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The Future of the Internet

bariswheel writes "An important piece written by a Columbia Law professor addresses sensitive questions about the future of the Internet: "Is it a problem if the gatekeepers (i.e. a duopoly of the local phone and cable companies) discriminate between favored and disfavored uses of the Internet? How would you take it if AT&T makes it slower and harder to reach Gmail and quicker and easier to reach Yahoo! mail? What if I-95 announced an exclusive deal with General Motors to provide a special "rush-hour" lane for GM cars only? Is there something special about "carriers" and infrastructure--roads, canals, electric grids, trains, the Internet--that mandates special treatment? Should content providers like Google, or subscribers like us, pay for the bandwidth consumed?" Here's hoping that sites like Google Techtalks and Channel 9 remain 'free' and available for the next 10 years."

2 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. The future of the internet... by rehtonAesoohC · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    ... is that Google and Amazon will merge to form the Google Grid. Everyone will be able to submit stories, and no real news will ever be published amidst the flurry of user submitted trash.

  2. You really beleive this FUD? by Fatal67 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I can't believe people are buying in to this garbage.

    What we, the infrastructure providers want to be able to do is sell QOS. The product you by mfrom my via cable modem is best effort. period. If you want to use vonage, knock yourself out. if your neighbor uses bittorrent and eats yoru bandwidth, not my problem. I could sell you a qos upgrade for your voip app tat would but your ip trafic above best effort. Of course, Vonage started screaming "OH MY GOD! THEY'LL MAKE MONEY OFF OUR PRODUCT! and has started all of this bull shit about us blocking the internet.

    We have the technology to make any traffic better. if you want to pay for it, I'll sell it to you.. and the hell with Vonage crying about it. As i've said a hundred times before.. all they have to do is build their own network and it isn't an issue. Instead, they want to tell me how I should treat their traffic on my network.