[79322] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Vonage Hits ISP Resistance
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jay R. Ashworth)
Sun Apr  3 15:09:13 2005
Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2005 15:07:13 -0400
From: "Jay R. Ashworth" <jra@baylink.com>
To: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <20050401215807.29330.qmail@web31806.mail.mud.yahoo.com>; from David Barak <thegameiam@yahoo.com> on Fri, Apr 01, 2005 at 01:58:07PM -0800
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
On Fri, Apr 01, 2005 at 01:58:07PM -0800, David Barak wrote:
> --- "Jay R. Ashworth" <jra@baylink.com> wrote:
> > Actually, and I think the distinction is pertinent to this
> > discussion, if the car has no seatbelts, you can drive it just fine
> > -- as long as it came that way. You can't *sell* a car without
> > seatbelts, anymore.
>
> That may be the rule in Florida, but in DC, MD, and UT (the states in
> which I've lived in the past 2 decades), you can be be ticketed if you
> are driving a car and not wearing a seatbelt.
I'd have to check, but I believe the exemption for cars not originally
equipped in in the Federal Uniform Model Traffic Statues, which I think
the majority of states have adopted, at least in substantial part,
though IANAL.  
Nope: Maryland makes the exception:
http://mlis.state.md.us/cgi-win/web_statutes.exe?gtr&22-412.3
If it wasn't manufactured with belts, you're not required to install
them, but if they're there, you do have to wear them.  I rather suspect
the other jursidictions are similar.
> To make this a little bit more relevant to our VoIP/911 discussion,
> would we allow a startup car company to sell something which looked
> like a seatbelt, but was not crash rated above 5 mph? No, of course we
> wouldn't. Would that be anticompetitive? No, it just means that to be
> a startup car company, you have to meet the same safety standards as
> the existing car companies.
Indeed.
> If we want to take the analogy away from something which is a direct
> safety issue, the exact same argument applies to emissions standards.
> They're "standard" for a reason: they apply to everyone, and every car
> maker must comply. (SUVs are classified as trucks, and comply with the
> truck rules).
Actually, I believe most SUV's are *not* classified as light trucks,
with the exceptions of the Excursion and Hummer.
> Why would these arguments not apply to VoIP?
At this point, of course, I've lost track of what the argument is, in
the delightful littls side trips.  :-)
<pinch>
Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra@baylink.com
Designer                          Baylink                             RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates        The Things I Think                        '87 e24
St Petersburg FL USA      http://baylink.pitas.com             +1 727 647 1274
      If you can read this... thank a system administrator.  Or two.  --me