Has Verizon Forfeited Common Carrier Status?

An anonymous reader writes, "Freedom of speech, the future of the Net, you name it. In October, a U.S. vigilante group asked Verizon to cut off Net access to Epifora, a Canadian ISP that hosts a number of (entirely legal) web sites offering support to minor-attracted adults. Shortly thereafter, Verizon gave 30 days notice to Epifora, ending a 5 year relationship. Telecos have traditionally refrained from censoring legal content, arguing that as 'common carriers' it is outside of their scope to make such decisions. Furthermore, they have refrained because if they did so in some cases, they might be legally liable for other cases where they did not exercise censorship. The questions are: has Verizon forfeited their claim to common-carrier status by selectively censoring legal speech that they do not like? And can the net effectively route around censorship if the trunk carriers are allowed to pick and choose whom they allow to connect?"

A Team of Lawyers

[diersing]

Done. Every carrier will need a team of lawyers to review all content and deem it's legality.

Next

Possibly NSFW?

[PIPBoy3000]

Can the editors please mention that a site might possibly not be safe for work?

As eager as I am to rally behind censorship, I'm not too keen on gay shirtless men popping up on my monitor as I eat my lunch. My Christian coworker might think odd things of me.

Fantastic - it's about time!

[Anonymous Coward]

Now these pedophiles can go underground where, um, there, um, harder to find.

Shit.

Re:Has Slashdot been duped?

[eln]

Actually, it's a typo. The submitter meant "miner-attracted adults." It's a group of people irresistibly drawn to hard hats and black lung disease. Just goes to show you can find a website for anything on the Internet.

Re:Possibly NSFW?

[fahrbot-bot]

I'm not too keen on gay shirtless men popping up on my monitor as I eat my lunch. My Christian coworker might think odd things of me.

Or, he may not :-)

Re:Has Slashdot been duped?

[dr_dank]

"Minor-attracted adults" sounds a lot better than "perverts,"

That it does. Why not rename the whole spectrum?

Creepy flasher guy in the park - Genital Display Engineer
Pedophile priest - Faith-based Genital Manipulation Facilitator
Gary Glitter - Overly-Child-Friendly Entertainment Provider

Any others?

Speak for yourself.

[/dev/trash]

Peg Bundy was HOT. The original MILF.