lauren (02/12/83)
My old Funk & Wagnall's defines "tariff" as:
(3) The law by which duties are imposed; also, the principles
governing their imposition.
In practice, the term "tariff" is used widely to refer to the rules
and regulations under which various utilities/common carriers operate.
This seems fairly logical, since these entities *do* obtain a "duty"
from their customers. Virtually all telco-generated phone books have
at least a little discussion of their various liabilities under their
tariffs. In most states, you can walk into any telco business office
and request to see "the tariffs" -- which supposedly must be available
for public inspection.
In particular, the tariffs specify the procedures and policies to be
followed when investigating obscene or other bothersome sorts of
phone calls.
To a large extent, telcos write their own tariffs, and simply submit them
to state regulatory agencies for approval. In effect, they write their
own laws (at least some of them) this way. Not a bad deal!
Further discussion on this topic should probably move to net.followup.
--Lauren--