On Sascha Meinrath’s blog today, bloggers’ reactions to a new Qwest Communications user agreement with legalese that may be troubling even for people who are not Qwest customers (PDF link to Qwest document). Snip from analysis by Brett Glass of Lariat.org, as excerpted in Sascha’s roundup:
[Qwest] prohibits, among other things, the use of a DSL line by a business to provide a wireless hotspot for its customers. It also prohibits all users from setting up any sort of server at all — even if they've ordered static IP addresses for the express purpose of setting up, for example, a VPN server to let them into their own networks from the Internet. (See Section 7(a) of the "agreement.")
Tellingly, these restrictions apply EVEN IF QWEST IS NOT THE PROVIDER OF THE INTERNET BANDWIDTH OR SERVICE FOR THE DSL LINE.
Yes, that's right: even if Qwest is merely providing the line, and your Internet service is coming from a third party ISP which wants to sell you bandwidth for the purpose of running a server or a hotspot, you can't.
Link (via unwired list, thanks Matt Westervelt)
