Left to chance

AT&T threatens to disconnect subscribers who criticize the company

They just keep it up, now its come to light that AT&T has rolled out new Terms of Service for its DSL service that restricts users, while leaving the proof as a rather abstract concept.  Here’s the skinny, “…In section 5 of its legal ToS, AT&T stipulates the following:

AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes (a) violates the Acceptable Use Policy; (b) constitutes a violation of any law, regulation or tariff (including, without limitation, copyright and intellectual property laws) or a violation of these TOS, or any applicable policies or guidelines, or (c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries.

Translation: “conduct” that AT&T “believes” “tends to damage” its name, or the name of its partners, can get you booted off the service. Note the use of “tends to damage”: the language of the contract does not require any proof of any actual damage.“  Nice, so much for free speech – if you’re an AT&T customer, which I’m not.  Heck, if I were you wouldn’t be reading this!