The other day we reported that Earthlink appeared to have joined a long list of ISPs using new technology that allows them to net search referral fees for both the hardware vendor and ISPs -- by sniffing and modifying user search traffic. Paxfire and RCN are currently being sued for the practice, and it remains unclear if the practice is legal.

Coincidentally or not, a day after our story popped up Earthlink (who has not responded to a request for comment) stopped tinkering with user search traffic according to forum users and ICSI researchers at Berkeley contacted by Broadband Reports. You'll recall that when the story originally broke, many of the ISPs involved scaled back their practice and stopped modifying search results.

"The ISPs involved stopped modifying results, but the ISPs largely still maintained the interception process: redirecting user traffic for the targeted search engines," ICSI's Nicholas Weaver tells Broadband Reports.

"As of the 16th of August most of the ISPs involved were still redirecting user search requests through Paxfire's proxies, but the systems weren't modifying results," he notes. "We haven't rechecked whether Netalyzr customers are still being redirected through these proxies after the 16th on an ISP-by-ISP basis, but there is some suggestion that this redirection is still ongoing."

The fact ISPs quickly modify these efforts when they are publicly disclosed -- and the fact no ISP wants to talk about using this new technology on the record -- speaks volumes about how comfortable many ISPs are with the legality of this effort. Most larger ISPs with larger legal departments and better lawyers (AT&T, Verizon, Comcast) seem to be steering clear of this technology for now.