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ISPs Experimenting With New P2P Controls

Posted by Soulskill on from the diamond-in-the-rough dept.

alphadogg points us to a NetworkWorld story about the search by ISPs for new ways to combat the web traffic issues caused by P2P applications. Among the typical suggestions of bandwidth caps and usage-based pricing, telecom panelists at a recent conference also discussed localized "cache servers," which would hold recent (legal) P2P content in order to keep clients from reaching halfway around the world for parts of a file. "ISPs' methods for managing P2P traffic have come under intense scrutiny in recent months after the Associated Press reported last year that Comcast was actively interfering with P2P users' ability to upload files by sending TCP RST packets that informed them that their connection would have to be reset. While speakers rejected that Comcast method, some said it was time to follow the lead of Comcast and begin implementing caps for individual users who are consuming disproportionately high amounts of bandwidth."

2 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. ISPs can cache illegal content by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't know why people keep getting hung up on legal vs. illegal content; the law clearly says that ISPs have no copyright liability for their caches:

    http://www.bitlaw.com/source/17usc/512.html

  2. Re:I've got a good solution.. by burnin1965 · · Score: 5, Informative

    And where is the government we paid for? They should be seriously thumping these clowns over the head for even considering "combating internet traffic" which is clearly the type of traffic intended when the 1996 Telecommunication Act was passed and the deregulation started.

    Section 706 paragraph (c) line 1 states:

    (1) ADVANCED TELECOMMUNICATIONS CAPABILITY- The term
                                `advanced telecommunications capability' is defined, without
                                regard to any transmission media or technology, as high-speed,
                                switched, broadband telecommunications capability that enables
                                users to originate and receive high-quality voice, data,
                                graphics, and video telecommunications using any technology.

    The key here being enables users to originate and receive high-quality voice, data, graphics, and video, thats right, originate AND receive. Somebody clue these dolts in to the fact the internet is not TV 2.0.

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with the way subscribers are utilizing their ISPs, this is exactly as it was envisioned by the authors of the 1996 Act. Imagine that, government officials having better vision for the future of technological advancement in telecommunications than the people running the companies. I can tell you why, the problem is also the clueless bean counters and MBAs could care less about technology, innovations, etc. and would demand a monthly fee just cause if they could get away with it. These people should be running illegal whore houses and extortion rackets, not technology corporations.

    If our government doesn't step in and force these bozos to provide the service they advertise and were given deregulation perks for then we may need to step in and explain that they don't own our back yards through which they run their damned cables, I deserve a tariff since its my land they're hauling all those bits through.