Will ISP Web Content Filtering Continue To Grow?

unixluv writes to tell us that another ISP is testing web content filtering and content substitution software. One example sees a system message that is pre-pended to an existing web page. While it seems innocent enough, is this the wave of the future? Will your ISP censor or alter your web experience at will? There have been many instances of content filtering lately and it seems to be a popular idea on the other side of the fence.

Comments

Re:Google

[drachenstern]

So, I have a solution, albeit a baby solution. Let's nurture it and develop it.

If you SSL into my box, you and I have a, presumably, secure connection, such that noone knows what we are sending back and forth. For all they know, we could be exchanging Oracle and SAP db's, in dd of=nnnnn.img format, such that the requirement of sending that data is that we send the data in chunks of approximately 4MB to ensure proper reception, and such that with the proper queueing software, could send GB's of data in continous chunks. But since it's SSL, we've established that we have a baseline relationship, or else you are sucking everything off my system.

But they don't know if you're a bloodsucking leech or a qualified field location. Right?

So therefore, I foresee invitation-only BBS's as it were, with SSL or better connections, with no bandwidth throttling pipes inbound. What, they're going to show that nobody has the reasonable right to connect over SSL to transmit large amounts of data back and forth?

So they think they can prove that we are transmitting movies or something over SSL? Why? How large is an Ubuntu DVD image? What about any of the other distro's on LiveCD? And for us to say that we are transmitting back and forth amongst known peers, isn't that what the internet was all about? Trusted "peer" computing? Not DRM computing?

I only ask that I be allowed to lay claim to Drachenstern on future BBS's of this nature. And I defy my ISP to tell me that I can not allow my peers to connect to my system over SSL for true and honest reasons.

Of course, I am only looking at the issue of Packet Inspection with this post, not the issue of bandwidth throttling at the other end. I would be willing to pay for T1 or other business services to maintain my non-throttled bandwidth. And may all holy entities help the Telco's if they decide to throttle all business plans.