[e2e] disintermediation?

[Lynne]

You're talking about publishing. An ISP is not responsible for the content of the data as long as they do not edit the data. If they edit the data, they become a publisher, subject to a different set of laws and rules. Contracts with providers of information and publishers are specifically designed to deal with issues such as liability in these cases.

A transport provider simply gets the bits from one place to another. They do not edit the contents of that data. If the contents of the data is "edited" in-transit by the ISP, that's called an "error". :-)

Disintermediation is a business development term, and implies the ability to get in front of another business proposition and steal that business proposition. One breaks one intermediation to supply another, hence the term. 

One common example with websites is that someone in an affiliate model will offer a service. If the service succeeds in stealing the customer onto the new site, the affiliate is said to have stolen the customer and disintermediated the prior relationship. Co-branded pages that remain on the original site prevent disintermediation.

Lynne Jolitz

> -----Original Message-----
> From: end2end-interest-admin at postel.org
> [mailto:end2end-interest-admin at postel.org]On Behalf Of Micah Beck
> Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 2:12 PM
> To: end2end-interest at postel.org
> Subject: [e2e] disintermediation?
> 
> 
> I am looking for a word to describe the principle that an ISP is not
> responsible for the data that flows across its network as long as it does
> not make any non-technical decisions regarding the handling of 
> that data.  I
> thought that this was one meaning of the word "disintermediation" 
> (removing
> the middleman) but I can't find any reference to it.  Do anyone 
> know if this
> is a legitimate meaning, or if there is any other word that captures the
> meaning I want.  Either way, would you be able to suggest a reference?
> 
> Thanks for your help,
> Micah Beck
> University of Tennessee
> 
> 
>