[e2e] disintermediation?

[Micah Beck]

Fred,

> I'm not enough of a lawyer to know what word has that meaning. I should
> expect, however, that there is one, as the concept that "one is
responsible
> for what one agrees to" is fundamental to contract law. Maybe one of the
> lawyers on the list can tell us what that word is.

I checked with someone on our law faculty and he tells me that it would be
most appropriate to say that ISPs have the protections of common carrier
status, not that they are common carriers.  This is because common carriers
in the telecommunictions business have certain obligations that do not apply
to ISPs, for instance making it difficult for them to drop customers.

So the usage I'm looking for is "The Digital Millenium Copyright Act grants
the protections of common carrier status to the operators of networks,
caches and Web hotels as long as they operate under specified conditions."

That's for everyone's help and interesting side-discussions!
/micah