> Further than legal responsibilities enforced by law Many jurisdictions allow common carrier exceptions, so this is moot. > responsibilities & limitations enforced by private agreements... > with 3rd parties (i.e upstreams). [Every ISP] have signed agreements This is often why ISP's don't utilize those exceptions. Just as you can, they can also be shut down by their upstream. All it takes is traceroute, whois and email... and all of a sudden, they're taking a call from a ticket their parent has in their system. Not even Tier-1 global entities are immune from each other, because if it's hot enough, they'll be de-peered, theoretically :) They're more likely to fight over who's settlement free, eg: Cogent. This is why an anarchic, community based, neighbor to neighbor, end to end global network has to happen. No top down BS, just peer :) > as long as you don't pay more then you got Go for it I guess. Being able to try an ISP, do your best, and document the experience publicly and factually does have it's own benefit... even if you do get booted.