[Air-l] MySpace sued again ...

[elw at stderr.org]

>>> For those of you who are knowledgeable about policy: Why isn't My 
>>> Space viewed as a common carrier, and hence not responsible for the 
>>> content that is shown on its pages? Or is it, and this whole lawsuit 
>>> is just, well, B.S.?
>>
>> The presence of advertising (of their own) all over MySpace's pages 
>> would seem to be one of the first of many reasons to kick them out of 
>> common-carrier status.
>
> I'm not sure I follow this. MySpace is clearly not a common carrier, but 
> common carriers advertise and carry ads all the time. My telephone 
> carrier(s) plaster ads everywhere they can think of.

They don't, however, interrupt your use of the service to shove their ads 
at you.  At least, not usually.  ;)

There's a strong sense of non-neutrality surrounding myspace.  It is a 
non-common-carrier service, as you say - the advertising plastered 
everywhere just makes it more obvious that they're a for-profit business.

[Probably a faux pas on my part to mention advertising first as part of a 
discussion of common carrier status - they're related, intuitively, to me. 
Oh well.]

--e