> >   I agree that it is not fair that the practices of one's provider should
> >affect what services others allow you access to.
>
> I totally disagree.  The only thing the Demon folks will listen to it the sound
> of their subscribers leaving.  It is our job to make that happen.
 
There is a further problem, and that is that the Brits don't have a variety
choices for Internet providers like we do here in States.  There are very
few Internet providers in UK, and even those few are not well known there
and so it is difficult for would-be users of Internet to get any service
at all.  The ISP market in Britain is unfortunately in its infancy just now.
 
One consequence of this is that if you attempt to drive the Demon subscribers
off of their current service, you will for the most part be driving them into
nowhere.  At the same time, I completely understand those list-owners who
may be overwhelmed by error notices and who need to have a liberal policy
on deleting subscribers.
 
I look forward to the day that there may be real ISP choices in Britain.
The development of a well-rounded ISP market there may be impeded by the
fact that there is no flat-rate telephone service in UK, not even for
local calls.  Thus, whatever money that consumers might be willing to pay
to British ISPs is in part already being sucked up by the British
telephone company, making an important obstacle for the development of UK
ISP service.  (Actually, I am personally accustomed to having flat-rate
telephone service available since I live in the States, so I can't really
tell whether the Americans are being spoiled or whether the Brits are
being short-changed.)
 
- -- Roger Burns    [log in to unmask]