Hi Larry,  

> By definition they are advertising a connection to the Internet via
> ....
> risk/reward that drives their overall business.

Or in other words, 

> Nonetheless, Tony is right that the punters won't care.

And that's it exactly. In the end, customers vote with their feet, and
unless there's a considerable beat-up by the Press on this subject, they are
unlikely to be motivated to move from their sardonic state, and are more
likely to simply throw the occasional peanut. Indeed, they may well find it
a useful tool, as you've intimated. There could well be a "Is this the Thin
Edge of the Wedge?" news article in the making out there right now though :)

However. The Internet by its very definition is built upon the Inter
Cooperation of its member parts. When part of that mechanism is _threatened_
by potentially widespread commercial exploitation, I personally become...
concerned... I am not going to say whether it is right or wrong, just
present the issues.

Many of the more technically useful parts of the net have already been
damaged by greed and avarice. No longer can one rely on a PING response from
all TCP connect points. Parked Domains are scattered far and wide.
Contacting a domain or website owner is made virtually impossible because of
a need to avoid Spam filling their mailbox. Merely mailing the auDA email
list results in greylisting :) Safety and Privacy is lost amid a flurry of
tracking sites, cookies and viral loads.. 

In the end, what will serve the customer best, is a safe, well run and
efficient Internet that fulfils their needs. Is that what this new
"Innovation" will provide? Time will tell. Does outright rejection of
Bigpond's new marketing concept include a danger of babies and bath water
being lost in the skew of regulatory compliance? Perhaps. But there is also
the distinct possibility of this becoming the "Norm" on the Internet, and
all ISPs offering a mangled DNS as the _only_ option. What ramifications
will there be then? Blind acceptance means that there's a good possibility
we're going to find out. Again.

The "King and I" will hang out over here and watch... :)  <SFX: Looks for
peanuts.>

-- James :) Collins - Head Office * +61-7-3823-5150 *
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