Keith --

Bummer about the Wiesenthal Center, but it's exactly the kind of
*stupid* thing that they tend to do.  I was a member for a while,
until I noticed that they were off the deep end -- they put a lot of
effort into high profile publicity stunts and imo worthless
activities, without doing anything in the here and now to actually
*help* anyone.

On the other hand, I find myself ambivalent about the notion of "I'll
do what I want with my server".  Leaving aside the bogus technical
side of that argument (and the accompanying opportunism), I find the
notion appealing -- kind of like the signs reading "we reserve the
right to refuse service" that I remember seeing in small businesses at
one time.  On the other hand, that notion easily leads to (harmful)
discrimination in one direction and to pressure campaigns on ISPs
(like the Wiesenthal Center's, but worse) in another.  (Imagine if
there were a way to "picket" a web page....)  Still, it feels to me
kind of like newspapers and advertising: the fact that newspapers
accept advertising doesn't mean that they have to accept all ads
they're offered; and they can decline ads on whatever basis they want.
Seems to me that an ISP ought to have the same freedom, since from
this (possibly warped) perspective, the primary difference between the
ISP and the newspaper is that there are a *lot* more ISPs than there
are newspapers -- and it's a lot easier to start a new ISP than it is
to start a new newspaper.

If there were some government involved in forcing ISPs not to provide
services to groups connected with hate speech, then I'd agree with the
1st Amendment argument.  (<Exon>ing is too good for mother-<Helms>ers
like that!)  If ISPs ran so strongly to oligopoly that they required
government regulation, I'd expect that regulation to embed 1st
Amendment guarantees in those regulations.  But as long as there's a
vibrant open marketplace in the ISP world, I'd just as soon let ISPs
be as nearly autonomous as possible.  If I don't want to read hate
speech, I'll stay away from obnoxious web pages; if I don't want to
support an ISP whose policies I dislike, I'll patronize the ISP down
the virtual street instead.

-- ed