland.  But is it really as you
> suggest it is?

Note the word "arbitrarily".
I didn't mean to suggest there are no valid reasons for
discrimination, let alone that money wouldn't be one.

> Let's use the Finish railway system as test case.

> The point of this is to suggest, as you suggested, that "not paying
> money" seems to be accepted as a reason to discriminate in Finland
> (as it seems to be in many other places.)

Exactly.

And I did not argue it shouldn't be - just pointed out that
your statement

>>> I can limit or even revoke your access at any time without notice.
>>> So can every other operators, except perhaps certain governmental
>>> ("public") operators.

is an overstatement.

> >Actually, yes I can - ok, not premier but equal in some sense:
> >if they discriminate against my packets they must have a valid
> >reason in many countries, USA to the contrary.
> >(Although there are *some* restrictions even in the US against
> >some types of discrimination, like race- or gender-based,
> >if I'm not mistaken. Don't know if any such would apply here.)
> 
> US law may not be quite what you think it is.  Yes we do have very
> strong rules against many, perhaps most, kinds of discrimination by
> governmental bodies.  However, the rules against discrimination are
> typically rather less strong when it comes to discrimination by
> private actors.

Without claiming much knowledge about US law, in Finland (and most of
Europe) rules against discrimination are fairly strong in the case
of private-owned businesses as well (as opposed to individuals).

-- 
Tapani Tarvainen
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