Re: It's the Internet Stupid

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat net>
Date: June 7, 2009 4:44:15 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net, "ip" <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] It's the Internet Stupid

http://itstheinternetstupid.com/

Dave, and everyone:

Note that this comment to the FCC contains a plea that the FCC  
prohibit network management by Internet providers. To wit, it asks the  
agency to "prohibit discriminatory or preferential treatment of  
packets based on sender, recipient or packet contents."

Sounds good on the surface -- unless one understands its full  
implications.

Since the information identifying (among other things) the protocol  
being used is part of the packet contents, this would make it  
impossible to prioritize time-sensitive traffic.

Likewise, if providers could not route packets to a more direct  
connection or send them at a higher speed when they were bound to or  
from specific addresses, it would be impossible for a content or  
service provider which required enhanced performance (e.g. low latency  
or jitter) to pay a surcharge for higher quality of service. This  
restriction (which would be the equivalent of prohibiting UPS from  
offering "red," "blue," and "ground" service) would kill innovation by  
precluding cutting edge technologies from ever seeing the light of  
day. It would also effectively outlaw content delivery networks.

The comment likewise pays homage to competition, but ignores the fact  
that the regulation it recommends would fall most heavily on  
competitive providers and likely would force them out of business,  
creating a duopoly.

There seem to be quite a few people who, perhaps due to fearmongering  
by lobbyists for large corporations, seem bound and determined to  
straitjacket the Internet with regulations. Alas, they apparently  
forget that the Internet could not have existed were it not originally  
designed as a loose federation of networks, each of which was subject  
to DIFFERENT acceptable use policies and management strategies. (Were  
it not designed this way, educational institutions, government  
agencies, and private companies could not have signed on, because no  
one set of policies could have fit all of them.)

They also appear to forget that the best way to discourage something  
is to regulate it. If the signatories on this statement truly wish to  
see universal broadband deployment, they must not "monkey wrench" this  
goal by hobbling the rollout of new technologies and prohibiting  
innovation.

--Brett Glass, LARIAT





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