Net Neutrality. What good is a free operating system without a network?

Cole Tuininga colet at code-energy.com
Wed May 10 11:46:02 EDT 2006


On Wed, 2006-05-10 at 10:59 -0400, Drew Van Zandt wrote:
> I hate this sort of reasoning - it's the same defeatist attitude that
> leads people to justify buying an SUV instead of an efficient vehicle
> when gas-saving is under discussion.

I understand how you would interpret it this way, but I definitely do
not perceive my viewpoint as defeatist at all.  

My point is more that the viewpoint you hold is that your way is the
"right" way to run the "Internet".  As we've established the "Internet"
doesn't actually exist, we need to look at this as trying to assign
policy to a very wide range of networks.  I would argue that trying to
create a blanket policy to such a diversity is folly.

Different networks have different needs.  The policies of some of these
networks are governed by the cultural biases of the
country/group/whatever that own and run them (much like ourselves).

If we want to turn this discussion more towards "we should mandate this
neutrality for all US networks then!" I would still disagree.  For one
thing, it's a bit difficult to constitute what are "American" networks
or not.  If a network is in Canada, but run by an American company can
we mandate this?  What if *part* of a network is in the US and part not?
And what of specialty providers?

I know one company that specializes in setting up networks for
optimizing video transmissions.  They allow their customers to connect
to external resources, of course, but they give preference to their own
video traffic because that's the service they're selling.  Should we now
tell them that they are no longer allowed to practice that business
model?

-- 
Cole Tuininga <colet at code-energy.com>




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