DISQUS

Technology Liberation Front: The Economist Speaks Out Against Regulation

  • MikeT · 3 years ago
    The problem that I have with it is that they are twisting QoS into a weapon against the services that their users may legitimately want. Since my ISP is supposed to be primarily concerned with providing me the connection, who are they to throttle a VoIP service that I receive over the connection that I leased? Are they just glorified web and email providers these days? I agree with their efforts to throttle our outright eliminate certain protocols like Gnutella or eDonkey because they are almost always used for destructive and illegal purposes, but what business do they have throttling and denying access to legitimate services? Yes, the neutrality mandate that is being proposed is overly broad, but the problem is that if there is nothing in place, the ISPs will be allowed to turn an "Internet" service into a web service with some email thrown in when in fact the Internet is nothing more than TCP/IP and UDP.
  • naiserie · 3 years ago
    meh, the more I read re: network neutrality, the less of a big deal the whole affair becomes.

    MikeT: I suppose you will be appointed to determine the "legitimate services"?
  • MikeT · 3 years ago
    How about any service whose primary purpose/usage is not illegal? BitTorrent was created for the distribution of large files like ISO images of Linux. Its purpose was for that sort of thing, whereas Gnutella was created as a way of sharing files a la Napster. In other words it might require a sensible judge and jury, rather than a set in stone legal explanation that has a one-size-fits-all judgement.
  • BudgetMan · 3 years ago
    Nobody is twisting anything from what I can see. This proposed regulation is solving a problem that doesn't even exist, which is the only sure-fire way to disaster I am aware of. Who here would trust ANY politician to solve a problem that doesn't exist with technology they don't understand? OMG this could get horrific before it's all said and done!
  • BudgetMan · 3 years ago
    Nobody is twisting anything from what I can see. This proposed regulation is solving a problem that doesn't even exist, which is the only sure-fire way to disaster I am aware of. Who here would trust ANY politician to solve a problem that doesn't exist with technology they don't understand? OMG this could get horrific before it's all said and done!